Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study This document is provided as part of the The Joseph Selvaggio Initiative Sponsored by: The Phillips Partnership: Allina Health System Gordon Sprenger, Executive Officer Fannie Mae Gloria Bostrom, Director, Minnesota Partnership Office Honeywell Michael Bonsignore, Chariman and CEO The Minneapolis Foundation Emmett Carson, President Norwest Bank Jim Campbell, Chairman and CEO U.S. Bancorp Jack Grundhofer,, Presidnet and CEO City of Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin Project Architects: Close Landscape Architecture 610 Northwestern Building 275 East Fourth Street St. Paul, MN 55101 Hokanson Lunning Wende Associates 612 Northwestern Building 275 East Fourth Street St. Paul, MN 55101 Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study 1 What have we learned from history? • Neighborhood groups are powerful entities and have been active in the Phillips neighborhood since Table of Contents the Park Avenue Improvement Association of the 1880’s. • When our city was built, the streets were meant to accommodate horses, not cars. However, even at that time streets were built at differing widths to accommodate varying amounts of traffic volume. History of the Study Area 5 • Even as the city was being developed, there were concerns about defining the edge of private Territorial Growth of Minneapolis 7 property. Sanborn Map 8 • Pedestrian scale lighting has always been recognized as an important neighborhood asset. Minneapolis Real Estate Index Co. Map 10 Residential Photographs 11 • Housing styles varied but were compatible with one another, and formed strong edges on the street. Typical Structures of the Time, from Nearby Streets 20 • Yards were considered gardens meant to provide visual pleasure for the owner and the passerby. Study Area Streets 21 They also served various utilitarian purposes by providing food, space for chores, and storage. Plan Book Houses 24 • Trends in development and dependence on vehicles (traffic volumes and parking) have changed the Sears Plan Book 25 character of our neighborhoods. We need to explore new options of restoring the livability of our Saxton Plan Book 26 neighborhoods. Landscape Design at the Turn-of-the-Century 29 • Parks and open space were considered an important part of the community from the beginning of Area Institutions and Businesses 32 the development of Minneapolis. Bibliography 35 • Historically commercial and institutional uses grew up to serve the immediate neighborhood. Today, commercial and institutional facilities draw from a much larger area and community relationships have been weakened. • Outreach programs like the Joseph Selvaggio Initiative are re-establishing these important connections. 2 Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study Through the years Abbot Hospital continued to expand with the help of generous grants and added a “children’s pavilion” and general hospital. In 1937 the hospital’s bed space was increased to 160 and provided operating rooms, laboratories, and x-ray facilities. In 1955 a fund drive further expanded the hospital and helped open a new 75-bed addition. The rising costs of high technology in the 1960's and 1970’s meant new priorities for the hospital board. It became necessary to consolidate expensive support services leading to the 1970 merger of Abbott and Northwestern hospitals. In 1975, recommendations were made by the board of directors to physically consolidate both hospitals at the 27th and Chicago site. On a bitterly cold January morning in 1980, several hundred doctors, nurses, and volunteers - and a line-up of ambulances-arrived to help move patients from Abbott Hospital to the new, consolidated facility, Dr. Amos Abbott came to Minneapolis and to say their last good-byes to the hospital they loved so well. in 1887 and opened an office at 310 Nicollet Ave before starting “Dr. Abbott’s Hospital for Women.” Honeywell A timetable of highlights from Honeywell’s 100+ year history: The Joseph Selavaggio Initiative Project Boundaries Map Images courtesy of Abbott Northwestern Hospital 34 Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study 3 Northwestern Hospital Harriet G. Walker, wife of the prominent businessman Thomas B. Walker, never could ignore the unhealthy Davidson’s Pocket Map conditions of Minneapolis's poor. In 1882, she and a group of Minneapolis women founded Northwestern Circa 1884 Hospital for Women and Children. Taking no fees, serving only the poorest of the city’s women and chil- dren, and staffed by women doctors, the new charity hospital could accommodate 10 patients in a rented The original Davidson’s map can be seen at house at 2504 Fourth Avenue. the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul From its inception until 1967, Northwestern Hospital was governed by an all-women board of directors. Points of interest within the Selvaggio This 84-year tradition distinguished Northwestern as the only general hospital in the nation governed by Initiative Study Area: women. A Men's advisory Board was formally established in 1923, and in 1967, the first men were elect- • At this time, 28th Street was not a through street at the south of the study ed as full, voting members of the Board of Directors. area. • Oakland is also not continuous, and to Beginning in the 1960’s, Northwestern Hospital's existing medical education program formally affiliated the north of the study area is is labeled with the University of Minnesota Medical School, making medical education and clinical research the hos- both “Portland Place, and Park Place” pital's special link to a highly technological age. • Alleys exist in this map much as they do today. Alleys are curiously missing from Having served the community for nearly 60 years, the original hospital building, built at the corner of the 2700 blocks of Park and Portland. Chicago and 27th in 1887, was deemed obsolete. Over the next 15 years, fund raising drives allowed There is an alley shown in the 2600 Northwestern Hospital to build new facilities and patients benefited from improved and updated treatment block of Park, which was never facilities. constructed. • Columbus is named 7 1/2 Avenue. The cooperations of Northwestern Hospital merged with Abbott Hospital in 1970, and the two hospitals Points of interest outside the boundaries of physically consolidated at the Northwestern Hospital site on January 26th, 1980. With it’s centennial cel- the Study Area: ebrated in 1982, Abbott Northwestern hospital began its second century of service; as a regional medical • Notice the roundhouses depicted on center, it spans six city blocks and provides both primary and specialized health care to more than 25,000 the rail lines inpatients annually. • The rail line at today’s 29th street is in place at this early date. • Notice the shape of Powderhorn Lake as it existed in 1884 • Loring Park is named “Central Park” E. 26th Street • A substantial number of parks exist • Basset’s Creek is fully exposed through E. 27th Street the City, we can see it’s original alignment. Bassets creek was later routed through a number of culverts as it E. 28th Street traveled through the City. The City is now working on plans to expose sections of Park the creek once again. Nursing graduates : 1895 Images courtesy of Minnesota History Center Chicago • Highway 55 takes its alignment from an Portland existing rail line. The rented house which was home to the newly formed • Today’s Minneapolis farmers market site Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children. was to be an upper-class residential development. • Very few bridges span the Mississippi Abbott Hospital River. Dr. Amos Abbott opened his First hospital for Women in 1902 as a surgical facility for this patients. The • Street names around Lake Harriet ranged from flowers to cities. small yellow brick building at 10 East 17th Street had room for 15 beds, an operating room, laboratory, and living quarters for five nurses-in-training, a cook and the hospital superintendent. In 1911 William Dunwoody contributed more than $100,000 in an endowment through the Trustees of Westminster Presbyterian Church for a new hospital. In 1914 the church began it's 52-year administration of the hospital. Courtesy of Minnesota History Center 4 Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study Phillips Neighborhood Historic Study 33 Area Institutions and Businesses A brief historic background on the city of Minneapolis. History The American Swedish Institute The City of Minneapolis really began as the city of St. Anthony, (which is now the part of Minneapolis that is East of the Mississippi) as a sawmill serving the growing timber industry. When Minneapolis, the original the American Swedish Institute has operated in the former Turnblad family mansion at 2600 Park Avenue Mill City, eventually merged with St. Anthony in 1872, it had become the dominant economic force of the since it was founded in 1929. It’s mission is: two1, due to the booming milling district within its bounds on the Western side of the falls. These two indus- 1. To preserve and restore the Turnblad residence, which is listed on the National Historic register; tries fueled the quick growth of the city with the period of most rapid growth during the late nineteenth and 2. To preserve and share with the public its collection of Swedish Americana; early twentieth centuries. Population continued to increase even after the two industries' peak productions 3. To interpret the history of immigration; occurred in 1899 for lumber and 1915 for flour2. 4. To enhance cultural relations with modern Sweden. It was the first institution of its kind, and is still likely the biggest. Though it was originally built as a family home, built during 1903-7, its extravagance was undoubtably meant to show the wealth and prominence Timeline for development of the Study Area. The southern boundary of Minneapolis in 1870, shown on a map by Geo. B. Wright, was located at 24th that Mr.