Not all 87 blocks in Minneapolis are blocks. Three are industrial areas. The official classification will not affect my determination to go through all 87 in alphabetical order, but it does provide some clues as to what will happen when I enter the Midtown Industrial Area. (The "Midtown" part of the name is more opaque, apparently indicating the area of the city of Neapolis near the midpoint of the Minneapolis-St. Paul duality.)
Not everything in the region is "industry" in the manufacturing sense. Storage is another important part, especially in the east. A gravel pit was closed in the 1960s, freeing up a large area for construction. There are even some dwellings, albeit only as an adaptive reuse of the former industrial structure.
The land use overview helps explain why the road network is like this, and why the southwest diagonal railway corridor. The limited road network in turn explains why my route covers more than half of the area, leaving only Stinson Boulevard and a few adjacent blocks next time. (I skipped New Brighton Avenue entirely because of its pedestrian hostile design, which is also Broadway Street east of Industrial Avenue. Some other streets are not very good, but they seem to be worth it.)
The map shows the main part of the route in blue, which is basically a circumnavigation of the area, with only some additional twists and turns, and the front and back spurs shown in red.
The route starts at Winter Street, which is the westernmost point of the southern border. Looking west from my starting point on Northeast Garfield Street, I shot Prospect Foundry not because of its gray quality, but because it started to remind people that the area does include heavy industry (pouring molten iron), not just Only storage and so on.
Continuing east on Northeast Winter Street, I passed the Noiseland Industries building, which I photographed many years ago, and mistakenly thought it was part of the Como community. The neighborhood borders are a bit complicated, including some streets and some railways. For this reason, my route required a detour into Como southeast of 15th Avenue and Hennepin Avenue west of the railway.
My most detail-oriented readers will notice that the previous paragraph starts with NE and ends with SE. Indeed, before I temporarily crossed the Mid-City/Como boundary, I temporarily crossed another equally strange boundary, the boundary between Address Zone 2 and Address Zone 3, or more generally, the boundary between NE and SE . Generally, this follows Hennepin Avenue, but somehow, the triangular area north of Hennepin bounded by 14th Avenue and the railway is also SE.
Take, for example, these two strangely shaped geographic intersections in the southwest of the railway. There is exactly one building located north of Winter (hence Mid-City instead of Como) and east of 14th Avenue (hence SE instead of NE). The first door I saw in that building seemed to have a very eye-catching exit sign: "EMERGE". Like many things in life, this becomes clearer with the increase of information. In this case, when I see the main symbol of "Second Chance Recycling, EMERGE's social enterprise", I now understand This is a workforce and community development non-profit organization. This special social enterprise recycles mattresses.
Driving east on Hennepin Avenue East, I crossed the Mid-City Industrial Area east of Stinson Boulevard NE. More specifically, the north side of Hennepin is an industrial zone. The first building I saw was indeed an industrial building, the brutalist headquarters of Embossing Plus, a printing finishing company. But I am also interested in seeing a building that used to be an industrial building and is now a residential building. In addition to the disappearance of the "Glidden Paint" logo, the key sign for people now living here is the addition of balconies.
The nostalgia for the red brick buildings of the 1920s may be easier than the slit window buildings of the late 1960s or early 1970s, but I firmly believe in appreciating the essence of each era and each building. In addition, sometimes the story of a building is more interesting than what people see on the surface. To be honest, my initial attraction to the Hennepin Plaza office building was the lamps that looked like marshmallows on a multi-forked grill. But looking at the history of this building, I found that it has an interesting story-it is indeed another red brick industrial building from the 1920s, much like the previous Glidden Paint building. Although my photos seem to show something.
Opposite the parking lot east of Hennepin Square, the next building is Nordøst Exchange, a "modern adaptive reuse of commercial and retail spaces".
The related history of Hennepin Square referred to this building as the "Minneapolis Coffin Company Building" and commented that it was "repaired and sold to the YMCA" after the renovation of Hennepin Square. The exchange’s own description of the story started with the YMCA and has been moving forward to the present. But I am interested in the deeper past. The original owner of this building, Perfection Manufacturing Company, was listed in the city list until 1950.
On October 31, 1917, "Farm Tools" (Volume XXXI, Issue 10) had an introduction on page 16, stating that "Perfection Manufacturing Company, Minneapolis, the manufacturer of Perfection milking machines, was building a new factory area in a new industrial area Located at the corner of East Hennepin and 22nd Avenue, this will provide them with more capacity than the existing factory. They expect to have a new dormitory around mid-November. In order to meet the demand for milking machines, the company They have been working day and night since the beginning of the year. Their business has been very successful and they have now increased their capital to 300,000 U.S. dollars."
Other journals in the same period are full of advertisements for milking machines and luminous editorials describing the miracle of change (provided by the company). No wonder they need "larger capacity" than the previous building (the former salon). The milking machine has been the backbone of the company for decades. However, the company did diversify, such as getting into breast pumps.
The next few buildings are newer tan brick concrete buildings. They were built by Martin Capp in 1959 and 1960. May his memory be a blessing. Current residents include Steven Cabinets, Dolan Printing, and Koehler & Dramm Wholesale Florists (and their related floral academy).
The rest of the buildings west of Industrial Avenue usually interest me more in their occupants than their buildings—for example, a processor of pre-cut fruits and vegetables, a coffee importer, a manufacturer of food trucks, etc., and A brewery and a bar. If I don’t have their opening too early, the last one will be particularly interesting. (Don't worry, another bar will be on the way later.)
This kind of focus on business — I notice now, a great focus on food and beverages — does not mean that there are no visual details of interest. For example, street numbers: stylishly crafted metal numbers on coffee roasters and more rustic stale wood on curtain company loading docks. The latter seems to be handmade by sawing 1×2 boards and nailing them in the form of block numbers. I personally find it very cute. Similarly, I found myself loving the green and white color scheme of Linde Welding Gas and Equipment Center, which is a continuation of the Praxair brand. Usually I don't like painted bricks, but it really works for me. I hope it will not lose its visual impact when switching to Linde's commercial appearance.
I continued through Industrial Avenue on Hennepin Avenue to complete the short-distance stimulation of the city line on 33rd Avenue. In fact, I can even turn a few hundred feet north on this avenue before switching to a private road. The most interesting sight here is a substation on the east side of the boulevard. It is located in Lauderdale-I even mentioned it in a post in Minneapolis and I felt guilty.
I rejected such extraterritorial temptation, returned to Industrial Avenue and walked north. The northwest corner of Hennepin Avenue and Industrial Boulevard is occupied by Northeast College Prep, a K-8 charter school. The school significantly illuminates a 1971 building, which itself is quite dark and bulky. My photo on the right appears to be an office wing; the windowless area on the left is a typical feature of the main structure. From 1979 to 1999, it was the headquarters of Joe Francis' franchise business The Barbers and its Cost Cutters brand. Prior to this, it held Frank Griswold's coffee company.
Another good example is the office wing on the industrial/warehouse building, just to the north, on the other side of Winter Street. The horizontal line of the American Financial Printing Company (AFPI) building includes wide windows and deep overhanging eaves, while the white surface defines the negative space around the building and the positive space enclosed therein. The overall effect is undoubtedly modernist, but it also echoes the Prairie School.
Although I passed AFPI and walked to Chuntian Street, I still turned around and followed my main route into Winter Street. The building to the west of AFPI houses Steel Sales, which has been selling steel since 1915, but not always here. As the façade implies, the facility was built in 1967, and a photo from the Hennepin County Library shows that it was occupied by Carpenter Technology in the 1970s.
On the south side of Winter Street, a large warehouse (82,000 square feet) is under construction, which itself is only a small part of a larger complex, extending around the corner on the west side of R Street NE, which may be 500,000 square feet Feet of total square feet. This is the target sorting center, where parcels from stores in the entire metropolitan area stop briefly on their way to home. This is the kind of facility I can't shoot—only aerial photos can capture its scale.
By the way, the name "R Street NE" is the last vestige of the naming system that was used where the president stopped. I will not go into all the details, but interested readers will find the 1885 map to be a good starting point. Strangely, this letter of the alphabet, which is longer than all other letters, only appears in a single block from winter to spring; north of there, it is renamed Goldward Street.
Continuing northward along Godward, I passed two other large facilities, Aramark Uniform Services and a UPS site, which is only slightly smaller than the Target site. A few years ago, I went there to pick up a package and thought it was huge, but now it seems to be only one of several large warehouses.
Across Broadway, the built landscape suddenly changed. Suddenly, I left the huge warehouse land and entered a middle-level office park. (I will return to the warehouse district soon, once I cross the area north of Broadway.) The Broadway East and Broadway West buildings of the 1980s straddle Godward, not twins, but identifiable siblings. The third and oldest (1979) building along the curve of Godward slightly extends my description of an "office park" because it is a hotel rather than an office building.
The east bend of Goldward Street brought me back to Industrial Avenue, where I could turn back south. But before I did that, I quickly accelerated north to reach I-35, the boundary of the industrial zone. The self-storage facility makes me feel a bit interesting visually, showing a strong sense of rhythm. Certainly more interesting than the holiday station store. But the photo I chose to include is a photo of the Minnesota Dental Association office. why? Because its architecture reminds me of suburban dentist offices in the early 21st century. Placing the association in a building that might be mistaken for the dental clinic they represent seems to be a deliberate wink.
After completing this route, I briefly stopped for lunch at Wendy's Restaurant, and then crossed Broadway back to the huge warehouse. In fact, on the industrial avenue between Broadway and Spring Street, a large part of the east side (opposite Aramark) is occupied by the largest warehouse I have seen, covering nearly 600,000 square feet. What needs such a large space? booze. It is quite sober to see this visual manifestation of our collective drinking. The facility mainly houses the JJ Taylor beer dealership, but it also has the main Minnesota office for South Glazer wines and spirits.
Earlier, when I was walking north along Industrial Avenue from winter to spring as a stimulus, I passed the Anderson Ladd hardwood floor, which is now part of the H2I Group. From the front, there is nothing visually striking. But now when I turn west on Northeast Spring Street, I noticed the colorful maple trees in their side yard. For a company specializing in the production of maple floors for sports halls, this is how appropriate.
When I walk in residential areas, church buildings are one of the most common non-residential buildings I see. As the older sects lost their followers, many of these buildings have been converted for other uses. Therefore, when walking in an industrial area, you will encounter the symmetry of a warehouse-style building that was converted into a non-denominational church in the 1970s.
When I crossed Hoover Street NE, the road I was on changed from Spring Street NE to Kennedy Street NE. If anyone knows the explanation for this name change, I would love to hear it. Maybe it has something to do with the development of the Northwest terminal area?
This is also where I noticed the transition to older, smaller buildings, such as the brick building in 1917, which is the northern part of the Sterling Supply complex. (Another glimpse of the name of the street in the past: The first place I found mention of this building was on L Street instead of Harding Street, which is not surprising considering that Warren Harding is not yet the president. Before he took office Within a week of the ceremony, the city council was asked to rename the street, but it still passed the 1927 catalog.)
Located south of Sterling Supply on Harding Street NE is another comparable and architecturally structured building, followed by a completely different building-a 30,000 square foot warehouse in 1950, with a smaller office added to the front, traceable Until 1967. I don't know what industrial occupant is, but the last one is a manufacturer of fire-extinguishing equipment. It has now been transformed into a post-industrial role as a high-level office space for Livio Health.
I returned east to Hoover Street via Traffic Street, one block north of Hennepin Avenue. One can still understand why the traffic street is a distinctive feature of the industrial area: a railway line runs along it, and a series of spurs bend to serve each warehouse or factory.
In the northwest corner of Traffic and Hoover Streets, Chowgirls Catering has an obvious presence. This company is well-known in the food industry and recently became the founding partner of Minnesota Central Kitchen.
Remember the EMERGE when I first started walking? Just north of Chowgirls, I met another company that is at least somewhat similar, AccessAbility, whose mission is to "provide self-sufficiency opportunities for people with barriers to employment and community inclusion."
Crossing Hoover Street from AccessAbility, another block is a winter street with many interruptions, branching east. On the north side of this three-way intersection, I noticed Excel Metal Finishing. For concrete block buildings, it has a certain visual interest, whether it is from the green and gray color scheme or from the pyramid-shaped protrusions of some upper blocks. But to be honest, this is not a neighborhood with visual elements that makes me feel happy. Rather, it is a repeated glimpse of the degree of specialization in manufacturing. My impression is like zooming in on the fractal structure of the coastline, and I keep discovering that there are finer niches in each bay. Maybe I grew up in a city dominated by a large integrated steel company that does everything from mining to shipbuilding-anything that contrasts with this model surprises me, and it distorts me throughout my life. . In this case, the niche is defined by the industry it serves (mainly defense and aerospace) and the special coating and finishing performed, such as chemical-resistant coating (CARC).
As mentioned earlier, Dong Street only extended one block here, and it was interrupted by the target sorting center. At that time, people have no choice but to turn the corner and enter Delano Street on the northbound, which is also an isolated neighborhood. (In the road map, these two blocks form a front and back branch.)
However, when I turned the corner, I stopped, regretting that I hadtily declared that it was not the visual element that interests me. Is the screening in that corner cute? The business inside, D&D Instruments, is a department-dashboard instrument cluster maintenance-I didn't know it existed until I met Sayo Electronics near McKinley. Now I am here and found the second example. One block.
Back on Hoover Street, I found another company that specializes in metal surface finishing, although its approach is very different from Excel. Twin City Plating is mainly an electroless nickel plating (ENP) company, but they also provide "anodic oxidation, hard coating anodic oxidation, electrolytic polishing, passivation and hard gold plating services". I had to ask a chemist friend of mine to help explain the company's logo. His analysis: With appropriate artistic freedom, it can represent the hypophosphite ion used in ENP.
When I reached Broadway, the main part of my route required turning west, but I first needed to walk through the Spurs of Hoover Broadway, and then walk east on Broadway. You will remember the last time I crossed Broadway, I suddenly found myself in a mid-rise office park featuring East Broadway and West Broadway buildings. Now on the west side of Hoover Street, I encountered the third element of the Altus Broadway campus, Broadway Ridge. The other two are more closely related, facing each other across the street, with similar dates (1985 and 1988) and similar styles. This one is separate, recently (2000), and it is even more compelling. I have described the other two as identifiable siblings, although not twins. This makes me wonder whether it might have been adopted into the family.
Turning east temporarily on Broadway, the space between Broadway Ridge and its two siblings is occupied by the Costco Commercial Center. Considering the pragmatic aesthetics of the building, I was pleasantly surprised by the landscape of the parking lot.
When driving west again, the intersection of Broadway and Harding Street was particularly interesting to me, partly because of accidental discovery and partly because of advance planning. In the southwest corner, I unexpectedly ran into the second warehouse church on foot, this time with dramatic clouds above my head. At the southeast corner, I finally arrived at the brewery bar I had been waiting for-the bar I planned to reach on foot. I have enjoyed several more mainstream beers from Falling Knife in restaurants-their Hidden Temple and Verbal Tip IPA and Freischütz pilsner-but by visiting the bar, I wanted to try something more special. The traditional goose (sour and slightly salty) they call Laced Up fits the requirements: this is a style I like very much, it is not easy to buy, and it is suitable for walking. It did not disappoint. In all.
I realize that the article on this hike is already very long, so I will make the next three photos self-explanatory, supplemented by their titles.
On Cleveland Street, I temporarily left Broadway, extended south to Kennedy Street, and then returned to Arthur Street. It turned out that this was a mistake in my route planning: only when I was crossing Summer Street in Cleveland did I discover that the block between Summer Street and Kennedy Streets was a private parking lot, not a public road. As a slight break in, I was able to see more biotech campuses. The history of the Crave Cafe & Deli building can be traced back to the renovation in 2001, and the history of its attached multi-tenant building can be traced back to the era of the original Northwest Terminal. The R&D Systems building is middle-aged (1960), but its design is obviously The original building is in harmony.
Almost any business or organization can be found through Internet search, but you must know what to search for. One of the joys of walking on all the streets of Minneapolis is that I met many entities that I never wanted to search for. Therefore, I not only learned about the Northern Freight Association in detail, but also about the Shippers Association more broadly. I am completely unaware of the existence of non-profit cooperative companies to unite the shipments of member companies.
After I-35 reached the western border of the industrial zone, I turned south on Johnson Street NE, passed Shaw/Stewart Lumber Company, and then returned east to my starting point on Winter Street NE.
The buildings on the northeast corner of Johnson Street and Winter Street caught my attention. I don't have an outside photo, but it looks very much like it was in 1923, when the Midwest Manufacturing Company located there was renamed Wood Eames Manufacturing Company. Today it seems to be mainly used for storage; looking in from the window, I was particularly attracted by a wooden clip trolley. The wooden clip is ingeniously designed and has a vertical plate attached to its platform so that it can be clamped.
Editor's note: Max Hailperin walked through each of Minneapolis' 87 neighborhoods in alphabetical order. He recorded his adventures on allofminneapolis.com, and the original version of this article was released on November 27, 2021. We will share these experiences on street.mn.
All photos are taken by the author.
Max Hailperin's personal project is allofminneapolis.com. Minneapolis has 87 blocks, including three industrial areas. Some are familiar to him, some he hasn't entered yet. However, he promised to explore all of these on foot: every block, every street, every block. He was walking through the blocks in alphabetical order, from Amatic to Wyndome Park, in order to focus on one area and then jump to other places.