Because this blog post is over a week behind schedule, there is a lot to catch you up on.
First, hi. I’m Dani. I opened Story Line Books on September 28th in St. Paul, Minnesota. We’re located inside Union Depot, which is the incredibly historic train station wedged between Lowertown and the Mississippi. She’s a grand ol’ thing, and I’m so blessed to call her home.
Housekeeping: we’re open from 8-8 every day but Tuesdays. That might change as the days get shorter, but for now that’s where you’ll find me. We carry a good mix of every genre (you can check out our full inventory [here]) and if we don’t have it, I’ll get it for you. We also host author events, signings, and other bookish community events throughout the year, so be sure to [subscribe] to my newsletter to keep up on everything happening.
You may have noticed that I said I opened the store in September, which was (yes) two weeks ago. I’m sorry it has taken me so long. I can’t promise that the wait be worth it, but I assure you that I’ll fill you in about everything that’s happened to bring us here.
For now, I just wanted to welcome you to my new life. I could not be more thrilled to take off on this adventure, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you and with my wonderful new home in Minnesota.
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Dear Ms. Miller,
What a fantastic idea to have a bookstore at the SPUD. My wife and I would love to come and visit the store and but some books.
The SPUD was a huge transportation hub at one time. My dad was a Railway Post Office Foreman/Clerk in Charge that ran on RPO cars on passenger trains out of the SPUD to Chicago and to the Twin Ports back in the day. My dad walked those very corridors of the SPUD to work on his trains back in the early 1960’s. He ran on the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Soo Line, and Burlington passenger trains when “mail by rail” was in its heyday for over 100 years.
The art work on the ceiling of the SPUD shows a train pulling an RPO car that most people don’t know even what it was as they pass by to trains today. Most passenger trains survived economically hualing themail, representing nearly 50 % of passenger train revenue in the first half of the 20th Century. When the USPS ended mail by rail contracts with railroads and mail no longer was shipped by rail, the great passenger trains ended (many in days of the end of the contract) and the era of AMTRAK started in 1971.
Several years ago, I wrote an article for the Minnesota Historical Society entitled “Here Comes the Mail: 100 Years of the Railway Post Office in Minnesota” that appeared in the Minnesota Historical Society’s Spring 2015 issue of the “Minnesota History Quarterly” (see: https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/64/v64i05p206-216.pdf ).
Recently I wrote an article for the Spring 2024 issue of the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association’s Mainstreeter quarterly magazine on “The Railway Mail Service on the Northern Pacific.”
Here is an example of how a RPO car functioned as described in a U Tube narrative by Ken Buehler, Director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum , of NP RPO car # 1447 built by the Pullman Company in 1914, now located at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI8_kIREeDI ).
If you are interested in more information on the RMS and America’s railroads, you can read an article I wrote for the National Railway Historical Society’s NRHS Bulletin in 2017 (Vol. 80, No. 2) entitled “RPO’s Across America: A Century of ‘Running the Mail’ on America’s Rail.” The whole issue in 2017 (Volume 80, No. 2) of the NRHS Bulletin is dedicated to RPO’s on America’s railroads.
My wife, a retired HS English teacher and I, a retired US Navy Officer, look forward to visiting your store and finding some good books to read on a cold winter night.
We wish you great success in your new venture!
David & Judy Thompson
Rosemount, MN