Sibyl Wilbur on a Wheel

I have had my first experience on the wheel, and it certainly shall not be the last. It must be a very trying thing t begin wheeling in a dark and dingy hall with a man leading your nag around for you and holding you up while he tells you just what to do in … Read more

Swan J. Turnblad’s Chateau

Outside of Sweden there is no finer collection of decorative porcelainized stoves for heating the front parlors than the eleven in the sumptuous French chateau that Swan J. Turnblad built on Park Avenue in Minneapolis. Neither is there a finer assortment of carved African mahoganies, European furniture and Swedish rugs of Oriental designs. When Minnesota … Read more

The Queen of Commission Row

In the late 1800s and the early decades of the last century, produce passed through a corner of the old Minneapolis Warehouse District called Commission Row. The heart of the bustling business of farmers and grocers,  the Central Market was just behind the Butker Brothers Warehouse, where 2nd Avenue North crossed 6th Street. There was … Read more

Ascending Park Avenue

Park Avenue— in the 1870s this lovely thoroughfare was better known as Russell Street it was renamed Park Avenue in 1888. A stylish boulevard of urban estates offering a wide street, generous setbacks, and spacious lots, the handsome residence street corresponds to 7th Av. S., south from 10th St. Park Avenue is 100 feet wide … Read more