Landmark Center

Originally a U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, the building is now a cultural and arts center. Events held here include musical performances, dance, theater, exhibitions, and public forums. The center is home to several galleries and museums, including the American Association of Woodturners Gallery, Landmark Gallery, Uncle Sam Worked Here (an interactive history museum), Ramsey County Historical Society Gallery and Research Center, and the Schubert Club Museum. The center offers various public, private, and educational/school tours of the building and city. Inside this beautiful building is a 5-story courtyard with a skylight and rooms with 20-foot ceilings.

Designed by Willoughby J. Edbrooke, the Landmark Center was built from 1892-1902 and was originally known as the Federal Courts Building. While Edbrooke died in 1896 before the completion of the building, he had a grand design for it, which was meant to instill a feeling of power to the people in the Midwest. It features a pink granite ashlar exterior, a hipped red tile roof to fight the snow, and many turrets, gables, and dormers along the roof. The building also has an original South tower and a North tower added in 1908. The interior is 5 stories and has a courtyard on all floors leading up to a skylight on the roof. It features 20-foot ceilings which are appointed with marble and carved mahogany finishes. The design is Richardsonian Romanesque, a common style for federal buildings at the time and cost $2.5 million from the federal government by the time of completion.

Its time as a courthouse lasted from 1902 to 1965, during which many people were tried and several notable judges worked at the courthouse including U.S. Supreme Court Judge Harry Blackmun. Congressman Andrew Volstead had an office on the fifth floor, where he co-authored the 18th amendment, the amendment which created prohibition and was sometimes known as the Volstead Act. The trial of Mary Evelyn “Billie” Frechette took place in the building of May 1934 for harboring her lover and known criminal/gang leader John Dillinger. the two were involved in a shootout with the F.B.I. which Dillinger escaped and Frechette was apprehended and taken to the Federal Court Building where she was sentenced to two years in prison.

The most notable criminals to be tried in the building was the Barker‒Karpis Gang. The Barker‒Karpis Gang was a gang of criminals who fled to Saint Paul In 1932 when it was a safe haven for criminals under "The Layover Agreement” which meant criminals could reside in Saint Paul so long as they did not commit any crime in the city. Fred Barker and Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, the leaders of the gang, fled there after killing a Missouri sheriff and stayed at 1031 South Robert Street in West St. Paul and said they were speakeasy musicians. While in the Minnesota area, the gang robbed Minneapolis’s Third Northwestern National Bank, killing a police officer, They also kidnapped William Hamm Jr., president of Hamm’s Brewing Company in 1933, and held him for a ransom of $100,000 (more than $2.4 million in 2025). They got their ransom money from William W. Dunn, the sales manager for Hamms, who brought the money out to Duluth. The gang took the money and released Hamm before going to Chicago. Their biggest score was the kidnapping of Commercial State Bank president Edward Bremer. The gang kidnapped him from his car and forced him to sign ransom notes for $200,000 (over $4.7 million in 2025). The family initially thought Bremer was already dead and requested a note in his handwriting before sending any money. The gang delivered a note from Bremer, the family delivered the ransom money to the gang who was hiding out in Rochester. Bremer was released after twenty-one days of captivity, and the gang broke up shortly after and spread across the United States and Cuba. 

However the gang activity had caught the eyes of the F.B.I. and with the then-recent invention of fingerprinting, the F.B.I. was able to obtain the names of all the gang members. The members of the Barker family were either caught or killed in confrontations with the F.B.I. and Alvin Karpis was caught in New Orleans and sent back to Saint Paul for a trial. The trial took place at the Federal Courts Building, where Doc Baker and Alvin Karpis were found guilty and sentenced to life in Alcatraz.

Eventually, the courthouse moved to a different building down the street and the Post Office took full control over the building. During this period the interior would see significant changes including painting over the marble walls, cutting down marble to install mailboxes, replacing the wood floors with brown linoleum, placing tile over the marble mosaic, and covering the skylight with corrugated asbestos sheets. During this period a group of concerned citizens created the Committee to Save the Old Federal Courts Building. They got the building on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and was one of the first structures in the Minnesota Landmarks Register in 1970. 

The post office moved out of the building in 1974, effectively leaving the building abandoned. Ownership was transferred to Ramsey County and the building was supposed to be demolished with a wrecking ball before extensive fundraising from the Committee saved the building. Architect Donald (Don) J. Leier, was brought in and the building was restored to previous marble glory and added a clock to the South Tower. The building was reopened as the Landmark Center in 1978. 

Since its redesignation as the Landmark Center, it is now home to many arts, culture, theater, and, societal organizations. These include the American Association of Woodturners (and their gallery of wood art), Ramsey County Historical Society, The Schubert Club Museum of Musical Instruments, the Landmark Gallery, and the interactive "Uncle Sam Worked Here" exhibit which covers the history of the building. 

"History." Landmark Center. Accessed June 3, 2025. http://www.landmarkcenter.org/about/history.htm.

Barker/Karpis Gang, F.B.I. . Accessed June 3rd, 2025. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/barker-karpis-gang.

Dill, Emma. Barker‒Karpis Gang, MNopedia . Accessed June 3rd, 2025. https://www.mnopedia.org/group/barker-karpis-gang.

Landmark Center – Old Federal Courts Building, Historic Twin Cities . Accessed June 3rd, 2025. http://www.historictwincities.com/2021/11/17/landmark-center/.