After this week's momentous Supreme Court ruling I posted about the 1933 Enabling Act in Germany as a warning about the dangers of growing totalitarianism. Disappointed to learn @moderation.bsky.app labelled it "radical views advocating violence, hate, or discrimination." Very poor job @bsky.app
March 23 1933, the Enabling Act becomes law in Germany, giving the chief executive power enforce his own laws without checks and balances. The passing of the Act marked the formal transition from democratic republic to totalitarian dictatorship. 6 months later, it was a 1 party state.
Interesting, wonder if we'd get an answer. In the meantime I just learned there was *another* GRODNIK downtown on S 6th Street. Were there even more? 🤔
Mni Sóta Territory depicted in the 1857 Atlas of the United States. County lines in red, survey lines for the proposed Pacific Railway in purple. Map by HD Rogers & AK Johnston, London, via University of Minnesota Borchert Map Library
March 23 1933, the Enabling Act becomes law in Germany, giving the chief executive power enforce his own laws without checks and balances. The passing of the Act marked the formal transition from democratic republic to totalitarian dictatorship. 6 months later, it was a 1 party state.
50 years ago today the Twin Cities Pride Event had grown from earlier small protests to nearly 400 attendees, with speakers such as newly elected MN Senator Allan Spear. 6 months later he came out as the first openly gay male elected official anywhere in the US, creating a national sensation
History snippet: The very first Twin Cities Pride events guide from 1973 was no more than a small flier. In a detail that's hard to imagine today, it was designed so that a holder could quickly fold and discard it in the event of a police raid.
History snippet: The very first Twin Cities Pride events guide from 1973 was no more than a small flier. In a detail that's hard to imagine today, it was designed so that a holder could quickly fold and discard it in the event of a police raid.
100 years ago the Twin Cities were among the top railway centers in the US. Today the only passenger stations are NorthStar commuter in Minneapolis and Amtrak at St Paul Union Depot. Let's visit all the lost train stations, starting with downtown Minneapolis. There were 15! 🧵
0/ Minnesota's first rail service began July 2 1862, connecting the east side of St Anthony Falls with steamboat landings in St Paul. Technically this side of the river wasn't Minneapolis yet, because that wouldn't happen until 1872, but it's on the timetable so we'll count it.
1/19 The 1st train "station", not much more than a shack on wood planks, stood on Main Street SE between Maple and Walnut (today's 7th and 8th Streets SE), directly in front of today's Stone Arch Apts. The 10-mile trip to St Paul took 45 minutes, less time than the Green Line
2/ The 2nd terminus in town, the FIRST inside Minneapolis itself, was built in 1865 by the Minnesota Central Railway, to points southeast via Fort Snelling. This was a more substantial frame building at S 2nd Street and 5th Ave, where today's Marriott Residence Inn is now.
3/ The Minnesota Central was eventually bought by the Milwaukee Road, which built a pretty Victorian confection a block south at Washington Ave and S 4th Street in 1876. This served several lines and was the first to connect to such exotic places as Duluth and Chicago
4/ Milwaukee Depot was replaced again in 1899 by a grand Spanish Revival that still stands today, less its ornate cupola that blew off in 1941. The last train left here in 1971. Redeveloped into a hotel in 2001, it has one of the nation's only surviving truss-roof train sheds
5/ On the west edge of downtown, the St Paul & Pacific Railroad built a bridge across the river at Nicollet Island in 1867 to points west. Their new Minneapolis station was a combo passenger/freight affair located in the current railway trench near the T3 North Loop building.
6/ Soon afterward a group local businessmen, fed up with the price-gouging railway companies, started their own: The Minneapolis & St Louis. In 1873 they built a competing line parallel to the StP&P, with a passenger station right at T3 where the Cedar Lake Trail is today.
7/ The first M&StL station was replaced in 1892 with a more substantial one 2 blocks north at N 4th and Washington, now the parking lot next to Hewing Hotel. Pictured below is a celebration to see off the Minneapolis City Council on a trip to LA. Bon Voyage!
8/ In 1879 the scrappy Minneapolis, Lyndale, & Minnetonka Railway began running small steam trains out to stations at Nicollet/31st, Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, Minnehaha Falls, and Excelsior. Trains departed every 30 mins at a street terminus on Marquette Ave at Washington.
9/ More railroads moved into the North Loop. In 1884 the Northern Pacific built a branch line through downtown via the U of M campus over Bridge No. 9, with a passenger station at the corner of N 2nd Street and N 8th Ave, where the Star Tribune printing plant is now.
10/ That same year the Minneapolis & Pacific Railway, later bought by the Soo Line, built a similar North Loop passenger terminal along N 2nd St at N 6th Ave, where River Station Condos are now. In 1892 they rebuilt it 2 blocks further east at the corner of N 4th Ave, today's Heritage Landing.
11/ During the building boom many companies were vying to get stations into downtown Minneapolis. The Chicago & Great Western was late to the game but negotiated a deal to run on NP's track into a new station at S 10th and Washington Ave, at today's Bridgewater Lofts. The Omaha Road stopped here too
12/ If all this seems difficult for passengers, it was. Local business interests hit up magnate JJ Hill to fix the mess and create one efficient downtown station, though not every line opted in. Union Depot opened to great fanfare in 1885, served by the magnificent new Stone Arch Bridge behind it.
13/ By 1900 the electric interurban era had arrived. In 1908 the Minnesota Northfield & Southern Railway, best known as the Dan Patch, built a station just west of Target Field stadium. Other railways also stopped there, including the Electric Short Line and Anoka & Cuyuna Range Railroad
14/ Before visiting the last station, let's mourn the end of the Interurbans. Once the fastest way to reach Anoka, Edina, Wayzata, Bloomington, Lakeville, etc, they were all gone by 1947. Where Dan Patch Depot once boarded passengers is now an abandoned bus stop under Ramp A in the median of I-394
15/ The last Minneapolis train station was the grandest. Old Union Depot, an engineering marvel in its day, was ugly and soon outdated. JJ Hill's business was also now an empire and he wanted an edifice to match. The new Great Northern Station opened on Hennepin Avenue in 1913.
16/ The station's austere neoclassical style bespoke serious railroading inside. All mainline passenger trains in Minneapolis were rerouted here, except for competitors Milwaukee Road, Rock Island and Soo which kept their operations at the Milwaukee depot on Washington Ave.
17/ One interesting tidbit before the end. Minneapolis Great Northern Station was planned to be more than double in size, with 29 tracks and a 570' wide façade. It would've been larger than Kansas City Union Station, then the 3rd largest in US. But this was not to be.
18/ Busy during the Depression and busiest in WWII, the Great Northern had become a gloomy shell by the time Amtrak took it over in 1971. On March 1st 1978, the last passenger train left the station, and Minneapolis, for good. The building was demolished later that year.
19/19 So depending how you count, downtown Minneapolis had between 9 and 15 railroad stations. There were and are proposals to expand the new NorthStar Commuter station at Target Field into something more, but constraints abound. It's going to be a long wait for the next train.
Today's history tidbit: June 1931, the brand new First National Bank opens in St Paul, Minnesota. A classic art deco confection by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and tallest building in the city until 1986. The world's first skyway is visible on the 16th floor.
