Story Awakening at Bde Maka Ska

St. John's Episcopal Church, Linden Hills 4201 Sheridan Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, United States

Join us as a Dakota historian speaks on the Dakota cultural perspective/name restoration of Bde Maka Ska, including the new public art installation (completion date, late summer). The Minneapolis City public arts project at Bde Maka Ska celebrates the history of Heyata Otunwe, a village at Bde Maka Ska/Lake Calhoun (1829-1839) and honors Mahpiya Wicasta/Cloud […]

The Hamiltons of Lake Calhoun

Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd 4801 France Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, United States

Most known for Widow Hamilton's guest house overlooking Lake Calhoun (now called Bde Maka Ska), where Henry David Thoreau stayed in June 1861, members of the Hamilton family lived at times on both the south and west shores of the lake for more than 40 years. Explore this untold history of early days before the […]

Tracing the History of Real Estate Covenants in Minneapolis

Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd 4801 France Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, United States

Racial covenants were used to bar people of a given race, ethnic origin, or religion, from buying or occupying property in Minneapolis. These discriminatory deeds underpinned an invisible system of American apartheid. This project, Mapping Prejudice, is headed up by a team of activists and scholars who are researching the city covenants with the help […]

Tour of Minneapolis Central Library Special Collections

Minneapolis Central Library 300 Nicollet Mall, 4th floor, Minneapolis, MN, United States

One of the area's best local history resources, the collection covers all aspects of the history of Minneapolis and Hennepin County and includes books, photographs, school yearbooks, archival and manuscript collections, periodicals, maps, postcards, and thousands of files of newspaper clippings. We will get an inside view of their collections including the reading room, their […]

Robert E. Fischer and Sand Souvenirs at Minnehaha Creek

St. John's Episcopal Church, Linden Hills 4201 Sheridan Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, United States

Robert Fischer was the most unusual artist ever inspired by Minnehaha Falls. From about 1900 until 1940, he created tens of thousands of delicate sand designs in clear glass containers, using nothing but the natural colored sands found in Minnehaha Park. Only a few of these still exist. Fischer lived in the Falls neighborhood for […]

Architect John Jager and Information Learned from his Slovenian Home Country

St. John's Episcopal Church, Linden Hills 4201 Sheridan Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, United States

Architectural historian and freelance writer Dick Kronick will lecture on the history of architect John Jager, who laid out the Red Cedar Lane neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis. Research conducted in 2018 uncovered previously unknown information about Jager's life, and buildings that he designed.

Revisiting Fern Valley and Mineral Springs: Landscape Transitions at Southwest

36th and Zenith 3200 W. 36th St., Minneapolis, MN, United States

On this walking tour we will revisit the area known by some as Fern Valley and Mineral Springs. Tour guide Peter Sussman will focus on the transformations that have taken place with the landscape and the community from the 1870s to modern times. Meet outside the Bakken Museum.

Fort Snelling at Bdote: 200 Years of History

Historic Fort Snelling Visitor Center 200 Tower Ave., Minneapolis, MN, United States

Fort Snelling at Bdote background reading list from Linden Hills Public Library For millennia, the place where the Minnesota River joins the Mississippi has been a crossroads, a place of strategic power. But that symbolism is complicated. This tour is a powerful reminder that most Minnesotans today are descendants of immigrants, living on conquered land. […]

Trench Warfare in Midtown Minneapolis: From Railroad to Greenway

St. John's Episcopal Church, Linden Hills 4201 Sheridan Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, United States

Just over a century ago the Minneapolis City Council directed the Milwaukee Railroad Company to construct a trench located just north of Lake Street, between Hennepin and Cedar Avenues, and 37 bridges for roads spanning the trench. This provided a grade separation between the railroad and the city’s automobile and streetcar traffic for three miles, […]

Twin Cities Hard Boiled

St. John's Episcopal Church, Linden Hills 4201 Sheridan Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, United States

James Eli Shiffer, author of The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis, will visually take us to visit the nucleus of the old Gateway at Hennepin, Nicollet, and Washington Avenues. Though office towers, upscale hotels, and condos abound here, imagine this intersection 60 years earlier where you are […]