Roseville is my home—who knew?

I’ve been a country girl, growing up on the Iron Range, and a city person living in St. Paul’s Crocus Hill for over four decades, but never a suburban resident until we bought a home on nearly seven years ago. 

My husband’s health made climbing stairs difficult (Crocus homes are all vertical) so I found, one sunny August Sunday afternoon, a house with a main floor master suite and a brilliant blue lake view. It was ours within a week, too quickly to consider the horrors of moving out of a 15-room house where we’d lived for 38 years and accumulated way too much stuff.

But after three months of sorting, sales and hauling, we settled in to our new home which we thought was in Arden Hills. It wasn’t until our real estate tax statements (notice the plural) arrived that we realized we were bi-‘burbians.

The demarcation line for Arden Hills and Roseville, we discovered, wends right through our house. Looking at the plat map, we realized we slept and cooked in Arden Hills, but “lived” and dined in Roseville. In our den, where we watched TV, my husband sat in Arden Hills and I put my feet up in Roseville.

Both Arden Hills and Roseville wanted us—or at least our real estate tax money. Imagine our confusion when tax bills arrived from both municipalities. Nobody mention this bi-‘burban situation when we closed on the house.  At first, it wasn’t too painful—under $300 a year to the Roseville coffers, but each succeeding set of tax statements raised that amount significantly—for a piece of land that is unsalable.  I have had countless conferences with various taxing authorities, suggesting that the line between Roseville and Arden hills be moved a teensy bit so we are in one town or another. Ain’t gonna happen, I am told.

And here’s another thing: our official residence is Arden Hills. After we moved in, I sent out “change of address” cards to everyone on our Christmas card list, with that municipality noted. But our zip code is 55113, the Roseville number.  We are the last ones on the route from that post office.  That first year, half our Christmas cards were returned to sender, with the postal notation that the zip code was incorrect for Arden Hills. So now, I list my address as St. Paul, 55113. Even though that isn’t exactly right, the mail seems to arrive.

So how do I think of myself? As a Rosevillian (or is that Rosevillite?). Roseville as been the most welcoming – I don’t hear from anyone in Arden Hills except at tax time. I shop in Roseville, sit on the Friends of Roseville Parks board, and feel at home the 55113 zip code – especially when I put my feet up and look at the lake from my recliner chair in the Roseville half of my den.