Published December 9, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard Names matter. They serve as cultural signposts that articulate the social geography of a community. They declare who is remembered and who is revered. And this is why the body of water now known as Lake Calhoun needs a new name. Or in this case, an old name […]
Published June 4, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard One reader asked me yesterday whether the Gateway Turtle fountain had been destroyed. The fountain–which sat at the center of the park’s Beaux Arts Pavilion–features prominently in images of the district. Once it became a gathering spot for Skid Row denizens in the 1930s, the city drained the […]
Published June 3, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard The Minneapolis Gateway District drew the eyes of the nation during the Great Depression. It started with the 1934 Truckers’ Strike, which pitted the Teamsters’ Union against a seemingly invincible employers’ association. Led by Trotskyites, who employed all kinds of novel organizing tactics, the truckers triumphed. But their […]
Published June 1, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard On Saturday morning, Historyapolis will again team up with James Eli Shiffer to lead a Preserve Minneapolis tour of the lost Gateway district of Minneapolis. This will be our third year doing the tour, which poses some challenges since we have to re-create a world that no longer […]
Published May 14, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard In honor of bicycle week, Historyapolis is going to pay homage to those who laid the foundation for our thriving cycling culture in Minneapolis. In the 1890s, the United States was seized by what historians have called a “bicycle craze.” Minneapolitans were not immune to the seduction of […]
Published May 11, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard It’s map Monday. Today we’re revisiting one of my favorite sources for Minneapolis history. Sometime in the 1950s, this “memory map” was created by Clarence Miller to document an area of the near north side that had been recently flattened by urban renewal. The original map–which hangs on […]
Published May 1, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard Over the last century, May Day has inspired parades that celebrate both political radicalism and community solidarity in Minneapolis. This 1937 photo shows labor movement activists marching through what was known as the Loop or the Gateway District. The photo was snapped at what was perhaps the apex […]
Published April 30, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when Minneapolis was in its infancy and housing was almost impossible to find in the growing city, new Americans created a squatters’ village on the banks of the Mississippi River. Home to 1,000 people, this enclave was tucked beneath the […]
Published March 31, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard Today is international Trans Day of Visibility. Please honor our friends, family and community members by helping to make LGBTQ history more visible. Follow your own muse. Or join one of the initiatives organized by the National Park Service. The NPS is calling on all Americans to assist […]
Published March 30, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard The Star Tribune newsroom left 425 Portland Avenue on the end of the day last Friday. This film captured the scene–more than sixty years ago–when this soon-to-be-demolished building was first unveiled to a curious public. The mood was festive as thousands of Minnesotans stood in line for […]