In 1966, Robert Pirsig moved to this address in St. Paul with this wife, Nancy, and son, Ted. A year later, Pirsig began a series of lighthearted essays that would transform into his best-selling book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Pirsig lived at this home as he wrote the book at his office during the early hours of the morning.

In a 1974 interview, Nancy Pirsig talked of how the entire family was practicing Zen Buddhism. Every morning, rising early, they would start the day together in their dining room, moving the furniture and meditating on cushions in silence. Afterward, they would have tea, talk, and go for a long walk along the river near their home.

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Located across the street from Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center was formed in 1972 by founder Dainin Katagiri Roshi.

At that time, Robert Pirsig had been studying zen meditation, and in 1973 he became a board member and vice-president at the incorporation of the new Minnesota Zen Meditation Center.

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Robert Pirsig wrote the majority of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle while working at his office at Century Publications above Robert's Shoes. He was employed as a technical writer for Honeywell. He would go to sleep at 6pm, then wake to write from 2am to 6am before work. The book combines a discourse on the metaphysics of quality, an examination of America's mainstream/counterculture split and a "real" haunting of personal madness.

ZAMM was published in 1974, after being rejected 121 times (a Guinness World Record for a best-selling book).

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The first season of Comedy Central's Workaholics was filmed at this location. Some of the cast members (Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson) and director Kyle Newacheck (a.k.a. Karl, a.k.a. "the human genius", a.k.a. "the guy on the t-shirt") lived at this location while filming the series. Anders said he would not live at the house "because it was gross and had rats."

In a disturbing act of life imitating art, cast member Blake Anderson fractured his back at this location after jumping off the roof onto a beer pong table.

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Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson moved into this bungalow in 1981, and Dischord Records has been associated with it since then. It served as the practice space and residence of Minor Threat, including some of the seminal photos associated with them taken on the porch. The band split the $525 rent, but couldn't afford to pay for heating oil, so they would sit around in sleeping bags.

Ian MacKaye eventually gained ownership for the house, and today it serves as an office space for Dischord Records.

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