Murder and Mayhem: Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery Walking Tour

Pioneer Cemetery Front Gate

Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery is the oldest existing cemetery in Minneapolis and is the final home of more than 22,000 people. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 in part because of its architectural features but also because of the role that the people buried there played in […]

Architectural Gems of the University of Minnesota East Bank Walking Tour

Frederick Weisman Museum of Art

Explore the University of Minnesota’s east bank campus through the lens of architectural gems designed by prominent architects and landscape architects: the Old Campus Historic District (the Knoll), is based on a landscape design by H.W.S. Cleveland; its buildings represent a proliferation of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century architectural styles, highlighted by Leroy Buffington’s Richardson […]

The Modern Development of Downtown Minneapolis Walking Tour

Loring Greenway - East End in Minneapolis, MN

Products of the urban renewal of the 1950s-1970s, the Modern buildings and landscapes in downtown Minneapolis tell the story of the city’s struggles in reinventing itself in the latter half of the twentieth century. This tour will focus on the preservation challenges many of these modern masterpieces face and how Modernism may, or may not, […]

St. Anthony Falls – How Waterpower Built a City Walking Tour

Stone Arch Bridge with falls, Minneapolis

St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the largest natural falls on the Mississippi River. People have always been drawn to the power and beauty of St. Anthony Falls. For Native Americans, the falls possessed religious significance and harbored powerful spirits. For the early European and American explorers, the falls provided a landmark in a […]

Lynnhurst: From 1893 Colony to 2020 Historic District Walking Tour

4735 Fremont in Minneapolis, MN

From the building in 1893 of nine homes on Fremont Avenue So., the Lynnhurst community immediately east of Lake Harriet developed as an entirely residential area, part of which has recently been designated as a local historic district. Our tour will start from the 4600 Fremont block of notable 1893 homes, then continue past examples […]

Lakewood Cemetery: Creating a Landscape of Memory Walking Tour

Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN

Nestled between Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun) and Lake Harriet, from its 1872 dedication Lakewood Cemetery has preserved in carved stone monuments a memory of early Minneapolis residents. Sweeping landscape transformations have included a lake and reflecting pool. Our tour will begin by visiting two outstanding buildings designed by Minneapolis architects in collaboration with […]

Fort Snelling Upper Post Walking Tour

Fort Snelling, Upper Post in Minneapolis, MN

Built between 1820 and 1825, Fort Snelling served as one of several Army outposts during Euro-American settlement of the nation’s western frontier. When the frontier passed the Fort, the property was sold and stood empty between 1858 and 1861. It was pressed back into service during the Civil War, providing a base for training and […]

Nicollet Island – North Tip Walking Tour

Nicollet Island North Tip Tour

Nicollet Island developed as a microcosm of early Minneapolis, with water-powered factories, storefronts, block-long rowhouses, a mansion district, and a neighborhood that still stands as a sampler of the 19th century residential architecture. The 40-acre island just above St. Anthony Falls next to downtown Minneapolis is the site of the first bridge anywhere across the […]

Nicollet Island – South Tip Walking Tour

Nicollet Island South Tip Tour

Nicollet Island developed as a microcosm of early Minneapolis, with water-powered factories, storefronts, block-long rowhouses, a mansion district, and a neighborhood that still stands as a sampler of the 19th century residential architecture. The 40-acre island just above St. Anthony Falls next to downtown Minneapolis is the site of the first bridge anywhere across the […]

Art Deco Walking Tour (SOLD OUT)

Night Foshay tower in Minneapolis, MN

Art Deco or Moderne architecture emerged in the 1920s as advances in technology and economic growth made a new architectural language possible. Embracing modernism and breaking with historic precedent, new forms such as the skyscraper and movie palace emerged from the dynamic optimism and exuberance of the “jazz age”. This tour will cover the rich […]