The F. Scott Fitzgerald House, also known as Summit Terrace, in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

, United States, is part of a group of

rowhouses A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

for its association with author

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...

. The design of the houses was described as the "New York Style" in which each unit was given a distinctive character found in some rowhouses in eastern cities. Architecture critic

Larry Millett Larry Millett (born 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American journalist and author. He is the former (retired 2002) architectural critic for the ''St. Paul Pioneer Press'', a daily newspaper in Saint Paul, Minnesota and the author of severa ...

describes it as "A brownstone row house that leaves no Victorian style unaccounted for, although the general flavor is

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

." The Fitzgerald house is faced with brownstone and is two bays wide with a polygonal two-story window bay on the right, and the entrance, recessed under a round arch that is flush with the bay front, on the left. The

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

has a

cross-gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

with two round-arch windows and decorative finials. Fitzgerald's parents, Edward and Mollie, moved back to St. Paul in 1914 while F. Scott Fitzgerald was a student at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. They lived in the unit at 593 Summit Avenue for a while, then moved to the 599 Summit Avenue unit in 1918. In July and August 1919, Fitzgerald rewrote the manuscript that became his first novel, ''

This Side of Paradise ''This Side of Paradise'' is the 1920 debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is a handsome middle-class stu ...

''. He lived here until January 1920, writing short stories, and then moved to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. Of the several places the Fitzgeralds lived, this one is most closely associated with his literary fame, and typifies the environments of some of his later works. It was declared a

in 1971. and It is also a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

to the Historic Hill District, listed in 1976. F. Scott Fitzgerald was noted for disliking Summit Avenue, stating that Summit Avenue is “a mausoleum of American architectural monstrosities.”

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, F. Scott, House F. Scott Fitzgerald Houses completed in 1889 Houses in Saint Paul, Minnesota Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Minnesota National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Saint Paul, Minnesota Victorian architecture in Minnesota Fitzgerald, F. Scott House

See also

References

External links