F. Scott Fitzgerald's Saint Paul
How the Cathedral Hill neighborhood shaped the imagination of America's greatest chronicler of the Jazz Age.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's relationship with Saint Paul — and specifically with the Cathedral Hill neighborhood — profoundly influenced the themes of class, aspiration, and disillusionment that define his greatest works. Born at 481 Laurel Avenue on September 24, 1896, Fitzgerald spent his formative years observing the social dynamics of a neighborhood where old money, new money, and those striving to belong all coexisted in close proximity.
The Fitzgerald family occupied an ambiguous position in Cathedral Hill society. His father, Edward, came from a genteel Maryland family but never achieved financial success in Saint Paul. His mother, Molly McQuillan, was the daughter of a prosperous Irish immigrant grocer. The family had connections to Summit Avenue society but lacked the wealth to fully participate in it.
Young Scott was keenly aware of these distinctions. He attended dancing school with the children of Summit Avenue's wealthiest families, visited their grand homes, and yearned to be accepted as their equal. At the same time, he was painfully conscious that his family's social position was precarious — they rented apartments while their neighbors owned mansions.
This childhood experience of being simultaneously inside and outside the world of wealth and privilege became the central tension of Fitzgerald's fiction. Jay Gatsby's longing for Daisy Buchanan, his desperate attempt to bridge the gap between aspiration and belonging, has its roots in the Cathedral Hill boy who pressed his nose against the windows of Summit Avenue's grandest houses.
Fitzgerald lived at numerous addresses in the Cathedral Hill area throughout his youth and young adulthood. He attended St. Paul Academy, participated in the social life of the University Club, and wrote his first novel, "This Side of Paradise," while living with his parents on Summit Avenue. The novel's success launched his literary career and his marriage to Zelda Sayre.
Though Fitzgerald spent much of his adult life far from Saint Paul — in New York, Paris, and Hollywood — he returned to the themes and social landscape of his hometown throughout his career. The parties, the social climbing, the gorgeous surfaces concealing deeper anxieties — all of it can be traced back to a boy growing up in the shadow of the cathedral.