House

St. Paul has a beautiful, historic street - Summit Ave. It has the longest stretch of Victorian homes in the entire country. The biggest home is the James J Hill home (or at 34,000 square feet, take your pick on what to call it - mansion, estate), a man who basically transformed the Northwest through the Great Northern Railway.




A back view of the home:

Inside one of the rooms. Pipes like those, and the tour guide said that not one of the children ever actually learned how to play them!
The formal dining room. Unfortunately, this photo is a bit dark, but the entire ceiling is gold leaf!
The kids were total troopers. Alexis wasn't really sure about a walking tour at first, but once she figured out she could sound like a tap dancer on most of the wood floors, she was happy as can be. Good thing everyone else in the tour group seemed to humor it...