Red sandstone and brick Gilded Age mansions line a broad boulevard with a planted median and mature trees.
What Summit Avenue looks like
Summit Avenue runs about four and a half miles from downtown Saint Paul to the Mississippi River, a broad boulevard split by a planted median and a canopy of mature trees. More than 370 houses still line it, two to four storeys in brick, stone and brownstone. Dormers and decorative gables break up the slate and tile roofs.
Near the Cathedral end, the at 240 Summit is a Richardsonian Romanesque mansion of rough-faced stone, now run as a house museum. The at 294 Summit is a wood-framed Georgian Revival mansion, one of the few on the avenue not built in stone or brick.
Farther west, the at 432 Summit is a four storey Italianate mansion in grey limestone with a central cupola. The at 599 Summit is a brownstone rowhouse with a corner turret, one of a matched pair under a shared roofline. The at 1006 Summit sits on about an acre and a half of grounds, a Tudor style mansion of about twenty rooms.
The stands a block north of the avenue at its east end, its copper dome visible over the rooftops from Summit itself. At the west end, the avenue runs through the campus, where twin stone arches frame the entrance facing it.
Shot in Summit Avenue
The University of St. Thomas campus fronts Summit Avenue at its west end, where twin stone arches frame the entrance between Aquinas Hall and the John R. Roach Center. Two productions have filmed on the lower quad and on the avenue in front of them.
Crossing the Bridge and Overnight Delivery
Both productions used Summit Avenue and the Arches at the University of St. Thomas, four years apart.
Crossing the Bridge, 1992
Played the University of St. Thomas lower quad and the Arches, Detroit, Michigan, 1975
Crossing the Bridge filmed its campus scenes on the lower quad and on Summit Avenue in front of the Arches in spring 1991, with offices and classrooms in Aquinas Hall and the former Albertus Magnus Hall. About 150 St. Thomas students worked as extras. Street View
Overnight Delivery, 1998
Played the University of St. Thomas campus and the Arches, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, 1990s
Overnight Delivery filmed at the Arches and the old Foley Theater building in June 1996, with the campus standing in as an imaginary University of Memphis. Paul Rudd and Reese Witherspoon starred in the film, released direct to video in 1998. Street View
What Summit Avenue can double for
Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia
Monument Avenue is a planted median boulevard of large houses from the same turn of the century period as Summit Avenue, split by a tree lined median the same way. Its Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival houses are a narrower mix of styles than Summit Avenue's Victorian range, so a frame with turrets and rough cut stone reads more like Saint Paul than Richmond. Try searching planted median boulevard now.
Prairie Avenue in Chicago, Illinois
Prairie Avenue has the same Gilded Age mansion row character in a similar period, including a Richardsonian Romanesque house in rough cut stone close in style to Summit Avenue's own Hill House. Only about a dozen of the original mansions survive on scattered lots, so a frame has to stay tight on one house or one block rather than pan down an unbroken row. Try searching Gilded Age mansion row now.
Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York
Delaware Avenue's Millionaire's Row was once a mansion lined boulevard with its own planted median, built up in the 1880s and 1890s the same way Summit Avenue was. Only a two block stretch of the original mansions survives today and the median is not documented as intact, so this is a closer match on paper than in a current frame. Try searching mansion lined boulevard now.
