An Era of New Business on the Rail Corridor

An Era of New Business on the Rail Corridor. The CM&StP Grade Separation. , New Products for New Consumers , During the 1920s, manufacturers and producers reached mass markets like never before. Newspaper, radio, and billboard advertising urged consumers to buy goods ranging from bread to automobiles. Mail-order businesses, led by giants Sears, Roebuck and Company and Montgomery Ward, united the country with countless products. Rail distribution was a key part of the success for national and local firms., Sears, Roebuck and Company , 2483-2929 Elliot Ave. S. , George Nimmons, architect , The Sears, Roebuck and Company store has been a Lake Street landmark since 1928. Sears was founded in 1886 in Minneapolis as the R. W. Sears Watch Company. Stewartville native Richard Sears (1863-1914) moved his business to Chicago in 1887, where he met Alvah C. Roebuck. In 1893, the two founded Sears, Roebuck and Company. Their mail-order business served farmers and rural communities and grew to be one of the country's largest department-store chains and catalog distributors. The company's national expansion in the 1920s included this store. The mammoth building housed retail, warehouse, and distribution components. Unlike an earlier generation of corridor businesses, the structure was engineered for its rail site. In 2006 the revitalized building was reopened as the centerpiece of the Midtown Exchange. (Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.), Lake and Elliot, just before razing for Sears construction, Sears under construction, 1927, Zinsmaster Baking Company , 2900 Park Ave. S. , Zinsmaster and Master Bread were synonymous with bread in early 20th-century Minneapolis, when industrial baking became widespread. This plant was a model bakery, incorporating modern, technological advances. For several centuries, most bread consumed by Americans was baked at home, but by 1900, there was a great demand for bakery bread as well as for desserts and doughnuts. The commercial product gradually improved with advances in automation, mixing, and better ovens. Mass distribution by truck and rail could bring great quantities of product to the population. Harry Zinsmaster cofounded the Zinsmaster-Smith Bread Company in Duluth in 1913. His company grew to include plants in St. Paul (1919), Hibbing (1922), and other cities., The modern plant was constructed in 1928 amidst controversy because Park Avenue residents did not want a new industrial use in their neighborhood. The city council granted the building and zoning variance, however, after approving the plans of Charles W. De Jarnette of Des Moines, Iowa, who had designed other Zinsmaster plants. Baking operations came to an end after Harry Zinsmaster's death in 1977, and the plant was converted to an apartment building in 1987., Stewart Elevator , (Stewart-Cepro) , 2845 10th Ave. S. , Razed 2004 , By 1900 Minneapolis led the country in the handling of grain and what is known as terminal grain marketing. At terminal markets, grains such as spring wheat and barley were stored in elevators, processed, and then shipped by rail. The Minneapolis Grain Exchange, founded in 1881, joined buyers and sellers in the cash market and in trading in grain futures. By 1945, even after flour milling had declined, Minneapolis was the largest cash grain market in the world., Minneapolis Journal, April 1900, Bagley and Cargill built the first grain elevator on this site in 1885. A succession of buildings followed, and the Banner Grain Company constructed this concrete elevator, known as the Stewart, in 1928. In 1940, the next owner, the Rahr Malting Company, constructed an annex elevator. The Rahr Malting Company began as a brewery in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. After the repeal of Prohibition and in anticipation of manufacturing beer, Rahr expanded its barley storage in Minneapolis., The Destructor , South Side Destructor , Solid Waste and Recycling South Transfer Station , 2850 20th Ave. S. , In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, American cities made great progress in collecting and disposing of waste. Dumping was replaced by incineration fueled by coal, oil, and natural gas. The early incinerators, however, created air pollution. Minneapolis turned to efficient British destructors as a model., In 1937, the Minneapolis Sanitation Committee requested funds for a new destructor plant from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (PWA). During the Great Depression, the PWA funded public construction such as highways, bridges, sewers, disposal plants, and municipal buildings., The Art Deco-influenced destructor was completed in 1939. Designed by the Minneapolis City Engineer's Office, the building was sited on a hill created for the building foundation. The grounds provided space for delivery drives for garbage, fuel, and incinerated waste, and the east side of he site was landscaped with a lawn and shrubs. Two three-story furnaces were served by conveyor belts. Fourteen employees, including a chief engineer, originally operated the plant., Concerns about air pollution led to the adoption of sanitary landfills. The South Side Destructor was redesigned in 1971 as a waste transfer station and later as a truck storage facility., In 1928, the neighborhood near Powderhorn Park (at bottom right) and the just-completed Sears, Roebuck and Company was densely built. Apartment buildings as well as single-family houses of many sizes lined the streets. St. Mary's Greek Orthodox Church and the Stewart Elevator, both now razed, were also prominent landmarks, but overshadowed by the Sears tower., [reverse], Lake Street and Neighborhood Transformation , At Chicago and Elliot Avenues, Lake Street was a mix of stores and houses well served by the streetcar. The Lake Street Commercial Club organized events such as Lake Street Day and other merchants' promotions. The area was transformed in 1927 when a block of stores and houses was cleared for the mammoth Sears, Roebuck and Company store., Minneapolis Journal, August 4, 1911, Today Lake Street businesses reflect the diverse cultures of the community, with new residents and business owners from all over the globe. A century ago, Lake Street-area customers were typically native-born, or from Sweden, Norway, Germany, England, and Wales. There was also a small African-American community. In the 1880s, a few Chinese from Guandong Province came to Minneapolis with the assistance of Westminster Presbyterian Church. The population grew slowly, with about a thousand in Minnesota by the late 1920s. Some Chinese people owned downtown restaurants; by 1930 a number operated on Lake Street, including the Mun Hing (at 13th Avenue South and another on Lyndale Avenue South), the Wong Foo Restaurant (near 14th Avenue South), and the Kinjoy Cafe (near Columbus Avenue South)., Chicago Ave. and Lake St., 1951, Neighborhood Connections , The Grey House is now the site of a store., Ralph and Eula Grey House , 2926 Chicago Ave. S. , Razed , Descendants of pioneer African American settlers once lived near the present-day Midtown Corridor. Emily Goodridge Grey (1834-1916) traveled by rail, steamboat, and stagecoach to St. Anthony in 1855 to join her husband, Ralph T. Grey (1830-1904). Ralph was a barber, and he and Emily were part of a small black community housed on both sides of the Falls of St. Anthony. They were involved in many church and civic activities, including the Minnesota Territorial Pioneers, and Emily wrote a memoir of her life., The Greys had four children, two of whom moved to south Minneapolis. The eldest, William T. Grey, became a railroad porter. In 1887, William and his wife, Mary Grey, built a 22-foot by 44-foot house at 2819 Chicago Avenue South (razed 1964). William died in 1900. By 1915, another son, grocer Ralph B. and his wife, Eula, resided at 2926 Chicago Avenue South (above left). Ralph died in 1911, and his widow and daughter Catherine moved to Washington, D.C., Area Churches , The historic churches near the Midtown Corridor tell the stories of the diverse communities and settlement history of the area. The remaining churches have sheltered many congregations over the past century., St. Mary's Greek Orthodox Church , 2947 10th Ave. S. , Razed , The founding of St. Mary's Greek Orthodox Church reflected an increase in Greek immigration to Minneapolis after 1900. This was the congregation's second home, and it was completed in 1910. The congregation moved to a new church at 3850 Irving Avenue South in 1957, and this building was razed., St. Paul's Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church , 2742 15th Ave. S. , Swedish immigrants founded St. Paul's in 1887. This building was completed in 1910, and services were first offered in Swedish as well as English., Welsh Presbyterian Church , 2917 15th Ave. S. , When this church was completed in 1911 it was considered a Lake Street landmark. The building was designed by W.J. Williams, a member of the congregation. Over the years it has been the First Christian Reform Baptist, Jesus People, and Calvary Indian Church. Today it is the home of Iglesia de Dios Monte Sinai., Powderhorn Lake and Park , Powderhorn Park , 14th Ave. S. at E. 33rd St. , Powderhorn Lake was included in an 1839 survey of the Fort Snelling Military Reservation, when surveyors noted its resemblance to the shape of a powderhorn. Much of the area was farmed until developers laid out building lots in the 1890s, and the lake narrowly missed being filled in for housing. Beginning in 1890, the Minneapolis Park Board acquired the property, and dredging and filling changed the lake's outline. The park board built a skating rink in 1891 and installed a playground in 1907. Powderhorn has since been a destination for speedskaters and a central part of the neighborhood landscape., An Historic Cemetery , Lake Street entrance, 1936, Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery , Cedar Ave. S. at Lake St. , This is the oldest remaining cemetery in the city. It was laid out in 1858 on the farm of Martin G. Layman (1811-1886) and was known for many years as Layman's Cemetery and later as the Minneapolis Cemetery. In 1871 Layman built the limestone-walled cemetery office, which stands near the center. Many early settlers, including Philander Prescott (1801-1862), were buried here, as were veterans of the War of 18 12, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. Some were later moved to Lakewood Cemetery., The last burial was in 1919. In the 1920s, proposals for other uses included a large Milwaukee Road Railroad station, but citizens lobbied the City of Minneapolis to purchase the property. After its acquisition in 1927, it was renamed the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002., The Cedar-Lake Connection , Churches and fraternal halls remain evidence of the settlement of Norwegians and Swedes in the vicinity of East Lake Street and Cedar Avenue. These immigrants were drawn to employment in the area's railroad shops and factories. Norwegians founded St. Luke's Norwegian Evangelical Church and completed their Queen Anne-style building in 1892., St. Luke's Norwegian Evangelical Church, 3109 17th Ave. S., in 2003, In 1886, builder and real estate dealer Robert L. Berglund, a native of Sweden, completed a row of eight brick houses on one block of 17th Avenue South (below left). By 1900, the houses were occupied by people in a variety of occupations, including cigar maker, shoemaker, and CM&StP fireman., Just across Lake Street, Gustavus Adolphus Hall was opened in 1924 (above right). The hall was the home of the Gustavus II Adolphus Society, a fraternal organization founded in 1886 by Swedish immigrants. In 2003 the hall was heavily damaged in a fire., Historic images courtesy Minnesota Historical society and Minneapolis Public Library Special Collections