urbanMSP

http://www.shorpy.com/node/14725

Here's a fun web page showing a Minneapolis tourist brochure from the 1930's:

http://winternet.com/~swezeyt/mpls/mpls1930s.htm

Here's a pic from page 2 of the brochure:

Wow... All of the buildings that have been torn down:
http://www.lileks.com/mpls/gone.html

Certainly makes me appreciate the buildings that we STILL have!

Wow... All of the buildings that have been torn down:
http://www.lileks.com/mpls/gone.html

Certainly makes me appreciate the buildings that we STILL have!

That is an incredible number. It would be interesting to hear the story behind them.

Thought you'd like to see how the old Ritz Hotel looked along Nicollet Mall with a pic I took in '88. As you can see, a guy was enjoying the sun at the time. Notice all the great trees going down the mall. And nothing big between the Ritz and the IDS.

Ritz hotel block on Nicollet Mall 1988 by bapster2006, on Flickr

Do you have any more of your photos from the 80s-90s dumped anywhere? You should put them all in an album on Flickr for us to go through!

I have been thinking that I should do some special albums on Flickr. Right now I just have everything dumped in there in one big group. But I think an 80s album would be awesome so people could page through them quickly.

I'd love to see some 90s street scenes also. The 90s are too recent to be cool enough to share on historic photo resources (like Old Minneapolis or the special collections at MNHS), but old enough that I'd get some serious nostalgia from them!

Then and Now

When was the "then"?

The right side got clipped in the forum, here's a link to the Photobucket page
http://s699.photobucket.com/user/Mdcast ... 2.jpg.html

"Then" was 1968, It's from a book called "Hennepin Today" I picked up at an estate sale a number of years ago,

Wow, thanks for posting! I'm not sure I've ever really looked at Northwestern Bell before the long line antennas were added.

Before TH 7 was constructed in front of the old High School (née Central, née PSI). View from now gone water tower. by xeoth, on Flickr
Before TH7 through SLP in front of where the Park Spanish Immersion is located today (was Central Junior High, in the image it was operating as the High School)

1937 photo from old water tower of TH7 and Wooddale crossing, old Central school. From the SLP Historical Society archives. by xeoth, on Flickr
After TH7 run through. Taken in 1937, you can see Wooddale crossing. Just to the right of the image will be the future SWLRT station. You can see a student pedestrian underpass going under TH7 to the sidewalk to the school.

In the distance of both photos you can see the Lake Street street car line running left to right across the photo.

All images from the SLP Historical Society archives.

Those frontage roads annoy me so much.

It would be much better as a multiway boulevard.

Excelsior and Monterey, 1966. by xeoth, on Flickr

Excelsior and Monterey, 1966. Undergoing a widening project. Another from the SLP Historical Society.

Now there's a flashback.

Excelsior and Monterey, 1966. Undergoing a widening project. Another from the SLP Historical Society.

I'm trying to figure out the parking convention on the right hand side of the photograph. It kind of looks like the wild west...

I know! I find myself staring at the parking going on and my brain is just befuddled.

MPR posted some great historical photos of Minneapolis mostly taken in 1939.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/05/20/vachon

Oh man, those are great. I am crying for the Gateway. It would be super-cool today if those buildings hadn't been razed.