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.
Anders Christensen shares the architectural history while Kathy Kullberg delves into the hidden stories behind those facades.