History of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota in the United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The origin and growth of the city was spurred by the proximity of Fort Snelling, the first major United States military presence in the area, and by its location on Saint Anthony Falls, which provided power for sawmills and flour mills.

Fort Snelling was established in 1819, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, and soldiers began using the falls for waterpower. When land became available for settlement, two towns were founded on either side of the falls: Saint Anthony, on the east side, and Minneapolis, on the west side. The two towns later merged into one city in 1872. Early development focused on sawmills, but flour mills eventually became the dominant industry. This industrial development fueled the development of railroads and banks, as well as the foundation of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Through innovations in milling techniques, Minneapolis became a world-leading center of flour production, earning the name "Mill City". As the city grew, the culture developed through its churches, arts institutions, the University of Minnesota, and a famous park system designed by Theodore Wirth.

Although the sawmills and the flour mills are long gone, Minneapolis remains a regional center in banking and industry. The two largest milling companies, General Mills and the Pillsbury Company, now merged under the General Mills name, still remain prominent in the Twin Cities area. The city has rediscovered the riverfront, which now hosts parkland, the Mill City Museum, and the Guthrie Theater.

Early European exploration

Minneapolis grew up around Saint Anthony Falls, the only waterfall on the Mississippi River and the end of the commercially navigable section of the river until locks were installed in the 1960s.

French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut explored the Minnesota area in 1680 on a mission to extend French dominance over the area. While exploring the St. Croix River area, he got word that some other explorers had been held captive. He arranged for their release. The prisoners included Michel Aco, Antoine Auguelle, and Father Louis Hennepin, a Catholic priest and missionary. On that expedition, Father Hennepin discovered the falls and named them after his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. He published a book in 1683 entitled "Description of Louisiana", describing the area to interested Europeans. As time went on, he developed a tendency to exaggerate. A 1699 edition of the book described the falls as having a drop of fifty or sixty feet, when they only had a drop of 16 feet (4.8 m).]

Humphrey's progress with civil rights in Minneapolis gained national attention, with many cities inquiring about how they could establish their own civil rights commissions. In 1947, he was reelected with 102,000 votes over his opponent's 52,000 votes. As a delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention, he led the call for a strong civil rights plank. In his address, he said, "There are those who say to you -- we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late. There are those who say -- this issue of civil rights is an infringement on states rights. The time has arrived for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of state's rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights." [cite web|url=http://www.hhh.umn.edu/humphrey-forum/quot.htm|title=Hubert Humphrey Quotations|work=The Humphrey Forum|accessdate=2007-04-22] Humphrey was elected to the United States Senate in the 1948 election and served many years as a prominent Minnesota politician.

W. Harry Davis, who later served 20 years on the Minneapolis School Board, agreed to run for mayor in 1971, becoming the city's first black mayoral candidate supported by a major political party. White supremacists were still present in Minneapolis, and threatened his family daily during the campaign. The police department guarded their home and the FBI gave them protection dogs. Davis also received support from white politicians including Humphrey, Donald M. Fraser, and Walter Mondale. [cite web| author= Twin Cities Public Television| title= Harry Davis on "Almanac" (RealVideo)| date= February 21, 2003| url= http://video1.tpt.org:8080/ramgen/almanac/show/1824.rm?start=30:25 and cite web| author= Benson, Lorna| title= Harry Davis -- a life of accomplishment| publisher= Minnesota Public Radio| date= August 11, 2006| url= http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/08/11/harrydavisobit/| accessdate= 2007-04-25] Twenty years later, Minneapolis elected its first African American mayor, Sharon Sayles Belton. To date, she has been the city's only female and only non-white mayor. [cite web| title=The political legacy of Sharon Sayles Belton| author=Olson, Dan| publisher=Minnesota Public Radio| date=November 7, 2001| url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200111/07_olsond_ssbobit/| accessdate= 2007-04-25]

In 1968, Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt were among those who founded the American Indian Movement to advance civil rights for Native Americans. [cite web| title= American Indian Movement| publisher= Encyclopaedia Britannica| date= | url= http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9006120/American-Indian-Movement| accessdate= 2007-04-25]

A growing city

From about 200,000 in the 1900 Census, Minneapolis soared to its highest population recorded in 1950 of over 521,000 people. The main growth of the city was in part to an organized private streetcar system. With 140 million passengers by 1920, the streetcars ran down important roads extending from Downtown Minneapolis. Neighborhood residential development out of the core mostly dates around the turn of the century as a result of this system. [cite web | url=http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/mayor/speeches/speech_climatechangeseattle.asp | title=The Road Less Traveled | author=Mayor RT Rybak | publisher=City of Minneapolis | date=November 1 2007] [cite web | url=http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/tr3.asp | title=A History of Minneapolis: Intercity Transit and Highways | date=2001 | publisher=Minneapolis Library] This growth also allowed Minneapolis to annex land from neighboring villages and townships which subsequently pushed the incorporation of today's inner ring suburbs. [cite web | title=Governance and Infrastructure | url=http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/cg1.asp | date=2001 | publisher=Minneapolis Library]

The streetcar system was built by Twin City Rapid Transit and operated efficiently through 1949, with a program of reinvesting their profits into system improvements. However, in 1949, New York investor Charles Green gained control of the system, halted the rebuilding program, and announced a goal of completely converting the system to buses by 1958. These policies alienated the public and he was ousted in 1951, but his successor, Fred Ossanna, continued to cut service and replace the system with buses. On June 19, 1954, the last streetcar took its run.cite web|url=http://www.msmuseum.org/CHSL_Main/history.html|title=Minnesota Streetcar Museum: Como-Harriet Streetcar Line History|accessdate=2007-04-13] A photo taken in 1954 shows James Towley handing Fred Ossanna a check while one of the streetcars burned in the background. [cite web|url=http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/tr3.asp|title=A History of Minneapolis: Intercity Transit and Highways|publisher=Minneapolis Public Library|accessdate=2007-04-13] Later on, it was discovered that Ossanna and associates had plundered the streetcar system for personal gain. A small section of the line between Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet is now operated by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum.

Reshaping downtown

Downtown Minneapolis was the hub of business and financial activity. The Minneapolis City Hall (which also served as the Hennepin County Courthouse at the time) was the tallest building in Minneapolis from its construction in 1888 until 1929. A municipal ordinance instituted in 1890 restricted buildings to a height of convert|100|ft|m, later raised to convert|125|ft|m. The construction of the First National - Soo Line Building in 1915, with a height of convert|252|ft|m, caused concerns among the real estate industry, so the 125-foot (twelve story) limit was reimposed at the request of the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Association.cite book|last=Millett|first=Larry|title=Lost Twin Cities|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|location=St. Paul, Minnesota|date=1992|isbn=0-87351-273-1]

The twenty-seven story Rand Tower, built in 1929, was the next major challenger to the height limit. The thirty-two story Foshay Tower, also built in 1929, was the highest building in Minneapolis until 1971. Its builder, Wilbur Foshay, wanted a tower built along the lines of the Washington Monument. He staged a lavish dedication ceremony complete with a march composed by John Philip Sousa. About six weeks later, Foshay lost his fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. [cite web|url=http://nrhp.mnhs.org/property_overview.cfm?propertyID=27|title=National Register of Historic Places - Foshay Tower|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|accessdate=2007-04-12] Foshay's $20,000 check to Sousa bounced, and Sousa forbade anyone else to play the march until the debt was repaid. [cite web|url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=122731|title=Foshay Tower, Minneapolis|publisher=Emporis|accessdate=2007-04-12]

During the Great Depression, buildings suffered from a lack of maintenance. Writer Sinclair Lewis, returning to Minneapolis after a long absence, said, "Minneapolis is so ugly. Parking lots like scars. Most buildings are narrow, drab, dirty, flimsy, irregular in relationship to one another — a set of bad teeth." A decade later, downtown and surrounding areas would be reshaped radically by urban renewal and freeway construction. After World War II, businesses and residents started moving to the suburbs, and downtown Minneapolis, along with downtowns across the nation, was perceived as dying. Urban planners, such as Le Corbusier, were advocating radically rebuilding downtowns by complete rebuilding and forcing out manufacturing and warehousing. The Federal Housing Act of 1949 provided funding for clearing blighted areas, and city officials interpreted the definition of "blighted" liberally. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 provided funding for an interstate highway system, which would also transform Minneapolis.

The Gateway district, centered around the intersection of Hennepin and Nicollet Avenues just west of the Mississippi River, was the major casualty of urban renewal. The neighborhood had become known as a slum with cheap hotels and flophouses. When General Mills announced in 1955 that they were moving their corporate headquarters to Golden Valley, city planners decided to implement a large-scale Gateway district plan that included demolishing a large number of buildings. Between 1957 and 1965, one-third of downtown Minneapolis had been leveled, including the Metropolitan Building.

Freeway construction had its impact on the city, with neighborhoods disrupted and housing stock lost. Between 1963 and 1975, Interstate 35W from the south border of the city to its northeastern corner, Interstate 94 from the St. Paul border into downtown, and the Crosstown (County Road 62, later to become Minnesota State Highway 62) on the southern boundary of Minneapolis were built. The remaining portion of Interstate 94, from U.S. Highway 12 to the northern boundary of the city, was completed in 1982. Highway 12 was later rebuilt to Interstate standards in 1992, at which point it was renumbered Interstate 394. Several proposed projects never were built, though. Minnesota State Highway 55, running southeast from downtown to the Fort Snelling area and the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, was slated to become a freeway, but the upgrade was canceled due to neighborhood opposition. Similarly, a proposed Interstate 335 was to run from Interstate 35W in northeast Minneapolis to a connection with Interstate 94 just north of downtown. This project was also canceled due to neighborhood opposition. [cite web|url=http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/tr4.asp|title=A History of Minneapolis: Intercity Transit and Highways (Part II)|publisher=Minneapolis Public Library|accessdate=2007-04-13]

Modern Minneapolis

haping the skyline

While the destruction of the Gateway district left a large gap in downtown Minneapolis, other developments would reshape it and transform the skyline. One of these developments was the building of the Nicollet Mall in 1968. Previously known as Nicollet Avenue, the portion within the central business became a tree-lined mall for pedestrians and transit. The mall forms a kind of linear park, with trees and fountains and a farmers' market in the summer. It also boosted the city's retail trade.cite web | title=A History of Minneapolis: Central Business District (Part II) | author=Minneapolis Public Library | date=2001 | url=http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/eh1.asp | accessdate=2007-04-18] The most dramatic change to the skyline came in 1974, when the IDS Center was opened. At a height of 775 feet 6 inches (236.4 m) when built, it dwarfed the previous highest building, the Foshay Tower. Other additions to downtown included the Norwest Center, built in 1988 and now renamed the Wells Fargo Center, the Campbell Mithun Tower -- previously Piper Jaffray built in 1985, and 225 South Sixth, built in 1992 as the headquarters of First Bank (now U.S. Bancorp). The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, opened in 1982, now serves as the home of the Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Vikings, and the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. In the 1990s, the last wave of downtown development filled in parcels around the skyscrapers with towers 40 stories or less from companies such as Target, Ameriprise Financial, and AT&T.

Vertical residential housing also followed the corporate development. The '70s condo boom saw many discreet high-rises blanket the former milling districts and Downtown West. Riverside Plaza, formerly Cedar Square West, was completed in 1973 as a six tower mixed-income self-contained urban village that originally was much larger and contains the tallest buildings outside Downtown. The plain modern and brutalist concrete styles of that period however were contrasted in the late 1990s to 2000s that brought in more prominent residential towers to the skyline with varying colors and architecture themes. The Carlyle residence one block south of the Mississippi River is 41 stories built in art deco style and is the most recent addition to the skyline. Grant Park and Skyscape, though not as tall at 27-28 stories, have begun extending the skyline south into the Elliot Park neighborhood. The two contrast as one is traditional with red brick proportions while the other is in modern glass.

Light rail made its debut in Minneapolis with the opening of the Hiawatha Line on June 26, 2004. The system starts in downtown Minneapolis and progresses southeastward along Minnesota State Highway 55 (also known as Hiawatha Avenue), passes Minnehaha Park on the west side, and serves the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport before its termination at the Mall of America in Bloomington.

Rediscovering the riverfront

As industry and railroads left the Mississippi riverfront, people gradually became aware that the riverfront could be a destination for living, working, and shopping. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board acquired land along the river banks, including much of Nicollet Island, all of Boom Island, and the West River Parkway corridor. These properties were developed with trails and parkways, and this spurred the development of private land adjacent to the riverfront, creating the new Mill District neighborhood. The Stone Arch Bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic in 1994, creating a link in the trail system and providing spectacular views of Saint Anthony Falls. Some of the old commercial buildings were adapted to new uses. The Whitney Hotel was built in what used to be the Standard Mill, while the North Star Lofts was a new use for the former North Star Woolen Mills building. Other projects, such as Saint Anthony Main and a number of condominium and townhouse projects, provide residents with the opportunity to live within view of Saint Anthony Falls.

Urban archeology along the riverfront has uncovered remnants of the flour mills built in the 1860s and 1870s, along with the tailrace canal that once supplied water to the mills and the trestle supports for the Minnesota Eastern Railroad. These ruins, which had once been buried with gravel and fill, are now open to the public as Mill Ruins Park. The park has signs interpreting the history of the area and the buildings that had once been there. The Washburn "A" Mill, severely damaged by a 1991 fire but now stabilized, now hosts the Mill City Museum, opened in 2003 by the Minnesota Historical Society. The museum presents a history of flour milling and industrial development along the river, and an eight-story elevator ride shows the various steps that turned wheat into flour. The Guthrie Theater moved to a new building along the riverfront in 2006, just southeast of the Mill City Museum.

Notes

References

*cite web
title=A History of Minneapolis
author=Minneapolis Public Library
date=2001
url=http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/eh1.asp
accessdate=2007-02-12

External links

*cite web | author= Class from Jenny Lind School and archaeologists | publisher= The Minneapolis Television Network | title= Real Archaeology Digging In At Mill Ruins Park | url= http://www.archive.org/details/realarchmillruinsdig | date= 2006 | accessdate= 2008-02-10
*Anfinson, Scott F. (1989). Archaeology of the Central Minneapolis Riverfront, [http://www.fromsitetostory.org/sources/papers/mnarch48/48preface1.asp Part 1] and [http://www.fromsitetostory.org/sources/papers/mnarch49/49mn49b.asp Part 2] . Retrieved on February 10, 2008.
* [http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/106wheat/106wheat.htm "Wheat Farms, Flour Mills, and Railroads: A Web of Interdependence," a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan]