Preserve Minneapolis Announces 2020 Virtual History Tours

Via a July 3 e-announcement from Preserve Minneapolis:

We are excited to announce its first-ever virtual walking tour schedule.

This is the organization’s ninth year exploring the city’s architectural and cultural treasures with the public.
 
The first tour is July 11 and features the brew houses of Lowry Hill East, documenting our city’s brewing history through those who built houses in the newly developed Lowry Hill and Sunnyside suburbs of the late 19th century.
 
Join experienced architects and historians as Preserve Minneapolis visits nearly every corner of the city’s historic neighborhoods, buildings and landmarks. These tours reveal hidden stories of the past that has shaped Minneapolis from its earliest days.

Tours cost $5 plus a $1 transaction fee. Register online
 
July 11
Brew Houses of Lowry Hill East
The first families of Minneapolis brewing in the 19th century were the Glueks, Muellers, Orths and Heinricks. After the breweries consolidated around 1890, the second generation desired to live among the new middle class in the newly developed Lowry Hill and Sunnyside suburbs.
 
July 14
Closing Time: Saloons, Taverns, Dives and Watering Holes of Minneapolis
Bars, taverns, saloons, and speakeasies have been part of the cultural, social, and physical landscape of downtown Minneapolis since its founding. Drawing from the 2019 book “Closing Time,” this tour will cover more than a dozen downtown spots virtually, some closed for decades, some still waiting to reopen.
 
July 16
Milwaukee Avenue Historic District
A 1970s public agency’s renewal plan called for demolishing approximately 70% of the 46 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.
 
July 18
Warehouse District
The Minneapolis Warehouse Historic District is the state's largest commercial district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The tour will discuss the overall history of the district, the history and architectural styles of individual buildings, and the architects who designed them.
 
July 23
East Lake of the Isles Residential Home Tour
The development of the Lake of Isles neighborhood occurred between 1886 and 1911. It was closely tied to the development of the Minneapolis Park System. Hennepin Avenue to the east acquired a major streetcar line in 1891. This encouraged major commercial development on Hennepin and residential development on the east shore of Lake of Isles from 1905 – 1915. This tour will explore the architectural styles popular during this development period.
 
July 26
Alphabet Streets: Discovering Prince’s Minneapolis Through Place
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. As we visit his Northside and Southside residences, the schools he attended, the locations where his first band started and practiced, and recording studios where he worked as a session musician while still a teenager, we'll learn how the Great Migration brought Prince's ancestors to Minnesota, why Prince attended various schools throughout Minneapolis, and how growing up in this city produced the specific experiences which enabled his musical career.
 
July 30
Lowry Hill
The tour will explore sixty homes on Lowry Hill. We will see the works of 24 architects and several master builders. 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.
 
Aug. 8
Dinkytown: Forever Young
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, legacy businesses, and its role in the student protests of the 1960s.

Aug. 16
Tangletown
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.
 
Aug. 18
Northside Former Synagogues and Neighborhoods
This tour will explore the early 20th 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.

Aug. 22
Como-Harriet Streetcar Line
Enjoy a virtual exploration of the abandoned and reconstructed Como-Harriet Streetcar Line. We will begin our tour in Uptown and finish at 44th & France. Along the way, participants will catch glimpses of the route, both as it looks today and how it appeared to long-ago passengers. The tour will include remnants of the original Twin Cities Rapid Transit streetcar line, the former Lyndale Hotel site, the Museum’s car barn, and the Linden Hills business district.
 
Aug. 25
Nicollet Mall
Nicollet Avenue has been Minneapolis’ main shopping street for more than 100 years. In the 1960’s, to compete with suburban shopping malls that were drawing customers away from downtown, eight blocks of Nicollet were closed to automobile traffic. On this virtual walking tour, we will investigate the histories of the Mall itself and of 15 buildings and spaces that face the Mall, including the IDS Crystal Court, Dayton's, the Loring Greenway, and Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Aug. 29
Downtown Public Art
The City of Minneapolis has long maintained a vital program of public art. Public art has been part of civic projects dating back to the completion of the City Hall in 1906 with its majestic Carrara marble statue. This tour will touch on important examples within downtown Minneapolis associated with many important historic and contemporary buildings in Minneapolis.
 
Aug. 31
Lakewood Cemetery: Creating a Landscape of Memory
This tour explores the grounds and monuments of Minneapolis’ most fabled cemetery, including two outstanding buildings designed by Minneapolis architects in collaboration with nationally noted designers: the 1910 Byzantine Revival Chapel and the 2012 Garden Mausoleum.
 
Sept. 10
Red Cedar Lane and Environs
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. On and near Red Cedar Lane you’ll see several houses designed by William Gray Purcell, in association with Frederick Strauel.
 
Sept. 12
Nicollet Island
In 1866 – one year before the city’s incorporation – a referendum that would have made Nicollet Island a public park failed. Instead the island developed as a microcosm of the city, with its own industrial, commercial and residential zones. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, the city succeeded in making much of the island into parkland after all. The tour takes in the entire 40-acre island, from the south tip overlooking St. Anthony Falls to the intact 19th century neighborhood at the north tip.
 
Sept. 14
Architect Avenue
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?
 
Sept. 20
The Sunnyside Addition – Minneapolis’ First Streetcar Suburb
In the early 1890’s, the area bounded by Franklin Avenue on the north, 24th Street on the south, Hennepin Avenue on the west, and Lyndale Avenue on the east was farmland. It became Minneapolis’ first and best streetcar suburb. Visit the Sunnyside Addition with us. View historical photos, see what is here, and understand why we fight for the preservation of its historic architecture.