Between 1915 and 1928, four movie theaters were built between Hennepin Avenue and Lyndale Avenue. In 1995, one more theater on Lagoon Avenue joined the group. These five movie theaters’ histories represented the story of movie theaters nationwide during the 20th century’s early decades. Although there were many places in the Twin Cities where groups […]

Explore the winding streets, impressive homes, and creek environment of the neighborhood originally known as Washburn Park. Learn about landmark sites such as the Washburn Water Tower, the Harry Wild Jones House, Washburn Memorial Orphan Asylum (where Justice Alan Page Middle School now stands), and the Minnehaha Creek, parkway, bridges, woods, and trails. The start […]

Red Cedar Lane, once chosen as the “Best street in the Twin Cities” by Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, is a beautiful secret — easily missed as you drive by its narrow intersection with Upton Avenue near Minnehaha Creek in South Minneapolis.The street is part of an area that was laid out beginning in 1904 by John Jager. […]

Theron Potter Healy was the premiere Master Builder in Minneapolis history. The two-block historic district, built between 1886 and 1892, contains fourteen Healy-designed and -built Queen Anne houses, as well as three horse barns. In Healy’s career after 1893, he would build the designs of the most prominent Minneapolis architects in the neighborhoods of Lowry […]

During the early 20th century, the Gateway District (or Lower Loop) was the largest Skid Row in the Upper Midwest. Flophouses, missions, and bars mixed with a variety of other businesses that needed cheap rents and a central location. Between 1959 and 1963, in an effort to clean up the area, Minneapolis demolished 25 blocks, […]

The tour will walk past sixty homes on Lowry Hill. We will see the works of 24 architects and several master builders. Architects James McLeod, Harry Wild Jones, William Kenyon, William Channing Whitney, and Liebenberg & Kaplan are represented by multiple houses. There are two houses from the late 1870s or early 1880s. There are […]

John Pillsbury’s decision to locate the University of Minnesota on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River in 1858 set the stage for Dinkytown’s destiny as a dynamic commercial district that has inspired generations of people to explore new ideas and try out new personas. This tour will explore Dinkytown’s early commercial years, signature buildings, […]

This historically unique wedged shaped neighborhood still holds many treasures yet to be discovered –abundant old barns, inventors, a Coca Cola distributor and nationally known collector. These revelations and others are pieced together with the only surviving 1850s claim shanty on a crazy quilt of classic apartments from the Roaring Twenties and radically designed Prairie […]

With its highly coordinated interior color scheme and original detailing, the Hollywood Theater designed by the architectural firm Liebenberg and Kaplan is one of the most intact Art Deco theaters remaining in Minnesota. The Hollywood Theater operated as a movie theater from its opening in 1935 until it closed in 1987. The property has been […]

The bustling commercial district surrounding East Hennepin Avenue has hosted many names throughout the years, but everyone knows its unforgettable landmarks…Surdyk’s, Kramarczuk’s, Historic Main Street, and Lourdes Church. Located across the Hennepin Bridge from Downtown, this neighborhood was originally established in 1855 as the Town of St. Anthony Falls and later merged with The City […]