The Northwest Wind Engine Company
As far back as 1876, newspapers carried ads for A.S. Baker’s “Monitor” windmills and the trade name is still used today. The Minneapolis branch of the The Baker Manufacturing Company was organized under the name of Northwest Wind Engine Company in 1889, with C. P. Silloway as the Manager. He developed a very profitable [...]
The Post Office Palace
The United States Post Office and Court House was built in 1890 and stood at the corner of Third Street and Marquette avenue until 1961. The building was also used as an office for the U.S. Weather Bureau and the supervising architect of the United States Treasury. After dark the old Post Office could [...]
Moon Over Minneapolis
It’s been at least a decade since I paged through English author, Fay Weldon’s “Moon Over Minneapolis”. I’m not sure why this 1969 postcard reminds me of her story. Mrs.Weldon’s portrait of the city was somewhat less flattering. The original title was “Moon Over Minneapolis or Why She Couldn’t Stay”. The book is actually [...]
Ghosts Fleeing the Curtis
This large hotel and apartment complex occupied most of a downtown block between 1903 and 1984. The hotel tower and apartment tower flanked two other the low-rise buildings known as the Curtis Court. At one time the Curtis had over 800 rooms and billed itself as the largest hotel in the Upper Midwest. In [...]
In a Minit
The old conveyor car wash places had long tunnel-like buildings for customers or attendants to drive through. The design used a variety overhead sprinklers and manually operated brushes. In the early 1940s, there were probably 30 of these drive-thrus in America. After the World War II a semiautomatic system that hooked to car bumpers [...]
