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From the Hennepin County Library archives:
The February 1984 edition of the Wedge newspaper. In this edition, the paper celebrated the neighborhood's centennial, putting Lowry Hill East at 136 years-old today. Here is the text from the article, written by Trilby Busch: A centennial is a notable milestone in the life of a community. Several generations have been born, schooled, nurtured and sustained, many buildings have been erected—and destroyed—within its boundaries. To the people in that community the passage of one hundred years of community life gives a sense of identity, continuity and solidarity quite unlike that of communities built within recent memory. European settlers arriving in the area in the 1830's found open prairie where Wedge houses now stand and an ill-defined swamp where Lake of the Isles now lies. With the landscape devoid of trees and buildings one could clearly discern the rocky ridge now known as Lowry Hill. In 1839 settler R. P. Russell, the man destined to become the first developer in the Wedge, arrived in town from New England. In 1871 Russell moved his original 1850's homestead claim shack and small frame Greek Revival house from what is now the West High School site to their present location on the southeast corner of Bryant Avenue and 26th Street. The reason for the move was to clear the Hennepin Avenue site so that construction of Russell's big brick house could begin the next year. At that time Russell's Out Lots were platted between 26th and 28th Streets, Lyndale to Hennepin, to the south of the relocated houses. These "out lots" were not, however, platted as standard city lots; the area was still distinctly agrarian, dotted with scattered clusters of farm buildings. Two significant changes came in 1884, one precipitating the other. "Streetcar Man" Thomas Lowry expanded his horsedrawn streetcar lines into the area, running a double track down Lyndale Avenue, turning west onto 27th Street, then south onto Dupont Avenue and coming to an end in a turntable at 31st Street. In 1881 Lowry's friend and legal client William Windom anticipated this move and began platting land adjacent to the planned streetcar. "Windom's Addition" of lots (?) development was created between Lvndaie and Hennepin Avenues and south Lake Street. Other landowners realizing the critical importance of public transportation access to the development of a residential subdivision, quickly followed Windom's example. By the time the horsecar lines arrived in 1884 much of the Wedge was platted and ready for development. Thus in a remarkably short period of time a nondescript stretch of prairie farmland south of the burgeoning city of Minneapolis became a suburban subdivision of lots and streets. Because the new streetcar line passed to the east of Lowry Hill, where Lowry's 9-year-old French Second Empire mansion stood in aloof magnificence, horsecars to the new area bore the designation "Lowry Hill East." At this point Lowry Hill was not a neighborhood, but the undeveloped hillside behind Lowry's house. During the 1870's the population of the city of Minneapolis grew from 18,000 to 47,000. The 1880's brought an awesome boom to the area: in the first half of this decade the city's population nearly tripled, reaching 129,000 by 1885. Lowry Hill East was one of the new middle class suburban neighborhoods built to house the rush of incoming residents. The city itself in 1884 would scarcely be recognizable to today's resident (not to mention how mindboggling today's city would be to the 1884 resident). A century ago the city had only three bridges across the Mississippi for public use: the "upper bridge" (as it was commonly know) at Plymouth Avenue, the grand Victorian "suspension bridge" at Hennepin Avenue and the "lower bridge" at 10th Avenue. Some major street names were different, having not yet been renamed to honor city fathers: LaSalle Avenue was Vine, Pillsbury was Williams, and Lowry Avenue North was Fern. The downtown area was beginning to take shape as a city, complete with massive brick and stone edifices. In 1884 Minneapolis first modern department store, the Glass Block at Sixth and Nicollet, was completed. The elegant West Hotel, designed by the gifted architect Leroy S. Buffington, opened on July 21, 1884 (it would fall to the wrecking ball 56 years hence). The Lumber Exchange and the old Great Northern railway depot were under construction. Also in 1884 government engineers were putting the finishing touches on a 16-year-long undertaking, the building of a bypass channel and a concrete apron across the river at St. Anthony Falls. But perhaps the most distinguished structure built in that year was not a building at all, but "Jim Hill's Folly,M a stone arch railroad bridge spanning the Mississippi below the falls. The Stone Arch Bridge, constructed for the then- princely sum of $690,000, over the years became and still remains one of the city's best known landmarks. In 1884 Minneapolis's 8 wards were governed by an oligarchy that made success in commerce synonymous with success in politics. George A. Pillsbury of the prominent milling family^was both major and president of the chamber of commerce; street railway developer Thomas Lowry served as head of the park board. Lowry's friend and local hero William Windom, first to plat the Wedge, was at that time a U. S. Senator. A century ago both salaries and prices reflected a dollar with far more buying power than its modern descendant. The city engineer made an annual salary of $3,500; the city attorney made $1,800. The chief of police earned $1800, less than the fire chief at $2,200. Accordingly, a modest worker's house could be constructed for under $1,000. The trendy woman of the 1880's (and we must assume that there were a few in this booming, sprawling prairie city) wore softly shaped and draped ankle-length dresses made fashionable by Lily Langtry, Oscar Wilde and other arbiters of taste amon England's decadent "Aesthetic" set. These flowing garments, made up in bright or pastel colors, were the late Victorians' fantasy of what Grecian robes looked like. Fashion in domestic architecture was also imported from England. The English Queen Anne style-asymmetrical in shape, lavishly embellished with details, clad in siding of various shapes and/or materials-was popularly employed by American builders, who adapted the style to locally available materials and crafts. In Minneapolis the vast majority of Queen Anne buildings, especially the more modest versions, were of wood. 1884 was also the year the city inspections department began issuing building permits, so it is relatively easy to date construction from that year on. City records show that among extant buildings in Lowry Hill East roughly 20 were constructed pre-1884. In 1884-7 building permits were issued for houses in the neighborhood; in 1885 - 14 permits, and in 1886 - 41 permits. The smallest number of permits drawn in that decade for houses now standing was 5 in 1889. All of the houses built by permit in 1884 were located along the southern and eastern boundaries of the neighborhood, close to the new horsecar tracks. School principal-cum-builder Charles H. Buell erected two Queen Anne cottages at a cost of $2,000 apiece at 2521 and 2023-25 Aldrich Avenue South. Like many builders of the day, Buell built the houses on speculation—the result of a flourishing housing market. Long-time farmer- resident George Tullock also built two worker's houses on speculation for $1,500 each at 2645 and 2649 Colfax Avenue South. It was common practice then, as it is in many of today's suburban developments, for a speculating builder to buy up more than one lot in a given area, then to build two or more houses simultaneously, spreading the development process out over several years. Buell and Tullock were apparently doing small-scale versions of this practice. They are typical of the numerous residents of many trades and professions who capitalized upon the critical housing shortage of that decade. Just around the corner from Tullock's houses C. L. Mayhem (we wonder if he really was so menacing) was building a $1,200 worker's house at 2638 Bryant. And over on Dupont and Aldrich Avenues more grandiose, plans were being realized. On the northwest corner of 27th and Aldrich brickmason J. G. Hall was using his craft to concoct a lovely pressed-brick Queen Anne house. Although Hall lists the cost at a nominal $1,500, 2658 Aldrich Avenue South is clearly not a run-of-the-mill worker's house. In its handsome, enduring materials, in its carefully applied details we find a house fit for a discerning upwardly- mobile homeowner of a century ago, the buyer that Hall undoubtedly wanted to attract. The most distinguished house on the 1884 permits is the fashionable Queen Anne residence at 2701 Dupont Avenue South. The house displays an almost-prototypical vernacular Queen Anne design, with its shingled gables and multiple-light windows. Yet it also suggests the influence of the American Shingle Style, then rising to fashion on the East Coast. Constructed by Frank Gryglia at a cost of $7,500, this house is by far the most expensive dwelling on record built that year in the Wedge. Its substantial pricetag shows that Lowry Hill East was developing as a neighborhood for people of comfortable and more-than-comfortable means. By the close of 1884 nearly 30 houses probably stood in the area known now as the Wedge or Lowry Hill East. The streets were muddy and rutted, the neighboring lots were open pastures and fields, and the trees were mere saplings, but Lowry Hill East had made the transition from undistinguished parcels of land to a platted, populated urban neighborhood. This small but significant passage we celebrate this year in marking the conclusion of the first century of urban life in our neighborhood. Today nearly 7,000 people live in the Wedge. It has grown from a cluster of 1880's suburban houses to a densely-populated urban neighborhood, comprised of stores, houses, apartment buildings, offices, parking lots, a small park, and paved streets. We should pause, if only briefly, to look at the century-old houses in the Wedge and reflect upon what they were, what they are-and how they define and enrich the neighborhood they inaugurated. Comments are closed.
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March 2023
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