#Minneapolis History

[hclib]

HCLIB Tumblr Waves Goodbye

After almost 13 years of blogging about Minneapolis and Hennepin County history on Tumblr, Special Collections staff are calling it quits. We've shared some pretty great stories, images, and discoveries through the years in nearly 2,000 posts!

Take a look back at our 10 most liked and reblogged original posts since 2011, which illustrate the wide variety of materials and subjects in our collections.

Audubon's Passenger Pigeons

Sean Daley’s (Slug of Atmosphere) senior portrait

Vice Raid at the Camel's Club

Ukrainian Easter Eggs

First Mailwoman in Minneapolis

John Glanton Photograph Identification Project

Workers of the World Unite

Eloise Butler and Women in Botany

The Traveler's Green Book

House Plans Now Online

Subscribe to our email newsletter, published every other month, to stay on top of what's new and noteworthy in Special Collections.

While we won't be posting new content to the hclib Tumblr, you can continue to browse and search posts in the Tumblr archive. And more permanently in our web archive.

And as always, you can visit us in person at Minneapolis Central Library or contact us via email or phone for assistance with all your Minneapolis and Hennepin County history needs.

Bye bye!

Photo of a group of kids waving to the milkman, from the Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection in the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections.

[metrotransitposter]

there used to be street cars everywhere. having more lightrail lines in the twin cities is spatially possible, you fuckers are just cowards

[1900scartoons]

The Lake Of the Isles Inhabitants Rejoice

March 2, 1908

A happy family of Pickerels (a type of pike fish) dressed up for the Band Concert at the Harriet Bandstand. A sign behind them reads "To the new Lake of Isles - Calhoun Canal. Harriet Concerts." The father pickerel says "I wish he would play 'Down Went McGinty'"

The caption reads "Pa Pickerel (when the canal is in) - 'Great advantages, my dear, to run down, every evening, to the Harriet concerts.' Ma Pickerel - 'Yes, aren't the park board the dears!'"

A canal had been proposed between the two Minneapolis lakes, it would be completed in 1911.

From Hennepin County Library

Original available at: https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/Bart/id/5646/rec/1883

[lionofchaeronea]

Mori (Forest), Katayama Bokuyo, 1928

[yesterdaysprint]

Boston Globe, Massachusetts, May 21, 1940

[stuffaboutminneapolis]

Billboard for 7 Up at 7th & Hennepin, Minneapolis (1971) via @hclib

[writingatdusk]

For those curious, here’s the boys full interview from my local news channel’s YouTube:

[vintagecamping]

Preparing lunch at a canoe camp site on Birch Point on the south arm of Knife Lake.

Minnesota

1940

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Rembrandt (1606-1669) "Lucretia" (1644) Oil on canvas Dutch Golden Age Located in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

[todayinhiphophistory]

Today in Hip Hop History:

Atmosphere released their second studio album God Loves Ugly June 11, 2002

[hclib]

New Streamlined Church and a Street Renamed

In 1938, Minneapolis’s northside welcomed a new streamlined church, St. Austin’s Catholic Church, at the northeast corner of Washburn Ave. N and 38th Ave. N. Designed by Minneapolis architects Bard and Vanderbilt, but heavily influenced by the church’s pastor, Rev. James Troy, and his worldly travels (to Brno, Czechoslovakia in particular), the church was an unusually modern, white stucco building with steep arches and curved corners. It was unlike any other building in the city and unlike anything Bard and Vanderbilt would design again.

The Church of St. Austin was a newly-organized Catholic church, made up of about 1500 people who formerly attended St. Bridget’s, St. Ann’s, Ascension, St. Phillips, Holy Cross, St. Joseph’s, and Sacred Heart churches. The new church was named in honor of the late Archbishop Austin Dowling, who was the second archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul (succeeding John Ireland) from 1919 until his death in 1930.

It was the church that led to the renaming of 38th Ave. N to Dowling Ave. N, which was officially changed by the city council on November 12, 1937. (Note, Dowling Ave. was not named after the other famous Minnesota Dowling, Michael J. Dowling, the Minnesota politician, newspaper publisher, businessman, and spokesman for the physically handicapped, who as a boy lost three of his limbs to frostbite, and for whom Dowling Elementary School in South Minneapolis is named.)

Unfortunately, the streamlined St. Austin parish didn’t survive for long, cheaply built with stucco and wood trusses, rather than poured concrete, it wasn’t built to last. The church and parsonage were demolished in 1963, just 25 years after it was built, and five basic single-story homes were built in its place from 1964 to 1965 (pictured in Google streetview above).

St. Austin parish moved to a new brick building nearby, at the corner of Upton Ave. N and 41st Ave. N and eventually merged with St. Bridget parish. Their second building is now home to the New Oil Christian Center.

Photos, 1940 map, and building permit index card from the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections. See more photos of St. Austin Catholic Church.

[mingus-archives]

Major Revelations from Minneapolis Ghost FIles Live

The Professor has many names, but right now Shane prefers Concupiscence and calls him Connie/Conny for short

Shane was working on the hotdaga at the start of 2020/end of 2019 and was getting ready to transfer it over to Watcher when the pandemic happened and he's been busy busy busy ever since

Shane knows how the hotdaga ends

Shane wonders if Buzzfeed would fight him for hotdaga rights but he doesn't think they know it exists

Shane and Ryan were going to end Buzzfeed Unsolved earlier but the pandemic happened and they wanted the stability

Ryan got COVID-19 in Montana, which prevented the team from filming the most recent Montana Prison ghost files episodes in -30F degree weather

He ate an entire bag of cookies when he had COVID-19 and was trapped in his hotel room while the rest of the team went home to LA

@poorly-drawn-puppet-history @mike-soup thought you may be interested love your blogs <3

[tragediambulante]

Young Italian street musician, Thomas Couture, about 1877

[1900scartoons]

He Would Strike the Light For Her

February 18, 1908

Publicity Club lights up Illumination of Business District lamp for a lady, labelled Minneapolis.

The caption reads 'When It Comes To Lighting Up, Minne Need Not Stay In the Dark For Lack Of A Place To Strike Light.'

On February 16, the Minneapolis Tribune reported that the Publicity Club discussed ways to improve the business district, including adding more light to Nicollet Avenue.

From Hennepin County Library

Original available at: https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/Bart/id/5599/rec/1871

[lionofchaeronea]

Ghost, Shibata Gitō (1780-1819)

[20th-century-railroading]

Milwaukee Road service track, Minneapolis, MN

A Gary L Powell slide shows nothing but treasures laying over in Minneapolis.

8-31-1975