ST PAUL, Minn. — An interesting slice of women's history and St. Paul converge at the Golden Rule building, located at Robert and 7th Streets.
March is Women's History Month, which was first recognized in 1987. However, celebrations began much earlier than that at the Golden Rule, a former department store.
Hailing from a family of strong female leads, Hanna Jungbauer said the women in her life have always been adventurous and outgoing.
"Nurture versus nature – I think we're all predisposed to this kind of attitude," Jungbauer said.
The life-long St. Paulite said she wasn't surprised to find what could be defined as her origin story in a photo album stashed in her attic.
"My great grandmother, most like the other staff at the Golden Rule, were first and second generation immigrants, so when they came to America, you have to work, so they jumped right into work," Jungbauer explained. "And like attracts like, being fun and outgoing and extremely prone to adventure, they all melded together and created the St. Paul Bloomer's Club."
The St. Paul Bloomers Club consisted of waitresses working at the Golden Rule in the early 20th century. It was an officially unofficial women's club with a specific purpose.
"The pretense of it was to go out and do what the boys did," Jungbauer said. "You drink, you play stickball, you run around in cars, and you have a really good time. And in 1911, my family finally acquired the first camera, so this was all documented."
In the photos are Jungbauer's great-grandma and her friends. They capture them running around town, posing, goofing off and drinking in public. All in all, a hoot, during a time when women weren't allowed to have any hoot or holler.
"Not only were they frowned upon in society but ladies don't do X,Y,Z," Jungbauer said "But to show your camaraderie with your friends, it's innocent fun by today's standards, but to go out and do that creating, not only independence of mind, yearning for travel, and more work, raising a family with more skills... I can go out and fix a car, that type of stuff. It really nurtured a lot of further future adventures and skills."
The photos show several women who were a part of the club. Jungbauer said she's hoping maybe other families would recognize these pioneers of fun. At the beginning of the month, Jungbauer posted the photos on Reddit, partly to share a fun fact, and partly to see if anyone else recognized their great-grandmothers.
"It's empowering to repeat those stories and keep them on file," she said. "It's inspiring to say, 'Wow, we've come so far from what was to what is.' It's also historical, so important. I wish more people could repeat stories like that so it's really important to get to know your elders."
Currently the Golden Rule building is a commercial real estate building. It does document its history extensively. You can find out more about the Golden Rule building here.
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