Washburn Park Water Tower

 

Washburn Park Water Tower located at 325 Prospect Avenue, Minneapolis, MN. (1951) In the neighborhood where I grew up, Tangletown. 

Photo from the Minnesota Historical Society. 

Nye's

Nye's Polonaise closed recently. Although not a regular, I had quite a fondness for the place which goes back a number of years. My most recent visit was a notable and fun high school reunion which Dale and I attended together. 

METRO Blue Line light-rail/Hiawatha Avenue

I'm so happy light rail has become a reality. Minnapolis had one of the best street-car systems in the country when it was dismantled in the 1950s [?] in the name of progress. That was before my time. I remember reading about efforts to bring about light rail in the late 70s and early 80s. It became a reality in [?]. Everything old really does become new again.

Photo by @84ability on Instagram as it appeared in Midwest Living magazine.

Old Minneapolis

From a postcard ca. 1950.

Star Tribune

I found Dale on the porch this morning reading the Star Tribune.  He commented that it's been so long since he's held an actual hard copy of the paper in his hands.  We subscribe to the online version but they still send a copy of the Sunday paper to our doorstep.  We often don't even look at it because we can access it on our iPads before it's even delivered. The above photo is of the Star and Tribune offices in downtown Minneapolis. Not sure of the date  but judging by the look of the cars I'd say it's from the late 1950s or early 60s.

The Venice Cafe

I found this old photo on a Facebook page titled Old Minneapolis. I used to love going to the Venice Cafe. A friend and I would bus downtown frequently to have lunch there way back when we were high school students. We'd usually order spaghetti and meatballs because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. They also had really good pizza. I don't remember the place lasting past the 1980's. I don't know how long it had been around since it closed but this photo looks like it's from the late 50's/early 60's.

Church of the Annunciation - Minneapolis

The Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis is a Roman Catholic parish that was attended by my family starting in 1969 when we moved to south Minneapolis. The church is located at 509 West 54th Street near the corner of Diamond Lake Road and Lyndale Avenue.

The following history is from Annunciation's website:

"The parish of Annunciation was created by Archbishop Dowling with the appointment of the Rev. Francis J. Lang, as pastor, on September 8 1922. Most of the pioneer parishioners were young and middle-aged couples, many with children. Before 1922, most of the people in this area worshipped at Incarnation parish to the north and Assumption parish in Richfield to the south. The first parish Mass was offered on October 1, 1922."

"Within a year, this young community occupied the first rooms of a new church-school building, which still serves our community well. On August 5, 1923 the first liturgy was offered in the building and on September 10, 1923, four Dominican Sisters opened Annunciation School, with 72 pupils."

"The Post-War Boom, 1945-1960, brought the challenge of rapid population growth and expansion. On December 16, 1962 the first Mass was offered by the community in its new worship space."

I remember the big summer rummage sales in the school gymnasium in the summer in the 1970's and I remember the parish festival, Septemberfest, which I believe began in the 1980's. Dad contributed a lot of time and effort to the set up and take down of that festival.