Sunray Battlecreek Highwood Neighborhood
This area is known my many names, Eastview, Conway, Battle Creek, Highwood, Sunray, and District 1. It is the largest of the Saint Paul districts and is in the southeastern corner of Ramsey County. Battle Creek is actually the the creek that flows between Pigs Eye Lake and Maplewood. It is named after a small skirmish between the Dakota and Ojibwe Indians in 1842 that led to the death of two Dakota women.
The establishment of settlement in this area was slow because of the steep, wooded bluffs in the Battle Creek and Highwood areas and the marshy land surrounding Pig’s Eye Lake. During the 1800s, people mostly traveled through the area going from one part of the early Saint Paul area to another. Starting in the 1860s rail lines were built connecting St. Paul to Chicago, Milwaukee and the east coast.
The city of Saint Paul began annexing the District 1 area in 1872. In 1886, St Paul and Boston businessmen purchased 1200 acres in the Highwood area and built two small railroad stations. The original concept, called “Burlington Heights”, was to offer country living with curving roads and large rustic lots with the benefit of the easy access to downtown via the railroad stations. Unfortunately, the project had limited success and only a small handful of homes in Highwood were built.
After World War II, once the roads were improved and cars were more popular, Highwood real estate finally took off. Conseqently, the overwhelming majority of houses in these areas are 1940s and 1950s tract housing concentrated in the northern portions of the district with 1970s and 1980s splits and ranches on the southern half. Less than 100 homes in the Battle Creek areas are known to be more than 100 years old and none are registered historic sites.
