Loring Park: Historic Districts and Buildings
Loring Park has 14 historically designated buildings as well as the Harmon Place Historic Auto District. Some of the designated buildings include the Minneapolis Woman's Club, the Basilica of St. Mary, the Loring Theater, the Wesley Methodist Church, Swinford Apartments and the former site for the MacPhail Center for Music.
Harmon Place Auto District, which was dedicated in 2001, includes the area from Hennepin Avenue to 11th Street south along both sides of Harmon Place. The Leslie Fawkes building (1911) now known as Café Lurcat was the first automobile showroom in Minneapolis. Mr. Fawkes built and sold bicycles and used his skills to hand make one of the first cars in Minnesota. One mansion, the home of H. Alden Smith (1886), now called the Wells Family Center on the Community College Campus is the last of the grand mansions that lined Loring Park from the late 1800s until approximately 1910 when "Automobile Row" began to develop. After WWII, the suburbs began to be the place to sell cars. The area then began to attract notable historic figures such as Billy Graham and Curtis L. Carlson who both started their organizations on Harmon Place.
[Photo caption reads]
H. Alden Smith Residence (now called the Wells Family Center), 1403 Harmon Place, circa 1974
Image Source: Minnesota Historical Society.
this page online
Erected 2010.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Architecture • Arts, Letters, Music • Churches & Religion • Education. A significant historical year for this entry is 2001.
Location. 44° 58.198′ N, 93° 16.721′ W. Marker is in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in Hennepin County. It is in Central Minneapolis. Marker is on Grant Street west of Nicollet Mall, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Minneapolis MN 55403, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Loring Park: The Devil's Backbone (here, next to this marker); Loring Park: Basilica and Churches (here, next to this marker); Loring Park: Loring Greenway and Housing (here, next to this marker); Loring Park: Neighborhood Organizing (here, next to this marker); Wesley United Methodist Church (about 700 feet away, measured in a direct line); Welcome to the Historic Loring Park Neighborhood (about 800 feet away); USS Minnesota (BB22) (approx. 0.2 miles away); USS Minneapolis (CA36) (approx. 0.2 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Minneapolis.
Also see . . .
1. Loring Park, A Minneapolis Neighborhood
2. Citizens for a Loring Park Community. (Submitted on December 9, 2015, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
Credits. This page was last revised on December 30, 2023. It was originally submitted on December 9, 2015, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. This page has been viewed 684 times since then and 48 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on December 9, 2015, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
