Living Around the Northtown Yards

Living Around the Northtown Yards. . , St. Hedwig Church (1920) and Rectory (1925), 29th Avenue and Randolph Street N.E., in 1963., St. Hedwig's graduation class, 1925. (G. Z. Kieley), Church of St. Hedwig , Northeast Minneapolis is noted for its collection of historic churches that served a diverse immigrant population. Only one church was built north of Lowry Avenue in the Northtown area. The Church of St. Hedwig at 129 29th Avenue N.E. was established in 1914 during a period of peak Polish immigration. It initially served 48 Polish-speaking families and was one of five Polish Catholic churches in Minneapolis. St. Hedwig's first church building was formerly owned by the Church of St. Clement and was moved to their vacant lots., In 1919 the wood building burned and was replaced in 1920 with a brick church and school building. The Sisters of St. Francis, from Sylvania, Ohio, staffed the school. A brick convent building was erected in 1925., Northtown Area Schools , Schiller School ,

"It's a school where the whole neighborhood, Polish-born, Scandinavian-born, American-born, old folks and young folk get together for good times." , Minneapolis Morning Tribune, November 16, 1919

, Girls from Schiller School on a field trip, 1938., A St. Anthony Township school built in 1858 initially served the area's first students. In 1890, the Minneapolis School Board completed the Friedrich von Schiller Elementary School at 2620 California Street N.E. After two additions, the building housed 487 students in 1962 and was closed in 1974. Schiller had many community functions, hosting Parent-Teacher Association meetings, night schools for English instruction, and other events., Gresham School and Portable , In 1918, the Minneapolis School Board remodeled the Ernest and Lizette Hilgedick farmhouse at 3483 2nd Street N.E. for use as the Gresham elementary school. The building was needed because some students in the area had to "walk a mile and a half in exposed territory and across a network of railroad tracks." Set a mid a grove of trees, the remodeled school was the only one of its kind in Minneapolis. The schoolteacher lived in the building., The farmhouse was replaced in 1925 with a one-story, 6,000-square-foot portable building. The new facility was located at the southeast corner of 5th Street and 36th Avenue N.E. It offered two classrooms and a principal's office. Gresham School closed in 1942., The second Gresham School, 1925., Minneapolis Brewing Company Saloon (John's Bar), 2500 Marshall Street (1904), in 1953., Corner Taverns , The west end of Lowry Avenue N.E., especially between Marshall and 3rd Streets N.E., was the center of a small early twentieth-century commercial center that by 1930 included Michael Woxmann's shoe repair, Kasmar Brothers gasoline station, Peter Biernat's grocery, and Andrew Fedora's hardware store, and Leon Piele's restaurant., A few taverns lined Marshall and Lowry Avenues at the northern edge of the city's liquor patrol limits. These limits, which were described in 1917 as "having done much to lift the morale and preserve the residence section of our city free from the evils incident to the liquor traffic," limited location of new establishments to approximately where they existed in 1884., Mat O. Brain and Son Grocery and Good stores, 2503-2505 Marshall Street, ca. 1915., One of the earliest (1904) was attached to John Ingenhutt's grocery store at 2501 Marshall Street, built in 1891. Such two-story brick buildings typically anchored busy neighborhood corners and had apartments or offices above the bar., In 1904 a Minneapolis Brewing Company tavern was erected across the street at 2500 Marshall. Architects Boehme and Cordella designed the $7,000 brick building. 2500 Marshall was one of at least 150 Minneapolis taverns owned by breweries, including the Minnesota Brewing Company, the Schlitz Brewing Company, and the Pabst Brewing Company. In 1953 this property was John's Bar. These and other taverns were shuttered during Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933., Eck's Grocery ad, 1918., Jacob Zawislak's grocery building, 2700 Grand Street N.E. At the time of this 1953 photograph, the building was Forland's clothing store., Northtown Grocers , By 1914 Mathias O. Brain operated feed and grocery stores at 2503-2505 Marshall Street. Hundreds of small grocery stores liek Brain's were then operating across the city, often in the shadow of large grocery chains such as A and P and the National Tea Company. The convenient stores, however, provided a connection to native language and culture., By 1930, Grand Street N.E. had at least four grocery stores north of Lowry, in addition to a candy store operated by John T. Kitching opposite Schiller School at 26th Avenue. With some exceptions, most stores appear to have been owned by Poles., John Zawislak, a Polish-speaking native of Austria, arrived in Minneapolis in 1901. An iron worker at a foundry, he built a brick store at 2700 Grand in 1917. Plans for the building were drafted by Randolph Avenue resident A. J. Kopitcke. The retail space shared the first floor with the family's kitchen and a bedroom, and other bedrooms were located upstairs. Following Zawislak and his family, a succession of grocers and a clothing store occupied the space., By 1930, Polish-born Walter Kurosad operated a small butcher shop and grocery store at 2711 Grand Street N.E. In 1930, the household included Walter, his wife Catherine, their five children, and father-in-law Andrew Worwa. The brick building featured a first-story storefront below two floors of housing., 2711 Grand Avenue, 2014., Leon and Anna Skiba Jedlenski operated a butcher shop and grocery at 2954 California Street. Leon arrived in the United States from Poland in 1903, and Anna was born in the United States to Polish parents. The Jedlenski's [sic] small corner house featured a one-story wing housing the business. Such neighborhood grocery stores have typically been converted to residences, but the storefront and other exterior features of the building exterior often provide a clue to earlier uses.