Media Room

10 Pioneer Endicott Building Facts:

• The M’s New Wing brings the M to a total of 40,000 square feet in Pioneer Endicott Building, expanding from the original Project Space at 3,500 square feet in 2012, growing to 16,000 square feet after the first phase of construction in 2018.
• The Pioneer and Endicott Buildings, both completed by 1890, have housed the Pioneer Press newspaper, the nation’s first telephone answering machine, and for over a decade, the offices of legendary architect Cass Gilbert.
• The first floor of the Endicott Building features red Lake Superior sandstone from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The granite pillars with Tennessee marble capitals flank the archways. The tapered columns are made of highly polished St. Cloud granite, likely the first of their kind in the cities.
• Modelled on the Paris shopping arcades of the 1890s, the stained-glass arcade in the Endicott Building was originally designed to accommodate up to thirty shops. Originally fabricated by Minneapolis stained-glass firm Brown and Heywood, the ceiling was first restored in 1983 after being covered over by a drop ceiling in the 1950s.
• The stained glass in the Endicott Arcade does not follow its original curvature––in 1890 when the building was first opened, the ceiling was arched into a half-cylinder, forming what is known as a barrel vault.
• Due to the depression in the 1890’s Gilbert was behind on rent and was almost evicted from his own building. He regained financial footing by winning the commission for the Minnesota State Capitol in 1895.
• Gilbert would incorporate the Endicott Building’s unique semi-ellipse stair design in the Minnesota State Capitol, U. S. Custom House, U. S. Supreme Court Building, and other projects.
• In 1923, Merritt Osborne rented offices in the Endicott Building to start a new company called Economic Laboratories, now known as Ecolab.
• In 1941, the Endicott Building was connected to the Pioneer Building, creating what was then called “The Business Heart of St. Paul.”
• The Pioneer Endicott Building became the first commercial building in St. Paul to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.