MINNEAPOLIS HISTORY WALKING TOURS 2025
Explore our 2025 walking tour offerings below!
Register by clicking any of the tour description links below
May 19 – 6-7:30 pm
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 collection of Art Deco buildings in downtown Minneapolis from their stunning exteriors to their elaborately decorated interiors and some of the history of the personalities who commissioned and built them.
The tour guide is Krishna Dorney who studied History and Historic Preservation at the University of Minnesota. He is active in the Twin Cities Bungalow Club and has worked as Contractor renovating old homes since the early 1990s.
May 31 – 10-11:30 am
The American Arts and Crafts Movement and Craftsman Bungalow Walking Tour
The Arts and Crafts movement began in Britain in the latter part of the 19th Century as a reaction against industrialization. It emphasized honesty in materials and traditional handicrafts. This ideal was popularized in America by Gustav Stickley, Elbert Hubbard and others and spread through their periodicals and lectures. At the same time, economic and technological change allowed for vast new “streetcar suburbs” to be developed with single family detached homes. These homes were affordable to middle and artisan classes and represented a new and aspirational ideal for the progressive era of the early 20th century. Join us on a walking tour of a typical South Minneapolis Bungalow Neighborhood where we will discuss the architectural details, craftsmanship and materials typical of these charming homes. We will place them in their historical context in the growth of Minneapolis. We will also discuss the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement and how it filtered down to the typical family home of the day. This tour will walk approximately several blocks and is ADA accessible.
The tour guide is Krishna Dorney who studied History and Historic Preservation at the University of Minnesota. He is active in the Twin Cities Bungalow Club and has worked as a Contractor renovating old homes since the early 1990s.
June 1 – 9-10:30 am
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. Jager planted rows of (you guessed it!) red cedars on both sides of Red Cedar Lane; they now form a luxuriant canopy over the short, narrow cul-de-sac street, making it feel like an outdoor room with built-in North Woods “perfume.” On and near Red Cedar Lane you’ll see Jager’s own house and several houses designed by Jager’s best friend, William Gray Purcell, in association with Frederick Strauel. In the early 20th century, Purcell, his partner George Elmslie, and their draftsman Strauel had offices in Minneapolis where they designed Prairie School buildings that still stand throughout the U.S.
The tour begins at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community, 4401 S Upton Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55410, where there will be a 30-minute slide lecture to introduce these men and their architecture. From there, attendees will drive a few blocks to the corner of Red Cedar Lane and Upton Ave. So., where the walking tour begins. The tour walks about one mile. The walking tour is ADA accessible; however the short lecture before it is not.
The tour guide is Richard L. Kronick who is a freelance writer who specializes in architecture and engineering. He teaches architectural history and has led more than 60 architecture tours for Preserve Minneapolis, the College of Continuing Education at the U of M, Elk River Schools, and other organizations. John Jager and Purcell & Elmslie have been major focuses of Richard’s research for decades.
June 2 – 5:30-7 pm
Fort Snelling Upper Post Walking Tour
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 equipping over 22,000 soldiers from the Upper Midwest region. New barracks, barns, warehouses, and kitchens were built outside the stone walls of the original fort.
After the Civil War, the federal government designated the fort as headquarters for the Department of Dakota, which administered the expansive Dakota Territory to the west. The fort was also a staging point for military campaigns against Native American tribes, a tragic chapter of our nation’s past. The fort’s expanded role launched an extensive construction campaign, producing dozens of new buildings on the Upper Post for training, supplies, and administration.
Fort Snelling grew during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to meet military needs within and outside of U.S. boundaries, including Word War I. Life was more leisurely during the 1920s and 1930s, when officers played polo on one end of the parade grounds and golf on the other, giving the fort its reputation as “the country club of the army.” After America’s entry into World War II, the fort’s induction center was again filled with new recruits—over 300,000 men were processed by a permanent staff of 1,000. After the war, though, the Army found the fort of little strategic value. It was decommissioned and turned over to the Veterans Administration in 1946.
The nearby restored 1820s historic fort, the Lower Post, has become a popular destination for regional school groups, families, and tourists. The Upper Post area, on the other hand, was overlooked for 50 years, even though it played the primary role in the fort’s history for three-quarters of a century. While sports fields had been added to the parade grounds and the golf course remains in use, visitors have had little incentive to explore the area and its decaying buildings.
The tour will be primarily outside but may include access to the Club House building. Total distance will be approximately 2 miles.
The tour guides, all of whom worked extensively at the site, are architects John Stark AIA, (retired BKV Group), Kelly Mastin AIA (Miller Dunwiddie Architecture), and Chuck Liddy FAIA (retired Miller Dunwiddie). They will be giving highlights from their collective 50+ years of working on the Upper Post project: saving and mothballing the buildings, designing for adaptive reuse, challenges faced, interesting discoveries, regulatory hurdles, etc.
June 6 – 5:30-7 pm
In the late 19th century, the narrow street that became Milwaukee Avenue served as the first home in Minneapolis for immigrant families of Northern European workers who labored in the nearby Milwaukee Railroad yards and industrial shops.
A 1970s public agency’s renewal plan called for demolishing approximately 70% of the houses in the 35 block Seward West neighborhood, including all of the houses on Milwaukee Avenue. However, a neighborhood organization, the Seward West Project Area Committee (PAC), thwarted that plan, instead established rehabilitation of the houses as a principal development tool. PAC’s research led to Milwaukee Avenue’s local and national historic district designation.
The neighborhood organization’s 1970s redevelopment process rehabilitated 34 of the original 46 houses facing the street, and converted the once narrow street into a landscaped pedestrian walkway. The street’s unique architectural character renders a human scale quite different from the surrounding neighborhood. Milwaukee Avenue (exteriors only) was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1974.
The tour will walk 1/4 mile and is ADA accessible.
The tour guide is Sheldon Mains. Sheldon has a long history of community involvement in the Seward Neighborhood, starting in the late 1970s as chair of the Milwaukee Avenue Development Corporation and chair of the Seward Neighborhood Group. His eclectic background also includes working on energy and environmental policy for three governors and years of engineering design in the building industry. Sheldon has also served on numerous nonprofit boards and Minneapolis City panels. Sheldon is now retired and is immediate past Board President of Redesign, Inc. (the nonprofit community development corporation for the Seward neighborhood and Longfellow community). We plan on having at least one long-time resident of the Milwaukee Avenue area.
June 7 – 10-11:30 am
Architectural Gems of the University of Minnesota East Bank Walking Tour
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 Romanesque Pillsbury Hall. The Northrop Mall Historic District is a distinguished landscape envisioned by Cass Gilbert and detailed by Morell and Nichols, with Classical Revival buildings designed by Clarence H. Johnston. Ringing the district are more recent architect-designed buildings and additions by Antoine Predock (McNamara Alumni Center), Stephen Holl (Rapson Hall), and U of M alumnus William Pedersen (Bruininks Hall), as well as Frank Gehrey’s Weisman Art Museum.
The tour guide is Laura Weber who is the former editor of Minnesota History, the quarterly of the Minnesota Historical Society. She is a U of M graduate and also worked there for 20 years. She’s led similar tours for a number of groups, including the Society of Architectural Historians and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
June 9 – 6-7:30 pm
Prince’s Side of the Street: North Minneapolis Landmarks Walking Tour
By the time Prince was 18, he was a fully realized and accomplished artist who could walk into the Sound 80 studio in Minneapolis’s Seward neighborhood and write, produce, record, sing, and perform all the instruments on his demo tape, and then land a major recording contract with Warner Brothers by the time he was 19. How did Prince’s childhood in Minneapolis shape the artist he became?
Prince Rogers Nelson grew up in four different homes on Minneapolis’ Northside. As we visit the two houses which still exist, his neighborhood school, and the location where his first band started, we’ll learn how the Great Migration brought Prince’s ancestors to Minnesota, and how growing up in Minneapolis produced the specific experiences which enabled his musical career. We’ll learn about the instruments he learned and where; his early song-writing experiences; the neighborhood family and friends who became his first band mates…and how Prince’s exposure to various musical influences and key collaborators helped him create the unique “Minneapolis Sound” in the late ’70s and early ’80s. This tour will walk approximately 2 miles and is ADA accessible.
The tour guide is Kristen Zschomler who is a historian and archaeologist that researches, writes, and leads in person tours and tours through her innovated app Soundround Music Tours about places associated with Prince, the development of “The Minneapolis Sound”, and music history in the Twin Cities. Kristen’s wrote the nominations to get two Prince places recognized as historically significant through the National Register of Historic Places, preserving his legacy for future generations.
June 14 – 10am-12 pm
Nicollet Island, or Wita Waste in Dakota, lies just above St. Anthony Falls, next to downtown Minneapolis, and is the site of the first bridge anywhere across the Mississippi River. The 40-acre island was 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 tour walk is about 1 mile, and with a few modifications, is ADA accessible. The tour guide is Chris Steller, a Nicollet Island resident who has been leading walking tours of the island for more than 25 years.
June 15 – 10-11:30 am
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 two houses from 1947 and 1948. The others range in date from 1885 to 1928. We will walk through Thomas Lowry Park.
The tour will touch on the history of Lowry Hill and Thomas Lowry Park. We will talk about individual architects, master builders, and some of the original owners. We will interpret the variety of architectural styles represented here. This tour walks about 1.5 miles and is ADA accessible. The tour guides are Anders Christensen and Richard Kronick.
June 18 – 5:30-7 pm
Encompassing 30 blocks of North Minneapolis, this Victorian-era enclave was largely developed at the turn of the century, when architects designed residences for upper-class merchants operating businesses along its main thoroughfares. This neighborhood is impressive for its number of restored Queen Annes in excellent condition. Most of the restoration has been done by hand by local residents and homeowners, using traditional methods, making Old Highland one of Minneapolis’s true preservation success stories.
This tour walk is about 1 mile and is not ADA accessible. The tour guides are neighborhood historian Brian Bushay, and national award-winning architect and North Minneapolis resident Alissa D. Luepke Pier, AIA.
Encompassing 30 blocks of North Minneapolis, this Victorian-era enclave was largely developed at the turn of the century, when architects designed residences for upper-class merchants operating businesses along its main thoroughfares. This neighborhood is impressive for its number of restored Queen Annes in excellent condition. Most of the restoration has been done by hand by local residents and homeowners, using traditional methods, making Old Highland one of Minneapolis’s true preservation success stories.
This tour walk is about 1 mile and is not ADA accessible. The tour guides are neighborhood historian Brian Bushay, and national award-winning architect and North Minneapolis resident Alissa D. Luepke Pier, AIA.
June 28 – 10-11:30 am
The Geography of Childhood, Longfellow Edition Walking Tour
In 1924, the Brackett Field playground opened just south of the Milwaukee Road railroad corridor. Brackett was one of the first city parks chosen not for any natural amenities, but its proximity to residential neighborhoods. In a neighborhood where fifteen percent of the population is under the age of 15, kids are a major presence in Longfellow. This tour highlights some of the historic sites centered around Brackett Field Park that were created by and for children, from the Infant Incubator Institute at Wonderland Park to the Brackett Park rocket playground-equipment-turned-public art. The tour will also explore pieces of urban infrastructure and the specific ways that children in Longfellow have utilized them in the past hundred years. The tour is open to all ages, including children.
Total walk covers about two miles, with frequent stops. The tour guide is Andy Sturdevant.
June 28 – 1-2:30 pm
North Loop/Warehouse District Walking Tour
The Minneapolis Warehouse Historic District is the state’s largest commercial district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Spread over a 30 block area, the district includes 140 buildings and structures. The district is historically important as an area of early commercial growth during the development of the city of Minneapolis and as the city’s warehouse and wholesaling district that expanded during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Minneapolis became a major distribution center in the upper Midwest. Wholesalers were attracted to the area northwest of the downtown business district where land values were relatively low and railroad lines nearby. The leading wholesale lines included groceries, fruits and produce, hardware, dry goods, glassware, and most importantly, agricultural implements.
The district is also architecturally significant for its remarkably intact concentration of commercial buildings designed by the city’s leading architects including Cass Gilbert, Long and Long, Harry Wild Jones, Kees and Colburn, and Hewitt and Brown. Stylistically, the buildings represent every major style from the period including Italianate, Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, Renaissance Revival, and the Commercial Style.
The Warehouse District has retained its sense of time and place with original bridges still in place, streets paved with bricks, and with trains passing through daily on the tracks beds around which the area first developed. The tour will discuss the overall history of the district, the history and architectural styles of individual buildings, the architects who designed them, as well as the challenges in preserving this historic area.
The tour guide is Rolf Anderson.
June 29 – 1-2:30 pm
Healy Block Residential Historic District Walking Tour
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 Hill, Whittier, Loring Park, and Loring Heights.
The block was drastically changed in 1959-60 when fifteen Healy-designed houses were demolished for I-35W, including eight on the 3100 block of Second Avenue South. The larger district once included thirty-six Healy houses and thirteen horse barns. The horse barns remind us that horses, wagons, and carriages were fundamental to the transportation system, especially for a builder. The Healy Block was built on farmland at the end of the first streetcar line coming out of downtown on Fourth Avenue South. The 1890s were also the first great age of the bicycle.
Healy has been nicknamed the “King of the Queen Anne.” He was prolific, building over 200 buildings between 1886 and 1906. His houses were filled with sumptuous woodwork, elegant hardware, jeweled stained glass, wallpapers, and fabrics. T. P. Healy also created a neighborhood of prominent businessmen and women active in society. Many of the names do not resonate today, but the jeweler J. B. Hudson and the retailer Richard Sears (founder of Sears, Roebuck & Co.) are names that we still recognize.
The district today is defined by its proximity to I-35W. The freeway demolition process did not destroy the southside African-American community as happened to St Paul’s Rondo neighborhood; it did, however, create a race barrier in the southside of Minneapolis. Since the 1960s, the historic district has housed a resilient and resourceful collection of residents who have restored, protected, and promoted the Healy legacy.
The tour walks 1/2 mile and attendees will go into at least one house. The tour is ADA accessible except for the interior.
The tour guides are Anders Christensen, Healy historian and President of the Healy Project and Damon Odum.
June 29 – 10-11:30 am
Historic East Hennepin Walking Tour
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 of Minneapolis in 1872. Its proximity to the Mississippi River, Downtown, the University, and Northeast Minneapolis have made it an influential hub for transit, industry, and commerce. The last decade has brought dramatic change and the area around East Hennepin is now considered one of the trendiest and most exciting places in Minneapolis to eat, shop, and live. Fortunately, the area has managed to maintain its old-world flavor to this day.
Join us for a “behind-the-scenes” history of the busy streets, unique businesses, and colorful people that have shaped this popular walking neighborhood. Hear amazing stories told from the perspective of individuals who have lived and worked here, through good times and bad. Come away with perspectives on what life and work here might have actually felt like throughout this neighborhood’s most defining eras.
Please note that this tour ends at the Ard Godfrey House, which is a short, 5-minute walk from the starting location. This tour will walk approximately 1.5 miles. The tour is ADA accessible.
The tour guides are Scott Parkin and Michael Rainville, Sr. Scott is a residential realtor with a storefront office right along the tour route. He is the past president of the NE Mpls Business Association and has been active in the development and business community along East Hennepin Ave since 1993. Michael is a 5th generation resident of NE Minneapolis. He is a graduate of DeLaSalle High School and St. Thomas and Notre Dame Universities. He has retired after 35 years with the Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Association, watching the city grow into the jewel it is today.
June 30 – 6-7:30 pm
Lakewood Cemetery: Creating a Landscape of Memory Walking Tour
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 nationally noted designers: the 1910 Byzantine Revival Chapel by Harry Wild Jones with interiors by the Lamb Studios of New York City and the 2012 Garden Mausoleum by HGA Architects and Engineers with landscape design by the Halvorson Partnership of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Continue with an early summer evening stroll through the grounds, viewing both elaborate and modest monuments of past Minneapolis residents.
The tour will be about 1 mile in length and portions of the route are not ADA accessible. Please wear shoes suitable for walking across grass.
The tour guide is Peter Sussman who grew up around the Chain of Lakes and has been exploring the history of surrounding communities for over 35 years. An architect and urban historian, he chaired the Preserve Minneapolis Summer Tour committee through 2021 and enjoys leading tours which recognize all who have built up and lived in this unique city.
July 10 – 6-7:30 pm
Lynnhurst Historic District Walking Tour
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 dating from the early 1900’s. Those incorporated building restrictions implemented in 1904 which resulted in significant uniformity while reflecting a variety of then popular styles.
Efforts by the community in the 1920’s to protect the character of their setting and the designation process leading to the 2020 Lynnhurst Residential Historic District will be covered during the tour.
The tour guide is Peter Sussman who grew up around the Chain of Lakes and has been exploring the history of surrounding communities for over 35 years. An architect and urban historian, he chaired the Preserve Minneapolis Summer Tour committee through 2021 and enjoys leading tours which recognize all who have built up and lived in this unique city.
July 12 – 10-11:30 am
Murder and Mayhem: Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery Walking Tour
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 building the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota. While the majority of those people were upright citizens, more than a handful were not. Join us as we walk through the seamier side of Minneapolis’ history. We’ll stop and pay our respects (or not!) to a host of folks, both casualties and criminals, who most definitely did not die peacefully in their sleep.
This tour walks about 1/2 a mile over lumpy terrain and is not ADA accessible. The tour guide is Sue Hunter-Weir.
July 13 –1-2:30 pm
Northside Former Synagogues and Neighborhood Walking Tour
This tour will explore the early twentieth-century former synagogues and other institutions that were at the heart of the predominantly Jewish community of the Near North Side and their present uses today. Of the six original Jewish places of worship in the neighborhood, three structures survive – Mikro Kodesh, designed in the Moorish Byzantine style in the early 1920s, and Tifereth B’nai Jacob and Sharei Zedeck. The tour will explore these former synagogues from both an architectural and cultural perspective. The tour will also touch on other buildings that were important to the community, including the Emanuel Cohen Center, a community center (now Oak Park Center); and the Jewish Sheltering Home for Children, an orphanage (now Minneapolis Avenues for Homeless Youth).
The tour guides are Richard Woldorsky and Peter Sussman. Richard is a 1971 graduate of Minneapolis North High, has a background in urban planning and landscape architecture. His interest in the structure and anthropology of cities was nurtured by growing up in Near North Minneapolis. He maintains a strong affection for the neighborhood he knew as a child and has an insatiable interest in its continual evolution. Peter is a 1971 graduate of Minneapolis Southwest High School, is an architect and urban historian who has been exploring community history for 35 years. His parents and grandparents were Northside residents and he had the opportunity to reconnect with the neighborhood through the 2004 renovation and addition to Sumner Community Library.
September 4 – 5:30-7 pm
Minneapolis Railroad History Walking Tour
Minnesota’s first rail line started running in 1862 between Minneapolis and St. Paul. The population of Minneapolis was rapidly increasing due to flour milling and lumber production and the railroads were key partners in expanding the markets for these products.
Join us for a guided tour of railroad landmarks in the historic mill district. Along the way, find clues to the vanishing railroad landscape and learn about the legacy of the railroad’s influence on Minneapolis.
The tour guide is David Berg. David is a lifelong resident of Minnesota and holds a degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Minnesota. He and his wife Linda reside in south Minneapolis. For 25 years Mr. Berg was employed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as a Ranger/Naturalist with Minnesota State Parks. A major portion of his time was spent presenting interpretive programs for school groups and the general public. Mr. Berg then took a position with the Minnesota Historical Society at their newest historic site – Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis- where, for 13 years, he portrayed William de la Barre, the hydro engineer who, in 1885, “re-engineered St. Anthony falls” to maximize the power of falling water to run the largest flour mills in the world, making Minneapolis the city that it is today! Mr. Berg and his wife both retired in 2016 and keep busy using their time and talents volunteering for church and civic organizations.
September 6 – 10-11:30 am
Discover this quaint neighborhood located just west of downtown Minneapolis and filled with bungalows and various architectural styles.
The tour guide is Patty Wycoff who will highlight 10 houses along with the history of the charming neighborhood.
September 7 – 1-2:30 pm
Tangletown and Minnehaha Creek Walking Tour
Explore Tangletown and its history—its winding streets, splendid residential architecture, and its bridges and trails along Minnehaha Creek. Platted as Washburn Park, your neighborhood tour will include its landmarks—the Washburn Water Tower, the Harry Wild Jones House, the Washburn Memorial Orphan Asylum (now the location of Justice Alan Page Middle School) and more. The start and end of the tour is the Washburn Library at 53rd & Lyndale Ave. Parking is available at the library south of the building.
The tour route is 1.5 miles, involves some hilly landscape, and is not ADA accessible.
Your tour guide is Liz Vandam, author of Doors of Tangletown, A Historical Reflection of Washburn Park.
September 13 – 10-11:30 am
Learn the unique history of this tucked away little-known street in the farthest northeast corner of the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County. What is the connection to Minneapolis Streetcar magnate Thomas Lowry? Why is the street called Architect Avenue and who were the architects? In 1905, a contest was held in one of the farthest corners of Hennepin County for well-designed homes for the up-and-coming middle class. Major Twin Cities architects were solicited to develop affordable homes, which would combine “luxury, elegance, utility, and comfort”…and each had to cost $3,000 or less (including landscaping and sidewalk). Twelve local architects submitted designs; six were chosen and built. This mini-development became “Architect Avenue,” developed and promoted by Thomas Lowry, and all six of these unique and original homes still exist.
The tour guide is Kathy Kullberg who is a house historian and detective that details the past of the houses and the main characters of 1905 Hennepin history.
September 14 – 1-2:30 pm
Ghost Groceries of Windom Park
In 1915, 118 small independent grocers served Northeast Minneapolis. Today, only ghostly storefronts remain. On this tour of storefronts in the Windom Park neighborhood, you’ll discover forgotten histories of close-knit families, lutefisk barrels, crime sprees and tarantulas.
The route is approximately 1.2 miles in length and goes over some slightly hilly terrain. Plan to park on side streets as there is construction on Lowry.
The tour guide is Elizabeth Sowden.
September 15 – 5:30-7 pm
Maud Hart Lovelace Walking Tour
Follow the footsteps of beloved Minnesota children’s author Maud Hart Lovelace with local historian Kathy Kullberg.
From 1911 to the late 1920s, Lovelace lived in Minneapolis’ East Lowry Hill neighborhood with her family and friends close by. These relationships and places became the basis for many of the characters and references in Betsy’s Wedding, the last book in the Betsy-Tacy series.
The tour will feature the sites and stories related to the Hart and Lovelace families. This tour is ADA accessible and will walk about three blocks.
The tour guide is Kathy Kullberg who is an active preservationist and avid house historian who is a longtime resident of Lowry Hill East. Kathy is always discovering the true lives of former residents and their contribution to Minneapolis’s past and present.
September 20 – 10-11:30 am
The Heart of the Wedge: The 2400 Block of Bryant Walking Tour
The Wedge Neighborhood is bounded by Lyndale Avenue on the east, Hennepin Avenue on the west, and Lake Street on the south. The original tip of the Wedge went all the way north to the Cathedral of St. Mark. The “Bottleneck “ was drastically reconfigured with the building of the Lowry Tunnel for I-94. The historical name for the neighborhood was Lowry Hill East.
The oldest houses and commercial buildings were in the south coming north from Lake Street. The Sunnyside Addition, the area between Franklin Avenue and West 24th Street was primarily built in the 1890’s. The neighborhood’s largest houses were built here. Most have been demolished for apartment buildings in the 1950s–1970s.
The 2400 Block of Bryant has twenty-two houses. The block is anchored on each end and on opposite sides of the street by the Cook House at 2400 and the Gluek House at 2447. In the winter of 1894-5, master builder T. P. Healy built the first house on the block. Healy would design or build eight more over the next ten years. English-born master builder Henry Ingham was responsible for four more. The last house on the block, 2424, was built in 1911.
The designs of architects Orth, Keith, Kenyon, Stebbins, Whitney, Downs & Eads, and Boehme & Cordella are represented on the block. There is a stylistic unity that is uncharacteristic in the Wedge. American domestic architecture was struggling to create new forms after the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the death of the Queen Anne style.
But buildings are just buildings. Kathy Kullberg has been the neighborhood historian for thirty years. She has an unending stream of stories about the residents of this block over the years. She will answer the following questions and many more besides:
What does the name Gluek, of the historical brewing company, have in common with the likes of a kidnapped banker named Bremer by the infamous Barker-Karpus gang?
Who was the first woman in Minnesota broadcasting to put WCCO radio on the national map in the 1920s?
Why do two international magazines—Time-Life magazines and Sports Afield—claim Bryant Avenue roots?
Come with us to see this interesting collection of houses, and hear the stories of those who lived here.
The tour guides are Anders Christensen and Kathy Kullberg. Anders shares the architectural history while Kathy delves into the hidden stories behind those facades.
September 21 – 10-11:30 am
Modern Development of Downtown Walking Tour
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, be adaptable to changing times.
This tour will walk approximately 1.5 miles. The tour guide is Elizabeth Gales.
September 25 – 5:30-7 pm
The East 38th Street community is rich with history. African-American entrepreneurs, civic/community/faith leaders, home builders, and architects all contributed to the Minneapolis we know today. From the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the oldest Black-owned business in Minnesota, to the home of Lena Olive Smith, the first Black female lawyer in the State of Minnesota, to Sabathani Community Center, a Black-led non-profit serving the community for over 50 years, there is much to explore.
Discriminatory housing practices, restrictive deed covenants and red-lining are part of the recent history of Minneapolis with present-day impacts. As recently as the 1950s, banks and the Federal Housing Administration refused to provide mortgages for homes outside of established Black neighborhoods such as those near the E. 38th Street and 4th Avenue corridors. Tilsenbilt homes, a group of over 50 homes just south of the E. 38th Street Corridor, were constructed in the 1950s with the help of realtor and philanthropist Archie Givens, Sr. Tilsenbilt Homes are believed to be the first federally-supported residential housing development in the United States that was open to homebuyers of all races.
The tour will walk less than two miles.
The tour guide is Judge LaJune Thomas Lange, retired who serves as the President and lead history researcher for the International Leadership Institute. She will share special insights from growing up in the neighborhood she calls”Black Wall Street ” because of the impressive political and financial impact.
September 28 – 1-2:30 pm
Learn the history of this controversial portion of the Park Board’s Grand Rounds as well as the people who lived in 10 of the residences built by one of the first women general contractors – Ella Pendergast -and designed by her son Jack Pendergast. But the stories and mysteries continue. During the late 1920s and early 1930s one of these houses was an illegal speakeasy. And another house on the block was connected to a famous 1950s murder. Take a short walking tour of one of Minneapolis’s smallest neighborhoods and learn some of its past secrets.
The tour guide is Kathy Kullberg.
September 29 – 5:30-7 pm
St. Anthony Falls – How Waterpower Built a City Walking Tour
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 vast wilderness, as well as an interesting geological phenomenon. During the 19th century, settlers, tourists, and artists were drawn to St. Anthony Falls’ picturesque beauty, while entrepreneurs seized the waterpower of the falls for their lumber and flour mills. Meanwhile, promoters of river transportation viewed St. Anthony Falls as an obstacle to be overcome, as they dreamed of extending navigation on the Mississippi River above Minneapolis.
The 90-minute walking tour will highlight the natural landscape and the human infrastructure still visible as a testament to the constantly changing physical and economic forces that made Minneapolis the city that it is today.
The tour guide is David Berg. David is a lifelong resident of Minnesota and holds a degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Minnesota. He and his wife Linda reside in south Minneapolis. For 25 years Mr. Berg was employed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as a Ranger/Naturalist with Minnesota State Parks. A major portion of his time was spent presenting interpretive programs for school groups and the general public. Mr. Berg then took a position with the Minnesota Historical Society at their newest historic site – Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis- where, for 13 years, he portrayed William de la Barre, the hydro engineer who, in 1885, “re-engineered St. Anthony falls” to maximize the power of falling water to run the largest flour mills in the world, making Minneapolis the city that it is today! Mr. Berg and his wife both retired in 2016 and keep busy using their time and talents volunteering for church and civic organizations.