Dayton's Bluff: Keller Row
Some moms have a hard time letting go of their babies. Even after they are grown up and ready to lead independent lives they want to keep them close. Annice Keller tried her very best.
Her husband, John M. Keller had been a major player in Minnesota’s early lumber trade. He and Annice had raised their children on Dayton’s Bluff in a mansion at 394 Eichenwald Street - a street Keller named in honor of his German roots.
Annice, widowed in 1879, must have wanted to keep her children close because she built 8 houses, all in a row along 6th street East, right next to the house they grew up in.
It doesn’t seem like many of the children took her up on the offer, but her youngest son, Herbert, lived at 771. He then became the mayor of Saint Paul in 1910. He was the first mayor to have been born and raised in Saint Paul versus being born somewhere else and moving to the city.
Keller Lake, Keller Regional Park, Keller Golf Course and Keller Parkway are all named in his honor.
So, if your mother built you a house - but you had to live next to your siblings - would you take it?
