This book tracks New Spain's mendicant orders past their so-called golden age of missions into the ensuing centuries and demonstrates that they had equally crucial roles in what Melvin terms the "spiritual consolidation" of cities. Beginning in the late sixteenth century, cities became home to the majority of friars and to the orders' wealthiest houses, and mendicants became deeply embedded in urban social and cultural life. Friars ministered to urban residents of all races and social standings and engaged in traditional mendicant activities, serving as preachers, confessors, spiritual...

This winner of 11 national publishing awards belongs on every coffee table Summit Avenue, grande dame of Victorian boulevards, is lined with magnificent turn-of-the-century mansions built by railroad magnates, lumber barons and captains of industry. Great Houses of Summit Avenue and the Hill District is a celebration of these homes on St. Paul's best-known and most beloved avenue. With a foreword by Garrison Keillor and fascinating stories penned by four award-winning writers, the book opens the doors to more than two dozen legendary homes situated on America's best-preserved avenue from the...