Landmark Center - Tours / Volunteer

Tours

For more information about group tours please contact Diane Lewis at 651-292-3230

TOUR INFORMATION
Landmark Center offers public and private tours that range from a broad presentation of the building's history and its beautifully restored courtrooms and Cortile, to tours tailored to the specific needs of the groups or individuals taking the tour. Specific topics may include: Landmark Center's architecture; its restoration and preservation; and the famous and infamous personages who have assured Landmark Center's place in history books. Individuals, families and groups of all sizes and ages have been educated and entertained by our friendly, knowledgeable corps of volunteer tour guides.

TOURS OFFERED:
Interactive History Tours - Uncle Sam Worked Here
Education, School and Specialty Tours
Public tours - No Reservation Required
Scheduled Group Tours
Gangster Tours

Interactive History Tours - Uncle Sam Worked Here

Funded in part by the Otto Bremer Foundation and the Best Buy Children's Foundation.

An online tour is available for those who seek an interactive history tour of this amazing building in St. Paul. The interactive tour is led by two young guides who "saw it all." (Click the image above to get started!) A teacher activity guide is also available.

Education, School and Specialty Tours
These interactive experiences can be augmented by a school tour in the actual place where history happened!

These tours are conducted by our guides for groups of 10 or more. Many of our guides are retired educators or historians who can tailor the tour to the group's topic of interest. These topics may include architecture, history, antiquities, the judicial system and famous criminal trials and tie into curriculum standards for the schools (click here to see the curriculum handout). Please arrange at least two weeks in advance through the tour office.

School bus suppport available on a first-come basis, as available.

Public tours - No Reservation Required
No reservations are necessary for our public tours on Thursdays at 11:00 a.m. and Sundays at 12:00 p.m. Meet at the Information Desk just inside the Fifth Street entrance. Tours focus on the building's history, architecture, restoration, preservation, and famous and infamous personages.

Scheduled Group Tours
General tours for groups of 10 or more typically begin at the Landmarket Gift Shop on 1st Floor and focus on the building's history, architecture, restoration, preservation, and famous and infamous personages. They include all public areas (as available). Groups may be seated in a courtroom or other space during part of the tour, depending on group size and interest. Please arrange two weeks in advance through the tour office. Call Diane Lewis at 651-292-3230 for more information.

Length: 45 minutes
Cost: $4/person

**There is an additional charge of $25 per tour guide for all evening tours scheduled after 5:00 pm.

Gangster Tours
Imagine that you're living in St. Paul's tumultuous era of prohibition and gangsters. Our Gangster Tours are enhanced by costumed guides who adopt the personae of the infamous gangsters who resided in St. Paul during the 1930s and whose path took them (perhaps unwillingly) into the Federal Court House (now Landmark Center). Guides tell of their “lives as gangsters” and how the criminal justice system functioned during that era. Told with humor, accuracy and liveliness, these tours educate about the life and times of people like “Ma” Barker, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, John Dillinger and his moll Evelyn Freschette, and more. Many of them were held in our third floor Detention Room, were tried in Courtroom 317, or faced down J. Edgar Hoover's G-men on the front steps.

$6/person (minimum $75)

Free to groups that stay at hotels which are commercial members of the St. Paul Convention Bureau.

Two-week advance reservation required through our tour office.

There is a fee for no-shows and late cancellation.

There is an additional charge of $25 per tour guide for all evening tours.

Volunteer Information
One of Landmark Center's most essential components is the Landmark Center Volunteer Association (LCVA). Landmark is lucky to have a core group of dedicated volunteers, some of whom have been contributing to the building for decades. LCVA is always looking for new members, from those wishing to learn the entertaining art of guiding tours, to people who have a couple of hours a week to work the information desk and help inform our visitors, to work at the Landmarket Gift Shop, and more! If you're looking to join this venerable St. Paul community, and/or if you're interested in history and the arts, and if you'd like to give back to a building that gives so much, please contact our Director of Volunteers, Diane Lewis, at 651.292.3230 or dlewis[@]landmarkcenter.org.