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| Minneapolis Apartment Locator Services : Minneapolis |  | Contents | |
| History |
Minneapolis at dusk |
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| Father Louis Hennepin was the first
European to explore the area, giving the falls their name, as
well as lending his name to the county in which Minneapolis
is located. |
The nearby Fort Snelling spurred
the growth of villages and towns in the area. A lumber mill
was built on the falls in 1822 to supply the fort. In the
1840s, settlers were not allowed to stay on land controlled
by the military without special permission, so the first settlement
near the falls, St. Anthony, grew on the northeast side of
the river, just outside of the fort's jurisdiction.
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| Minneapolis grew quickly
during and after the Civil War and became a city in 1867. Outstripping
the growth of its neighbor, the city merged with St. Anthony
five years later in 1872. The early growth of the city was directed
by the river, which ran to the southeast, and most early streets
ran parallel to it to maximize the amount of land that could
be used. Later growth of Minneapolis eventually turned to using
north-south/east-west streets, so many unique intersections
were formed to translate between the two layouts (probably the
most famous of these is a site known as Seven Corners, on the
eastern periphery of downtown). |
| In the 1950s and '60s, the downtown
area of Minneapolis went through a major phase of urban renewal,
which involved the razing of about 200 buildings across 25 city
blocks—roughly 40% of the area. This included the destruction
of a slum area known as "Skid Row," but also the destruction
of many buildings with notable architecture. One of the most
lamented buildings was the Metropolitan Building, known simply
as "the Met". Efforts to save the building (which
ultimately failed) are credited with jumpstarting a much greater
interest in historic preservation in the state of Minnesota.
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