Verve Realty
An idyllic three-bedroom, one-bathroom home along the historic Milwaukee Avenue Historic District recently hit the Minneapolis real estate market for $419,900.
The home at 2017 Milwaukee Avenue—a turn-of-the-century home built in the late 19th century—stands among more than two dozen houses along a two-block stretch that remain standing thanks to the local community’s fight for “renewal, not removal” of its historic “common-man” homes.
The home is one of 46 uniform properties fashioned by real estate developer William Ragan beginning in 1883, which offered affordable housing for immigrants—many of whom were of Scandinavian descent and worked for the Milwaukee Road railroad (hence the name of the street). Ragan split the alley between 22nd and 23rd Avenues into 22 ½ Ave. (residents didn’t like the name so it was later changed), dividing the average 7,500-square-foot lots in half to affordable 2,200- to 3,000-square-foot lots.
Minnesota Historical Society
Milwaukee Road Depot
Each of the uniform Milwaukee Avenue homes feature Carpenter Gothic elements of the mid-1800s including a brick exterior, flat-arch window treatments, wooden porches, and gingerbread-style embellishments. These features were purportedly common in German immigrant residences along the upper Mississippi River valley.
Following World War II, the homes along Milwaukee Avenue fell into disrepair. With funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), city officials and the Minneapolis Housing and Redevelopment Authority (MHRA) announced plans in the 1960s to demolish about 70 percent of the homes along the 35-block area known as Seward West as part of the Seward West Urban Renewal Project.
Under the proposed project, all 46 homes along Milwaukee Avenue would have been razed to make room for a high-density apartment complex.
The proposal was highly contentious, and many community members argued it represented massive government overreach. One anti-urban renewal leaflet distributed during the Seward East hearing in 1962 called the project “a Socialist scheme to confiscate private property” and offered tips to “fight this Socialist scheme.” Others criticized how the project booted the low-income immigrant and Black community members from the Seward area, who wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of living in the newly developed properties.
The HUD created a project area committee, called the Seward West Project Area Committee, to represent public input on the proposed apartment complex. Many of the committee members were newcomers to the neighborhood, including college professors and artists. “All the guys had long hair, the women wore granny glasses, everyone ate natural food, and there was a Volkswagen in every backyard,” said Bob Roscoe, an architect who lived in the neighborhood and chaired the city’s historic preservation commission.
Minnesota Historical Society
Milwaukee Avenue Historic District
Unfortunately for HUD’s plans, the committee members were part of the counterculture class—many of whom were activists protesting the Vietnam War—who appreciated the Victorian-era architecture and the low prices of the neighborhood. While city officials argued the homes were irreparable, the lots too small, and the streets too narrow for conventional traffic, activists argued the houses could be saved. The narrow street was ideal for pedestrians, and the small houses were better for the environment. Preserving the homes, they argued, also preserved part of Minnesota’s social heritage.
“This plan is actually a people-removal project,” read a petition from activists to HUD. “We feel the Seward West neighborhood has a well-balanced cross-section of people, both racially and economically. The destruction of good family housing will unbalance the neighborhood. We feel that a structurally sound house should be allowed to stand.”
The Minnesota Historical Society nominated Milwaukee Avenue for the National Register of Historic Places, which received its designation 49 years ago in May. In 1975, the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission followed suit, designating Milwaukee Avenue a historic district. The federal designation effectively blocked the MHRA from using HUD funds to demolish the homes.
The MHRA, with no other choice, teamed up with the Seward West Project Area Committee members. They demolished nine homes that were beyond repair, replacing them with replicas. They also added a pedestrian walkway and green space to replace the narrow street, which resulted in the unique “green street” on Milwaukee Avenue today.
Minnesota Historical Society
Milwaukee Avenue Historic District
The original property at 2017 Milwaukee Avenue notably features reserved off-street parking, a new roof and gutters (added in 2015), and a partially finished basement, which creates opportunity for future homeowners, according to its listing by Nora Webb on Verve Realty.
While many historic neighborhoods in the Twin Cities, such as St. Paul’s Summit Avenue, highlight the social elite—including lumber barons, railroad tycoons, and real estate moguls—few historic districts highlight the lower-class, often immigrant laborers, who built the foundation of the Twin Cities with their bare hands.
“The narrow street with its small lookalike houses tucked closely together offers a visual lesson in economic and social history,” said Jerilee Richtman, who served on the Milwaukee Avenue Planning Team. “It serves as a contrast to those artifacts of the aristocracy which have been the normal fare of historic preservation. Its vision does not entertain the romantic notions of the ‘good old days.’ The simplicity of the late-19th-century streetscape and its individual elements speaks eloquently of the lifestyle of the common men and women who lived without servants, buggies, and grand balls and without those amenities that are taken for granted today.”
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