Canadian Pacific Plaza Building

This building is currently known as the Canadian Pacific Plaza building (since 2012). It was originally known as the First National Bank Building and also formerly known as One Financial Plaza. It was built in 1960, is 383 feet tall (117 meters), and has 28 floors. See preceding post. It is currently the 21st tallest building in the city and is notable because it is the first major post- World Was II skyscraper build in Minneapolis. This photo was taken on January 18, 2010 and is attributed to Alexius Horatius.

Old Twin Cities

Date unknown although most likely early 1960s due to image of Canadian Pacific Plaza building on the letter 'C'. This building was originally known as the First National Bank Building and also formerly known as One Financial Plaza. It was built in 1960, is 383 feet tall (117 meters), and has 28 floors.

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.

More Light Rail

Dale returned from Madeline yesterday. He returned his rental car at the airport and then took light rail to the Hiawatha and 46th Street stop which is where I picked him up. I only waited for about 10 minutes for his train to arrive.  It was a pleasant evening with a summery feel - perfect for sitting outside.  These photos were taken at around 8:15 p.m. I remember as far back as 1980 reading in the old Minneapolis Star about the possibility of light rail transit coming to Minneapolis.  I can't believe is took as long as it did to become a reality. Minneapolis once had an intricate trolley system that was the envy of the nation but I believe it was dismantled in the 1960s to make way for the freeway system. It's a shame that a new system had to be started from scratch when there was once such a functional network.

The Minneapolis Tribune from 38 Years Ago Today

I found this old edition of the Minneapolis Tribune from 38 years ago (today!) at an antique store near Stillwater. Pretty historic stuff, huh?! Our family got the Minneapolis Star which came out in the afternoon. The Tribune was the morning paper. Dad liked to read the news after work so we subscribed to the afternoon paper which, obviously, had slightly more current info. Hard to believe in this era of 24-hour news that the news was updated at only certain points of the day. I liked getting the Star because it ran the Peanuts comic strip. The Tribune did not. The Star and Tribune merged in the 1980s and adopted the slogan "Newspaper of the Twin Cities." The top photo is of the Star and Tribune building in downtown Minneapolis and, I'm guessing, from the 1960s.

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.

The Minneapolis Tribune/The Minneapolis Star

Dale and I went to St. Paul today to visit the Minnesota Historical Society and see the 1968 exhibit. Although I was quite young in 1968 I do have memories that I can trace back to that year. The first national event that I have a memory of was the moon landing in 1969. Reprints of the December 24, 1968 edition of the Minneapolis Tribune were being handed out at the Historical Society to go along with the exhibit. When I was little, the morning paper was the Minneapolis Tribune and the evening edition of the paper was the Minneapolis Star. We always got the Minneapolis Star because Dad liked to read the paper when he got home from work in the afternoon. I remember the final edition of the Minneapolis Star in 1982 or 1983. Around this time the two papers merged to become the Star Tribune which we still subscribe to today. My friend Paul and his family lived up the street from our family when I was growing up and his family got the Tribune in the morning while ours got the Star in the afternoon. I used to love reading the Dear Abby advice column and the Peanuts comic strips that were featured in the Star. I was surprised to find out from Paul that the advice columnist in the Tribune was not Abby but Ann Landers and that the Tribune did not carry Peanuts. I couldn't imagine not being able to read about Charlie Brown and Snoopy! Oh well, Paul grew up to be a happy and productive member of society regardless. I especially loved reading the Variety section in the Star. That's were the comics, t.v. listings, Dear Abby, entertainment and special interest stories were.

The above photo is of the December 24, 1968 edition of the Minneapolis Tribune and was taken by me.

Boulevard Theater

The local neighborhood theater that we frequented when growing up in the Tangletown neighborhood (formerly named the Fuller neighborhood) of Minneapolis was the Boulevard Theater. I just did a web search for it and a website named cinematreasures.org came up. This is what they had to say about it:

"Designed by Perry E. Crosier in 1933 in Art Deco style and seating about 1,000, this theater opened as the Boulevard Twins, not beause it had two screens (though it was later twinned in the late-1970's), but because it was partly a movie house and part restaurant, a format it retained into the 1960's."

"Today, the former Boulevard Theater houses a video and DVD rental store, in a touch of irony. However, its beautiful Art Deco style marquee is still intact and still used by the store."

Actually, in a case of reverse irony, the video rental store has closed since that posting on cinematreasures.org. As far as I can tell the space is vacant.

I took the above photo on July 17, 2011.

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.