Suffering MWSA Suffragettes
From 1881 to 1920, the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) struggled to secure women’s right to vote. The association’s members organized marches, wrote petitions and letters, gathered signatures, gave speeches, and published pamphlets in an effort to force the Minnesota legislature to recognize their right to vote. Between 1893 amendment, the movement placed women’s [...]
The Tower.
The Tower is almost always considered an ill omen and usually follows The Devil around in the decks that contain it. The card was used in a variety early European printed tarot. Many designs depicted nude or scantily clad people fleeing burning buildings and lightning. The Tower’s imagery is probably a reference the Tower of [...]
The Pantages
The Minneapolis Pantages Theater opened as a vaudeville house in 1916. The original, Beaux-Arts style building, designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm of Kees and Colburn was originaly operated by Winnipeg theater tycoon, Alexander Pantages’ entertainment consortia. At the height of his empire, the Greek immigrant owned and operated 84 theaters in the United States [...]
Back When Minneapolis Was A Big City
Minneapolis was a bigger place when these postcards came out. The population of Minnesota’s largest city has declined by almost 140,000 souls since climbing to a peak of 521,718 in 1950. In the middle of the last century, approximately 70.0% of the metropolitan area’s population was concentrated in the city limits of St. Paul [...]
There is only one in Minneapolis…
There’s only one girl in Minneapolis and two or three in Saint Paul I knew a girl in Robbinsdale, but she was too tall There’s only one girl in Minneapolis I don’t know any in Golden Valley There’s one out in Edina, my sister Sally There’s only one in Minneapolis She’s all I need to [...]
The Loeb Arcade
The four story Loeb Building at 7 5th street was built by Samuel Loeb in 1915. The building was designed by Chicago architect Henry Ottenhiemer. The Loeb’s three story shopping arcade arcade had room for 90 shops inside a curving skylit gallery clad in gleaming terra-cotta tiles. In 1920 the building was remodeled [...]
Chicago and Franklin Then and Now
Looking at these photos, it’s hard to believe how much has changed on this busy corner in South Minneapolis. I don’t remember when the Chef Cafe finally went under, but I’ll never forget watching the great Timothy Kerr and his doppelgänger devouring those wings every fifteen minutes, after midnight on Channel 23. In my opinion, [...]
Swell Shopping at Southdale
Groundbreaking for Southdale took place in 1954. 800 construction workers were used to build the two-story, 800,000 ft shopping mall. When it was completed two years later at a cost of cost twenty million dollars, the mall had 5,200 parking spaces and room for 72 tenants. Southdale was developed by the Dayton’s and their [...]
The Church of Saint Agnes Then and Now
The third church built on this site since 1887, The Church of Saint Agnes was completed in 1912. The style of the church was familiar to people who came from the old Austro-Hungarian Empire and southern Germany. The architect, George Ries, and the pastor, Father John Solnce, with the board of trustees chose as [...]
Getting with the Program at Lake Harriet
After his amazing Pagoada Pavilion burned to the ground in 1903, The Park Board decided to give architect, Harry W. Jones another try. This time his pavilion was designed in the Classic Revival style. Affectionately known as “The Pavilion”, the facility featured two levels with changing rooms, a restaurant and lower level refreshment [...]
Parking Lots, Skyways and Nicollet Mall
After half of downtown was razed in the early 1960′s, efforts were made to help Minneapolis compete with the growing suburbs for retail dollars. It was hoped that acres of surface parking created by urban renewal would appeal to shoppers, but just in case that didn’t bring them in, the city took a chance [...]
Music by Muzak in Modern Minneapolis
The First National Bank Building at 120 South 6th Street in Minneapolis was completed in 1960 on the former site of the The New York Life Insurance Building . The 28 floor classic, International Style building is the 21st-tallest building in the city and tallest building completed in the 1960s. In recent years the tower [...]
Longfellow Gardens
Originally from upstate New York, Robert Jones arrived to Minneapolis in 1876. He got a delivering meat, managed to scrape up $500 and bought a fish market on Hennepin Avenue. Jones was known “The Oyster King” after he took out an ad in the St. Paul Pioneer Press with an illustration of himself as a [...]
The Astounding Angus
The Blair Flats apartment building designed by Hermann Kretz and William H. Thomas was completed in 1887. The Blair was converted to a residential hotel and renamed the Albion in 1893. An even larger hotel , called The Aberdeen went up the same year. Thomas Lowry, president of the St. Paul Street Railway Company, bought [...]
The Snelling Cafe Then and Now
Sixty some years ago Madelon’s Ice Cream Shop served up mighty cones for the Midway. This little store front has seen all sorts of business over the years and is currently home to an Ethiopian hole in the wall called the Snelling Cafe. As far as I know nobody has ever had a bad [...]
