'
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.
A painting of Father Hennepin discovering Saint Anthony Falls.
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.
[1] Hennepin may have been including nearby rapids in his estimate, as the current total drop in river level over the series of dams is 76 ft (23 m).
The city's land was acquired by the United States in a series of treaties and purchases negotiated with the
Mdewakanton band of the Dakota and separately with European nations.
England claimed the land east of the Mississippi and
France, then
Spain, and again France claimed the land west of the river. In 1787 land on the east side of the river became part of the
Northwest Territory and in 1803 the west side became part of the
Louisiana Purchase, both claimed by the United States.
In 1805,
Zebulon Pike purchased two tracts of land from the Dakota Indians. One tract was located at the mouth of the St. Croix River, while a second, larger tract ran from the confluence of the
Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers to St. Anthony Falls, with a width of nine miles (14 km) east and west of the river. In return, he distributed about $200 in trading goods and sixty gallons of liquor, and promised a further payment from the United States government. The
United States Senate eventually approved a payment of $2000.
[2]
Fort Snelling and St. Anthony Falls
Fort Snelling
was established in 1819 to extend United States jurisdiction over the area and to allay concerns about British fur traders in the area. The soldiers initially camped at a site on the south side of the Minnesota River, but conditions were hard there and nearly a fifth of the soldiers died of
scurvy in the winter of 1819–1820.
They later moved their camp to
Camp Coldwater in May of 1820. Much of the military's activity was conducted there while the fort was built. Camp Coldwater, the site of a cold, clear, flowing spring, was also considered sacred by the native Dakota.
[3]
The soldiers needed to supply the fort, so they built roads, planted vegetables, wheat, and hay, and raised cattle. They also made the first weather recordings in the area. A
lumber mill and a
grist mill were built on the falls in 1822 to supply the fort.
[4]
Government gristmill and sawmill
A settlement on the east bank of the Mississippi near St. Anthony Falls was envisioned in the 1830s by Joseph Plympton, who became commander of Fort Snelling in 1837. He made a more accurate survey of the reservation lands and transmitted a map to the War Department delimiting about 34,000 acres (140 km²) within the reservation. He cleverly drew the boundary line to exclude certain parts of the east bank that had been part of the 1805 cession to
Zebulon Pike. His plan was to stake a pre-emption claim at the falls. However,
Franklin Steele also had plans to stake a claim. On
July 15,
1838, word reached Fort Snelling that a treaty between the United States and the Dakota and Ojibwa had been ratified, ceding land between the
St. Croix River and the Mississippi Rivers. Steele rushed off to the falls, built a shanty, and marked off boundary lines. Plympton's party arrived the next morning, but they were too late to claim the most desirable land. Plympton claimed some less desirable land near Steele's claim, as did other settlers such as
Pierre Bottineau, Joseph Rondo, Samuel Findley, and Baptiste Turpin.
[5] Steele went on to build a dam at the falls and built a sawmill that cut logs from the
Rum River area.
The Dakota were hunters and gatherers and soon found themselves in debt to fur traders. Pressed by a whooping cough outbreak, loss of buffalo, deer and bear, and loss of forests to logging, in 1851 in the
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, the Mdewakanton sold the remaining land west of the river, allowing settlement in 1852.
Franklin Steele also had a clever plan to obtain land on the west side of the falls. He suggested to his associated Colonel
John H. Stevens that he should bargain with the War Department to obtain some land. Stevens agreed to operate a
ferry service across the Mississippi in exchange for a claim of just above the government mills. The government approved this bargain, and Stevens built his house in the winter of 1849–1850. The house was the first permanent dwelling on the west bank in the area that became Minneapolis.
A few years later, the amount of land controlled by the fort was reduced with an order from
U.S. President Millard Fillmore, and rapid settlement followed. The village of Minneapolis soon sprung up on the southwest bank of the river.
City pioneers
St. Anthony
Home of Ard and Harriet Godfrey
After Franklin Steele obtained proper title to his land, he turned his energies to building a sawmill at St. Anthony Falls. He obtained financing and built a dam on the east channel of the river between
Hennepin Island and
Nicollet Island, along with a sawmill equipped with two up-and-down saws. His partner Daniel Stanchfield, a lumberman who had moved to Minnesota, dispatched crews up the Mississippi River to begin cutting lumber. The sawmill began cutting lumber in September of 1848. In October 1848, Steele enlisted
Ard Godfrey to supervise the mill at a salary of $1500 per year.
Steele platted a townsite in 1849 and gave it the name "St. Anthony". The town quickly grew with workers. In addition to the first sawmill and several others that followed, a
grist mill was built in 1851. By 1855, the town had approximately 3000 people, and it was incorporated as a city.
Godfrey's house, built in 1848, was purchased by the Hennepin County Territorial Pioneers' Association and moved to Chute Square.
The house was surveyed in 1934 by the
Historic American Buildings Survey.
[6]
Minneapolis
Home of John Stevens
On the west side of the river,
John H. Stevens platted a townsite in 1854. He laid out
Washington Avenue parallel to the river, with other streets running parallel to and perpendicular to Washington. He later questioned his decision, thinking he should have run the streets directly east-west and north-south, but it ended up aligning nicely with the plat of St. Anthony. The wide, straight streets, with Washington and
Hennepin Avenue being 100 feet wide and the others being 80 feet wide, contrasted with
Saint Paul's streets that were 60 feet wide.
[7]
Early on the community tried several names, rejecting Albion, All Saints, Lowell, Brooklyn, Addiseville and Winona. The twenty four small
lakes that are now within the city limits led
Charles Hoag, Minneapolis's first
schoolmaster, to suggest ''Minnehapolis'', derived from Minnehaha and ''mni'', the
Dakota word for
water,
[8] and ''polis'', the
Greek word for city.
[ A History of Minneapolis Minneapolis Public Library ]
The Minnesota Territorial Legislature recognized Saint Anthony as a town in 1855 and Minneapolis in 1856. Boundaries were changed and Minneapolis was incorporated as a city in 1867. Minneapolis and Saint Anthony joined in 1872.
Transportation
The first bridge over the Mississippi River at Hennepin Avenue, circa 1865.
The
Hennepin Avenue Bridge, a
suspension bridge that was the first bridge built over the full width of the Mississippi River, was built in 1854 and dedicated on
January 23,
1855. The bridge had a span of 620 feet, a roadway of 17 feet, and was built at a cost of $36,000. The toll was five cents for pedestrians and twenty-five cents for horsedrawn wagons.
[9]
The early settlers of Minnesota were anxiously seeking railroad transportation, but insufficient capital was available after the
Panic of 1857. Rails were finally built in Minnesota in 1862, when the
St. Paul and Pacific Railroad built its first ten miles of track from the Phalen Creek area in St. Paul to a stop just short of St. Anthony Falls. The railroad continued building track from Minneapolis to
Elk River in 1864 and to
St. Cloud in 1866, and from Minneapolis west to
Howard Lake in 1867 and
Willmar in 1869. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Central, an early predecessor of the
Milwaukee Road, built a line from Minneapolis to Fort Snelling in 1865. The railroad gradually extended to
Faribault,
Owatonna, and
Austin. It crossed the Iowa border and met up with the McGregor & Western line. This connection gave Minneapolis rail service to
Milwaukee via
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, with through service beginning on
October 14,
1867.
[10]
A
streetcar system in the Minneapolis area took shape in 1875, when the Minneapolis Street Railway company began service with horse-drawn cars. Under the leadership of
Thomas Lowry, the company merged with the St. Paul Railway Company and took the name
Twin City Rapid Transit. By 1889, when electrification began, the system had grown to .
Business and industry
Most of the early industrial development in Minneapolis was tied to
St. Anthony Falls and the power it provided. Between 1848 and 1887, Minneapolis led the nation in sawmilling. In 1856, the mills produced 12 million
board feet (28,000 m³) of lumber. That total had risen to about 91,000,000 board feet (215,000 m³) in 1869, and 960,000,000 board feet (2,270,000 m³) in 1899. During the peak of this activity, at least 13 sawmills were operating on the falls. The sawmills also supported related industries such as mills that planed and smoothed the lumber; factories that built sashes, doors, and windows; and manufacturers of shingles and wooden buckets.
The flour milling industry, dating back to the Fort Snelling government mill, later eclipsed the lumber industry in the value of its finished product. Flour production stood at 30,000
barrels in 1860, rising to 256,100 barrels in 1869.
Cadwallader C. Washburn's imposing mill, built in 1866, was six stories high and promoted as the largest mill west of
Buffalo, New York. Other prominent industries at the falls included foundries, machine shops, and textile mills.
During this time, St. Anthony, on the east side, was separate from Minneapolis, on the west side. As a result of inferior management of the water power, St. Anthony found its manufacturing district declining. Some people and organizations started to talk about merging the two cities. A citizens' committee recommended merging the two cities in 1866, but a vote on this issue was rejected in 1867. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867. The two cities found themselves competing with St. Paul, which had a larger population, the head of navigation of the Mississippi River, and more access to railroads.
Threatened collapse of St. Anthony Falls
The Pillsbury "A" Mill and neighboring Phoenix Mill in the early 1900s
The two cities were later pushed toward merger by a disaster that nearly wiped out the falls. The geological formation of the area consisted of a hard, thin layer of
limestone overlaying a soft
sandstone formation. As the sandstone eroded away, large blocks of limestone would fall off. The expansion of milling and industry at the falls accelerated the process of erosion.
If the fragile limestone cap ever eroded away completely, the falls would turn into a rapids that would no longer provide water power. This process came to a head on
October 4,
1869, when a tunnel under Hennepin Island and Nicollet Island collapsed and filled with water. With the limestone cap breached, the tunnel quickly created a torrent of water that blasted Hennepin Island and threatened to destroy the falls. The falls were shored up quickly, and over the next several years, the falls were repaired by building a wooden apron, sealing the tunnel, and building low dams above the falls to avoid exposing the limestone to the weather. This work was assisted by the federal government, and was eventually completed in 1884. The federal government spent $615,000 on this effort, while the two cities spent $334,500.
Possibly as a result of the bonding needed to rehabilitate the falls, the cities of St. Anthony and Minneapolis merged on
April 9,
1872.
Development of flour milling
The Pillsbury "A" Mill on the east bank of the Mississippi.
The Washburn "A" Mill, nearly destroyed in a 1991 fire, is now open as the Mill City Museum.
The ''St. Anthony Express'' newspaper predicted in 1855 that, "The time is not distant when Minnesota, with the superiority of her soil and seasons for wheat culture, and her unparalleled water power for manufacturing flour, will export largely of this article. ... our mills will turn out wheat, superior in quality and appearance to any now manufactured in the West."
By 1876, eighteen flour mills had been built on the west side of the river below the falls. The first mills used traditional technology of
millstones that would pulverize the grain and grind as much flour as possible in one pass.
This system worked best for winter
wheat, which was sown in the fall and resumed its growth in the spring. However, the harsh winter conditions of the
upper Midwest did not lend themselves to the production of winter wheat, since the deep frosts and lack of snow cover killed the crop. Spring wheat, which could be sown in the spring and reaped in the summer, was a more dependable crop. However, conventional milling techniques did not produce a desirable product, since the harder husks of spring wheat kernels fractured between the grindstones. The
gluten and
starch in the flour could not be mixed completely, either, and the flour would turn
rancid. Minneapolis milling companies solved this problem by inventing the
middlings purifier, which made it possible to separate the husks from the flour earlier in the milling process. They also developed a gradual-reduction process, where grain was pulverized between a series of rollers made of porcelain, iron, or steel. This process resulted in "patent" flour, which commanded almost double the price of "bakers" or "clear" flour, which it replaced.
[11] The Washburn mill attempted to monopolize these techniques, but Pillsbury and other companies lured employees away from Washburn and were able to duplicate the process.
[12]
Although the flour industry grew steadily, one major event caused a disturbance in the production of flour. On
May 2,
1878, the
Washburn "A" Mill exploded when grain dust ignited. The explosion killed eighteen workers and destroyed one-third of the capacity of the
milling district, as well as other nearby businesses and residences. By the end of the year, though, seventeen mills were back in operation, including the rebuilt Washburn "A" Mill and others that had been completely rebuilt. The millers also took the opportunity to rebuild with new technology such as dust collection systems. The largest mill on the east side of the river was the
Pillsbury "A" Mill, built in 1880–1881 and designed by local architect
LeRoy S. Buffington. The
Pillsbury Company wanted a building that was beautiful as well as functional. The seven-story building had stone walls six feet thick at the base tapering to eighteen inches at the top. With improvements and additions over the years, it became the world's largest flour mill.
The Pillsbury "A" Mill is now a
National Historic Landmark, along with the Washburn "A" Mill.
In 1891,
Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company was formed, consolidating many of the smaller mills into one corporate entity. Between 1880 and 1930, Minneapolis led the nation in flour production, earning it the nickname "Mill City".
Minneapolis surpassed
Budapest as the world's leading flour miller in 1884, and production stood at about 7 million barrels annually in 1890. In 1900, Minneapolis mills were grinding 14.1 percent of the nation's grain, and in 1915–16, flour production hit its peak at 20,443,000 barrels annually.
Hydroelectric power
The Hennepin Island Hydroelectric Plant on the east bank of the Mississippi, with the Pillsbury "A" Mill in the background.
In 1882, the first
hydroelectric power plant in the United States was built at the falls on Upton Island. The
Brush Electric Company, headed by
Charles F. Brush, supplied the equipment, which included five generators. The electricity was transmitted via four circuits to shops on
Washington Avenue. The power plant turned on the lights on
September 5,
1882, just ahead of the
Vulcan Street Plant in
Appleton, Wisconsin, which started generating electricity on
September 30. The company competed with the Minneapolis Gas Light Company, which later became Minnegasco and is now part of
CenterPoint Energy.
In 1895,
William de la Barre began building a dam at Meeker Island, 2200 feet downriver from the falls. His objective was to build a hydroelectric plant that would sell energy to
Twin City Rapid Transit, which was then using steam power to generate electricity. The dam was completed on
March 20,
1897. Later, in 1906, he began construction of the
Hennepin Island Hydroelectric Plant. The plant was leased to Minneapolis General Electric, which sublet the plant to Twin City Rapid Transit. Minneapolis General Electric later became Northern States Power Company, which is now known as
Xcel Energy.
Railroads
The development of sawmills and flour mills at the falls spurred demand for railroad service to Minneapolis. In 1868, Minneapolis was only served by a spur from St. Paul, from the
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, and by the fledgling St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Minneapolis millers found that railroads based in
Milwaukee and
Chicago were favoring their cities by diverting wheat from Minneapolis mills. In response, the owners of several Minneapolis mills chartered the
Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway, which would connect the
Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad through Minneapolis to the Iowa border. Meanwhile,
Jay Cooke took control of the
St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1871 with the goal of aggregating it into the
Northern Pacific Railway. Bad economic conditions caused the
Panic of 1873, and the Northern Pacific had to relinquish control of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad and the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad.
The Stone Arch Bridge
eventually reorganized the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad as the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad, which later became the
Great Northern Railway. The Manitoba line had two lines leading to the
Red River Valley, giving it access to wheat-growing regions, and it served several mills in Minneapolis.
The Manitoba's small passenger station at Minneapolis had become inadequate, so Hill decided to build a new depot that he expected to share with other railroads. Since the Manitoba's mainline ran on the east side of the Mississippi, a new bridge across the river was needed to reach the station. The result was the
Stone Arch Bridge, completed in 1883. The Minneapolis Union Depot was opened for passenger service on
April 25,
1885.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Road expanded their presence in Minneapolis with a "Short Line" connection from St. Paul to Minneapolis in 1880 and through the acquisition of the Hastings and Dakota Railroad, which had a line going west from Minneapolis to
Montevideo,
Ortonville, and into
Aberdeen, South Dakota. They also built a large railyard and shops on
Hiawatha Avenue just north of
Lake Street, and
a large depot on Washington Avenue.
The
Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railway got its start in 1883, with a goal of serving Atlantic ports via
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and bypassing Chicago altogether.
Other businesses
The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1881 as a market to trade grain. It helped farmers by ensuring that they got the best prices possible for their
wheat,
oats, and
corn, since the usual supply and demand curves were skewed by similar harvest times across the region. In 1883, they introduced its first
futures contract for hard red spring wheat. In 1947, the organization was renamed the
Minneapolis Grain Exchange, since the term "
chamber of commerce" had become synonymous with organizations that lobbied for business and social issues.
[13]
The flour milling industry also spurred the growth of banking in the Minneapolis area. Mills required capital for investments in their plants and machinery and for their ongoing operations. By the early 20th century, Minneapolis was known as "the financial center of the Northwest".
Cultural institutions
Education
The
University of Minnesota was founded in 1851, seven years before Minnesota became a state, as a preparatory school. The school was forced to close during the
American Civil War because of financial difficulties, but with support from
John S. Pillsbury, it reopened in 1867.
William Watts Folwell became the first president of the University in 1869. The university granted its first two
Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1873, and awarded its first
Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1888.
[14] From its beginnings in the St. Anthony area, the university eventually grew into a large campus on the east bank of the Mississippi, along with its campus in St. Paul and the addition of a West Bank campus in the 1960s.
DeLaSalle High School was founded by Archbishop
John Ireland in 1900 as a
Catholic secondary school. Its early mission was as a commercial school, but in 1920, parents were asking for a college preparatory school. The school has been in operation for over 100 years in several buildings on
Nicollet Island.
[15]
Parks
Bandshell at Lake Harriet, 2006
The first park in Minneapolis was land donated to the city in 1857, but it took about 25 years for the community to take a major interest in its parks. The Minneapolis Board of Trade and other civic leaders pressed the Minnesota Legislature for assistance. On
February 27,
1883, the Legislature authorized the city to form a park district and to levy taxes. The initial vision was to create a number of boulevards, based on the design concepts of
Frederick Law Olmsted, that would connect parks. Civic leaders also hoped to stimulate economic development and increase land values. Landscape architect
Horace Cleveland was hired to create a system of parks named the "Grand Rounds".
[16]
Lake Harriet was donated to the city by
William S. King in 1885 and the first bandshell on the lake was built in 1888. The current bandshell, built in 1985, is the fifth one in its location.
[17]
Minnehaha Falls was purchased as a park in 1889. The park was named after a character in
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem,
The Song of Hiawatha.
[18]
In 1906,
Theodore Wirth came to Minneapolis as the parks superintendent. During his tenure, the park system increased from 1810 acres (7.3 km²) in 57 properties to 5421 acres (21.9 km²) in 144 properties. The park system, organized around the Minneapolis chain of lakes (including
Cedar Lake,
Lake of the Isles,
Lake Calhoun,
Lake Harriet,
Lake Hiawatha, and
Lake Nokomis) became a model for park planners around the world. He also encouraged active recreation in the parks, as opposed to just setting aside parks for passive admiration.
[19]
Arts
The
Minneapolis Institute of Arts was established in 1883 by twenty-five citizens who were committed to bringing the fine arts into the Minneapolis community. The present building, a
neoclassical structure, was designed by the firm of
McKim, Mead and White and opened in 1915. It later received additions in 1974 by
Kenzo Tange and in 2006 by
Michael Graves.
[20]
The
Minnesota Orchestra dates back to 1903 when it was founded as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. It was renamed the
Minnesota Orchestra in 1968 and moved into its own building,
Orchestra Hall, in downtown Minneapolis in 1974.
[21]
The
Walker Art Center was established in 1927 as the first public art gallery in the Upper Midwest. In the 1940s, the museum shifted its focus toward modern art, after a gift from Mrs. Gilbert Walker made it possible to acquire works by
Pablo Picasso,
Henry Moore,
Alberto Giacometti, and others. The museum continued its focus on modern art with traveling shows in the 1960s.
[22]
Churches
Our Lady of Lourdes
was founded in 1854. It is the oldest church in Minneapolis in continuous use. The church was originally built by the
First Universalist Society, and later became a
Catholic church in 1877 when a Catholic French Canadian congregation acquired it.
[23]
Basilica of Saint Mary
The
Basilica of Saint Mary was constructed between 1907 and 1915. Archbishop John Ireland supervised the planning of the church, originally named the Pro-Cathedral of Minneapolis, along with the
Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul. He chose architect Emmanuel Masqueray, who was trained at the
École des Beaux-Arts in
Paris. The first Mass was held on
May 31,
1914. Church leaders desired to build the finest altar in America, handcrafted of the finest marble they could afford. It was elevated to the rank of
basilica and became the first basilica in the United States in 1926. The building is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places as one of the area's finest examples of
Beaux-Arts architecture.
[24]
A changing city
Evolution of flour milling and food production
In the first few decades of the 20th century, Minneapolis began to lose its dominant position in the flour milling industry, after reaching its peak in 1915–1916. The rise of steam power, and later electric power, eroded the advantage that St. Anthony Falls provided in water power. The farmers of the southern plains developed harder wheat varieties that were better suited for bread flour, and the
Kansas City area gained prominence in milling. Also, due to changes in rail shipping rates, millers in
Buffalo, New York were able to ship their flour more competitively.
In response, companies such as the Washburn-Crosby Company and Pillsbury began marketing their brands specifically to consumers. Washburn-Crosby branded their flour "Gold Medal", in recognition of a prize won in 1880, and advertised with the slogan "Eventually -- Why Not Now?" Pillsbury countered with their slogan, "Because Pillsbury's Best", incorporating their brand name "Pillsbury's Best". Washburn-Crosby invented the character
Betty Crocker to answer product questions. They also purchased a radio station in 1924 and renamed it
WCCO, standing for "'W'ashburn 'C'rosby 'Co'mpany". Washburn-Crosby merged with several other regional milling companies in 1928 and renamed themselves
General Mills. Both General Mills and Pillsbury sought to diversify beyond flour milling by sponsoring baking contests and publishing recipes. They also began developing semi-prepared foods, such as
Bisquick and prepared foods, such as
Wheaties.
After 1930, the flour mills gradually began to shut down. The buildings were either vacated or demolished, the railroad trestle that served the mills was demolished, and the former mill canal and mill ruins were filled in with gravel. The last two mills left at the falls were the Washburn "A" Mill and the Pillsbury "A" Mill. In 1965, General Mills shut down the Washburn "A" Mill, along with several other of their oldest mills.
Politics and social change
Hubert Humphrey got his start in Minnesota politics in the early 1940s. He was an organizer of the Minnesota
Democratic Party at the time, and he realized that the party's best chance of success would come if the
Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party merged with the Democratic party. Other party leaders had been discussing the merger, but Humphrey's idea was to keep the Farmer-Labor name in the name of the merged party, in order to gain the strength of thousands of loyal voters. Thus, the party got the name
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Humphrey first ran for
mayor of Minneapolis in 1943, losing by only six thousand votes. He campaigned again in the 1945 election, with the support of the city's labor leaders, and found support with the city's African-American community by promising to implement a city
civil rights commission. He also appealed to the city's middle class by giving talks on civic virtue at area churches. He was elected in 1945 by the largest margin to date. When elected, he immediately proposed a city ordinance that would make racial discrimination by employers subject to a fine. The ordinance, adopted after a year of opposition, created the nation's first Fair Employment Practices Ordinance. The commission leveled few fines, but the larger banks and department stores saw the value in civil rights and began to hire more African-Americans. He also recognized that city police officers operating under racial and ethnic prejudice were causing urban unrest, so he instructed the city's police chief to have officers in minority neighborhoods keep in contact with clergy, teachers, business owners, and other neighborhood leaders. This helped to redefine the issue of prejudice and got its attention as a problem that could be solved, not just a fact of life that had to be taken for granted.
[2]
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."
[26] 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.
[27] 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.
[28]
In Minneapolis in 1968,
Dennis Banks and
Clyde Bellecourt were among those who founded the
American Indian Movement to advance civil rights for Native Americans.
[29]
Upper Mississippi navigation
After the boom years of the flour milling era had subsided, civic leaders considered the idea of making the Mississippi River navigable above Saint Anthony Falls. Between 1950 and 1963, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers built two sets of
locks at the lower dam and at the falls. They also covered the falls with a permanent concrete apron. The project also resulted in the modification of the
Stone Arch Bridge by replacing two of the arches with a steel
truss. The rest of Spirit Island was also obliterated in the process.
Reshaping downtown
Minneapolis City Hall
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 100 feet, later raised to 125 feet. The construction of the
First National - Soo Line Building in 1915, with a height of 252 feet, 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.
[7]
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.
[31] Foshay's $20,000 check to Sousa bounced, and Sousa forbade anyone else to play the march until the debt was repaid.
[32]
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.
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.
[33]
The streetcar system built by
Twin City Rapid Transit had 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.
[34] A photo taken in 1954 shows James Towley handing Fred Ossanna a check while one of the streetcars burned in the background.
[35] 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.
Modern Minneapolis
Shaping the skyline
The IDS Center with the Wells Fargo Center reflected in its windows.
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.
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, 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.
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. 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
★ -moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;
★ /">
1. Minnesota: A History, , William E., Lass, W.W. Norton & Company, 1998, ISBN 0-393-04628-1
2. A Popular History of Minnesota, , Norman K., Risjord, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005, ISBN 0-87351-532-3
3. A Brief History of Camp Coldwater: Birthplace of Minnesota
4. Historic Fort Snelling
5. The Falls of St. Anthony: The Waterfall That Built Minneapolis, , Lucile M., Kane, Minnesota Historical Society, ,
6. Historic American Buildings Survey: Ard Godfrey House, Ortman Street, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN
7. Lost Twin Cities, , Larry, Millett, Minnesota Historical Society, ,
8. Dakota Dictionary Online
9. Mill City: A Visual History of the Minneapolis Mill District, , Shannon M., Pennefeather, Minnesota Historical Society, ,
10. Minneapolis and the Age of Railways, , Don L., Hofsommer, University of Minnesota Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8166-4501-9
11. New Process Milling of 1850-70
12. {{cite journal|authorlink=David B. Danbom| author = Danbom, David B.| year = 2003| month = Spring| title = Flour Power: The Significance of Flour Milling at the Falls| journal = Minnesota History| volume = 58| issue = 5| pages = 271-285|id=
13. MGEX - History
14. History and Mission: University of Minnesota
15. DeLaSalle High School History
16. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board - A Brief History
17. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board - Park Detail: Lake Harriet
18. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board - Park Detail: Minnehaha Park
19. Theodore Wirth: Cornelius Amory Pugsley Silver Medal Award, 1930
20. About the Museum
21. About the MOA
22. Walker Art Center - History
23. Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church: History
24. Basilica of Saint Mary - History of the Basilica
25. A Popular History of Minnesota, , Norman K., Risjord, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005, ISBN 0-87351-532-3
26. Hubert Humphrey Quotations
27. Harry Davis on ''Almanac'' (RealVideo) Twin Cities Public Television and Harry Davis -- a life of accomplishment Benson, Lorna
28. The political legacy of Sharon Sayles Belton Olson, Dan
29. American Indian Movement
30. Lost Twin Cities, , Larry, Millett, Minnesota Historical Society, ,
31. National Register of Historic Places - Foshay Tower
32. Foshay Tower, Minneapolis
33. A History of Minneapolis: Intercity Transit and Highways (Part II)
34. Minnesota Streetcar Museum: Como-Harriet Streetcar Line History
35. A History of Minneapolis: Intercity Transit and Highways
36. A History of Minneapolis: Central Business District (Part II) Minneapolis Public Library
References
★
A History of Minneapolis Minneapolis Public Library
External links
★
Real Archaeology Digging In At Mill Ruins Park Class from Jenny Lind School and archaeologists
★ Anfinson, Scott F. (1989). Archaeology of the Central Minneapolis Riverfront,
Part 1 and
Part 2. Retrieved on
April 14 2007.
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