• peavypostcard

    On Lake of the Isles Boulevard Then and Now

      Peavey Fountain was given to the people of Minneapolis in 1891 as a drinking fountain for horses. The monument wast rededicated as a memorial to the horses of the 151st field artillery of the Minnesota National Guard killed in action during the First World War in 1917 and 1918.           [...]

  • comopark2

    Saint Paul’s Municipal Menagerie

      In 1873 the city of Saint Paul acquired 300 acres of land around Lake Como for use as a public park. Saint Paul’s experiment with a municipal menagerie began in 1897 when the city fenced pasture in the park to hold a gift of three deer. Como’s Art Deco zoological building was designed in [...]

  • 1905 Postcard

    Calhoun Boulevard and 36th

    Originally called by the Dakota “Mde Maka Ska”, which meant White Earth Lake, settlers later named it with the Dakota name “Medoza” or Loon Lake. The United States Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, sent the Army to survey the area that would surround Fort Snelling in 1817. Calhoun had also authorized the construction of [...]

  • minneapolis sheridan

    At the Edge of the Richest Shopping District

        The Sheridan was built around the corner from the old Minneapolis Auditorium and Lyceum Theater in 1926. The hotel was one of at least six brick courts at the southern edge of downtown. In 1938 one could get a single with a bath of $2.00. Many of these old places became residential in the [...]

  • 1stME

    The SteppingStone Theatre Then and Now

      Designed by Thori, Alban and Fischer the corner stone for the the First Methodist Episcopal Church was laid on  October 15, 1907 and the building was completed in 1910.  A dedication booklet noted that the church faced Holly Avenue in a “situation ideal to show its classic and simple architecture, the massive columns of the portico [...]

  • hampshirearms

    A Hotel of Rare Charm

      The Hampshire Arms Hotel spent the better part of the last century standing on the corner of 4th street and 9th. The hotel was popular for its lovely courtyard. Famous doorman. George Route greeted guests at the Hampshire Arms for fifty years. When he passed away in 1953, Jet magazine ran an obituary for [...]

  • papermoon1

    Night in Minneapolis

      These Night in Minneapolis Postcards were printed in the 1920′s by the V.O. Hammon Publishing Company of  Chicago. Oh Gosh, Lena! Look at all those electrical lights!

  • yqpostcard

    The Youngest Old Building in Minneapolis

      The Young Quinlan Building was designed by Magney and Tusler with Frederick Ackerman. Miss Quinlan spared no expense when building her elegant five-story building at the corner of Nicollet Mall and Ninth Street. She sought out an architect that would design her “home” with an Old World atmosphere. The building’s dedication ceremony and open [...]

  • downto12

    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 [...]

  • Where Men Meet Men: Built at 9th and  Lasalle in 1919 the old YMCA building in downtown Minneapolis originally had a...

asump7

The Church of the Assumption Then and Now

    The Church of the Assumption was founded by Bishop Joseph Cretin in 1856. The original church, known as the Feast of the Assumption was just north of the present site. The congregation, made up of immigrants from Germany outgrew their original building, and work began on the new church in 1871. The Romanesque [...]

yqpostcard

The Youngest Old Building in Minneapolis

  The Young Quinlan Building was designed by Magney and Tusler with Frederick Ackerman. Miss Quinlan spared no expense when building her elegant five-story building at the corner of Nicollet Mall and Ninth Street. She sought out an architect that would design her “home” with an Old World atmosphere. The building’s dedication ceremony and open [...]

suff

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 [...]

towerfeature

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 [...]

pantages1

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 [...]