Images courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society
Timeline images in a grid
This spring, as the ground thaws and basements flood, millennial prospectors will continue to drive up the Twin Cities housing market. The real estate game has never been for the faint of heart. The shrewdest operators realize that while a piece of land may say No Trespassing, anything could be available to the highest bidder. Let’s remove our shoes and go for a walk-through, shall we?
1805
Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Pike, a U.S. Army lieutenant, leads an exploration party to discover the source of the Mississippi. He fails, but then makes a shady real estate deal with two Mdewakanton Dakota chiefs. Pike walks away with 155,520 acres at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers
1819
Whisky bottle
The Dakota finally get paid for their real estate deal: $200 worth of trinkets, 60 gallons of whiskey, and $2K cash from Congress. Construction of Fort St. Anthony—later renamed Fort Snelling—begins.
1848
oldest surviving frame house
Ard Godfrey, a millwright from Maine, builds a Greek Revival–style house on Main St. and 2nd Ave., in St. Anthony. Years later it’s formally recognized as the oldest surviving frame house in Mpls. and informally as “that weird yellow house with the picnic tables, across from Lunds.”
1858
In the new state of Minnesota, Hennepin County commissioners recognize the towns of Minneapolis, Bloomington, Eden Prairie, and Richland. Electors in Richland meet and change its name to the less braggy “Richfield.”
1872
Alexander Ramsey house
Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota’s first governor and an early mayor of St. Paul, completes his massive brick mansion in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, Irvine Park. The house becomes one of the first to feature running water, gas lighting, and radiator heat.
1889
St. Paul architect Cass Gilbert refuses to move back in with his mother (a couple of blocks from what’s now the St. Paul Curling Club). Instead, he builds himself a modest Shingle-style house, for $6,500, in the more fashionable Summit Hill neighborhood.
1913
Purcell and Elmslie house
The firm of Purcell and Elmslie designs a home for architect William Purcell and his family off Lake of the Isles. The $14,000 house (pricey!), with its flat roof and 80 art glass windows, helps boost the firm’s Prairie School street cred.
1920
Morningside, a subdivision originally carved out of the Jonathan Taylor Grimes orchard, begins to build bungalows near the end of the Como–Harriet streetcar line. Morningsiders vote to secede from their bumpkinish neighbors in Edina. Viva Morningside!
1934
Frank Lloyd Wright house
Nancy Willey, the wife of an administrator at the U of M, asks Frank Lloyd Wright to build the first FLW house in Minnesota. Her budget: $8,000. He accepts. The new home, which he names “Gardenwall,” becomes a model for middle-class, open-floorplan living.
1939
Architect Harry Firminger creates the apotheosis of Art Moderne with the Engelson House in Highland Park. The clients, owners of a women’s boutique, get Moderne touches like a curved brick window and rounded corners.
1944
Richfield house
The G.I. Bill of Rights extends low-income mortgages to soldiers returning from World War II. Tract housing rises in Richfield, Minnesota’s self-described “oldest suburb” (it was founded as a farming community in 1858). Just $8,000 will get you an 816-square-foot unit; $10,500 includes an attached garage. The burg’s population triples in 10 years.
1953
The state legislature bans new housing covenants: codes (dating back to 1910) that explicitly discriminate against buyers or renters who are black, Jewish, and Asian. Discriminatory lending by banks (redlining) has reigned since the 1930s. The damage to housing equality has been done.
1956
Rondo street sign
After a series of protests, police forcibly remove Rev. George Davis from his home in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. Construction begins on I-94 as the state razes 700-plus homes in the historically black neighborhood.
1966
After state prompting, Morningside votes to rejoin Edina and eat cake.
1994
Bearpath, Minn.’s first gated community, sells its first 4,000-square-foot twin home, to Charlene and Ralph McMillan. The development includes a guardhouse, a Jack Nicklaus–designed golf course, and plans for 295 homes, with prices averaging $750,000.
2005
North loop skyline
The downtown population in and around Mpls.’s Warehouse District grows 250 percent between the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, as developers embrace condo conversions. The neighborhood association pays a marketing firm to brand the area as “The North Loop,” after the discontinued streetcar line.
2008
The housing crisis of the Great Recession peaks in Minnesota with 26,000 foreclosures, a jump from just 6,000 three years earlier.
2019
The Minneapolis City Council wins national acclaim for passing the 2040 plan: a set of rezoning guidelines intended to break up the hegemony of the single-family home and increase affordability. Density is our destiny!
