If you were to look over the American landscape you would see a fairly clear demarcation in both land use form and street pattern between that of the past 60 years compared to that built at an earlier time. The second half of the twentieth century, and continuing today into the 21st century comprises what is referred to as a suburban (some say sub-urban) form of development--that is low density and auto-centric in nature. Pre-World War II development was more organic (i.e. naturally occurring), based on walking or transit (horse trolleys, street cars, subways and the like). Being dependent on foot travel requires more density and a mix of uses within a neighborhood. Prior to the dawn of the suburban land use pattern, the neighborhood was where you could walk to meet most of your needs from church, school, food, retail, play and possibly even work. Our auto-centric land use pattern is dramatically different in result and land consumption than the earlier established pattern of land use. In the 1960’s and into the 1980’s urban type neighborhoods would start to decay. Many were abandoned in favor of the green pastures of suburbia. Yet, these urban neighborhoods are seeing a renaissance in part due to children who were products of suburbia. This is the fourth in a series of posts on neighborhoods and will focus primarily on a brief experience I had in a neighborhood in Minneapolis which to me seems to defy the critics of urbanism, and to defy the tenants of a land use pattern that have prevailed over the last 70 years. The third post dealt primarily with walk accessibility, or lack of it. The second dealt with a small city in transition regarding its commercial land use and how that may affect social capital. The first post involved neighborhood as a sense of place.
Neighborhoods are the building blocks of a community. They are crucial to providing sense of place and meaning. Many cities had vibrant ethnic neighborhoods that were formed around a church, or other establishment crucial to its residents. Overtime many of these ethnic enclaves, particularly after a couple generations would be assimilated into the broader U.S. culture. This particularly started to occur in the 1950’s. Some cities still retain the original ethnic flavor, whereas others have had their ethnic flavor altered. For some, the ethnic makeup has diversified, forming a polyglot of ethic food stores and restaurants. To many suburban subdivisions, diversity of form or type that allows for different socio-economic groups is anathema to their existence. As touched on in post 2, we have become a nation separated by social and income status. The Whittier Neighborhood (and its adjoining neighborhoods, such as Lowery Hill East) of Minneapolis seem to defy current thinking of this preferred socio-economic stratification, a level of thinking which is prevalent in the vast suburbs of Minneapolis. This neighborhood has had its trials, but today it is diverse, meaningful, and in a view formed by impressions of only a few days, it works.
A look at its history would show that Whittier did not always function well. Like many urban neighborhoods it fell on rough times in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Named for poet John Greenleaf Whittier, for whom a school in the area had been named, Whittier makes up one of 84 Minneapolis neighborhoods that are part of eleven communities. It is one of the eight neighborhoods that make up the Powderhorn community. The neighborhood was founded when John T. Blaisdell, and his brother Robert each claimed 160 acres of farms from part of the former Fort Snelling Military Reservation (other sources say they squatted). The northern portion of the neighborhood would see development first, while the southern portion remained in agriculture or was used for industrial purposes. From 1858 to the early 1910’s much of the northeast portion of the neighborhood would become grand estates of limestone homes—an outgrowth of the gilded age. The first mansion built would be for Dorilus Morrison. Others would follow. A horse drawn street car, put into operation in 1878, would allow movement of wealthy barons from their home in this neighborhood just south of downtown to downtown. In 1879 the Lyndale Railway Co. began operating along what is Lyndale Avenue to Thirty-First street and then to the shore of Lake Calhoun. The industrial development to the south would see the construction of worker housing. Showing that even worker housing can be of architectural value, there are homes originally constructed for industrial workers on West Twenty-Ninth Street that are now recognized as good examples of Italianate design.
During its period of early growth, multi-family dwellings began to appear mainly along transit lines, even though single family was the predominant choice. Some duplexes, with the appearance of a single-family home, were also built. Whittier School, for which the neighborhood is named, would be converted to a condominium building. In an act that would be found perplexing today, in the 1920’s the city zoned the Washburn-Fair Oaks area as multi-family. This is an area which had large gilded age mansions. Some of these limestone manors would be torn down to make way for multi-family housing, and some converted to multi-family. The zoning change for multi-family use was precipitated by the close relationship of Whittier to downtown Minneapolis. Perhaps the city of Minneapolis chose to mimic the then current thinking of the concentric ring theory of urban growth popularized by urban ecologists at the University of Chicago through their study of the city of Chicago. The pre WWII apartment buildings were constructed of stone, brick or terra cotta and many are fine examples of what was then modern design. Multi-family construction would pick up again in the 1950’s and 1960’s as the city would continue to follow its 1920 style thinking. Today, over 90% of Whittier’s population is in multi-family housing. In the 1960’s single family homeowners would start to leave urban neighborhoods, and coupled with the construction of Interstate Hwy 35 W in that same decade, the neighborhood would enter a time of decline.
Highway construction is viewed as great for the commuter, but it is a destroyer of neighborhoods. It destroys property values, and neighborhood cohesiveness. It is reported that one affected resident commented that a one block to St Stephen’s church was now over eight due to the highway which is in the back yard of the church. He also noted that people quickly moved out due to highway noise, and squatters would move in and trash the homes. In 1985 St. Stephen’s celebrated its centennial. A history of the neighborhood would quote an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune which said that 100 years earlier it was the place for the city’s wealthy to attend mass, but by 1985 it was a mission church dependent on the diocese. In 1981 St. Stephen’s would start the first church- based homeless shelter in the city of Minneapolis in order to assist the growing homeless population. That mission continues, although it is now its own separate non-profit corporation.
Typical of the auto-oriented thinking in the 1970’s, a redevelopment plan for the Nicollet-Lake St. area was approved that was a suburban dream. It provided for a discount department store and a grocery store well set back from the street, to assure ample parking. This would bring a slice of the suburbs to the city, and while many residents opposed the project, the city approved it thinking it of it as a solution to neighborhood problems. But, the solution was not so simple, and that project would, in the end, prove again that development alone does not solve the problem. In the early 1990’s Whittier would be one of the first neighborhoods in Minneapolis to utilize what was termed a Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP). This program began first with planning and then with implementation. As often happens, funding fell well short of what was needed, yet the neighborhood persevered. Luckily, by this time, it appears that lessons of past mistakes have been learned, but also a growing movement would come to assist in the situation.
Changing demographics, previously shown with immigrants, now shown with the move of millennials to urban neighborhoods over the past few years, has likely assisted in making this neighborhood work. A few days does not make one an expert, but yet what one sees is a diverse neighborhood demographically and in its land use. It has single family mansions, and section 8 housing. It is a neighborhood with core institutions, like St Stephen’s, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and a school constructed in 1997. In the later part of the twentieth century Nicollet Avenue was a street of of crack houses, but immigrant communities reinvented this street. In fact, it is thought today that Whittier is comprised of persons from 30 different countries speaking 25 different languages. It is a neighborhood that has taken its diversity and turned it into strength where it is now known as the international neighborhood. Nicollet has become the “Eat Street” due to its variety of ethic food stores and restaurants. Programs to promote homeownership have also helped. The Milwaukee Road railroad became part of the rails to trails program. Showing the fugacious nature of auto-oriented development strip development, the shopping center that contained the grocer and discount retailer, and which was proclaimed as the magic elixir for the neighborhood less than forty years earlier is apparently now in the planning process of urban renewal. What have survived are many of the retail stores and shops that are near the street often dating back to or before the 1930’s. The uses in these store fronts have changed, but these small stores and shop buildings have stood the test of time. They are what helps makes an area urban, and it is the urban nature that helps give flavor, and leads to walkability.
This is a neighborhood that has a single family mansion next to or across the street from an apartment building. It has moderate housing, and it likely still has a number of duplexes that you cannot tell apart from single family. It is a neighborhood with three section 8 multi-family housing complexes. The main streets have a variety of shops and restaurants ready to serve a population more diverse than its housing stock.
On my first visit to Whittier in May of this year I was struck by its diversity of land use, and people. One of the first people I came across was a man on a bike going down an alley opening the garbage and recycling bins ahead of the garbage truck. Around the corner were large homes and mansions, part of the gilded age and early twentieth mansion construction boom. Some of these mansions are now owned by non-profits, others are still single family. My two days in August showed a vibrant, eclectic and socio-demographically diverse neighborhood. Parking on the street is a premium, but it adds to the neighborhood flavor and its vibrancy, as do the many bicyclists. (What happens to parking in the winter may be another story.) My wife and I spent the night at a Bed and Breakfast just west of Lyndale, and the street on which it is located is a bicycle boulevard. While technically outside of Whittier, it shares much in common with Whittier. The owners of the single family home B&B have lived there for over forty years, during the bad times and now the better. A 1960 era apartment building is across the street from their home and they have appreciated the limits on new multifamily—the preservation of some aspect of home ownership. In the book The Smart Growth Manual, the authors state the following: “For many reasons, a healthy neighborhood includes a wide range of dwelling types.” Whittier fits that description. Yet, the book goes further, saying that “authentic social networks” depend on age and income diversity. Whittier does that and more. Whittier is a neighborhood that can provide life-cycle housing, one can move from an apartment to a duplex or two-flat, then to a single family home, all the way to a mansion. On the walk score index, the apartment building in which my son, who lives in Whittier, scores an 86, very walkable. I am sure there are some uses not present due to the desire of retail, and now many services for big box locations that cause the score to be reduced.
At least to this observer, Whittier works even though it runs counter to development principles that have been followed over the past 60 or 70 years. It lacks wide streets, it lacks uniformity of housing, it lacks block after block of single family housing, and it lacks cul-de-sacs. My goodness, it even contains many apartment buildings, and some are section 8. You can even walk. It works, because it has a predominant form of development that has stood the test of time. It works because it decided to play off its strength of diversity. It works because people who live their care, whether they are a single family homeowner or an apartment renter. Possibly, it works because millennial's are now recognizing the advantages of urban living and the vitality that produces. It works because the city recognized its early planning mistakes and has worked with the neighborhood through its NRP. It works because of core institutions like the school, art institute and St. Stephen’s church. I am sure that there is more that can be done, but neighborhoods, like society itself, are organic and fluid. Like us they go through good times and bad. They grow, as do we, by dealing with trials and past experiences. This is what the institutions and residents of Whittier did to make a lively urban neighborhood. That is why this urban neighborhood works.
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| Franklin Ave 1938 Air photo Notice the street grid Source: Borchert Map Library University of Minnesota on-line |
Neighborhoods are the building blocks of a community. They are crucial to providing sense of place and meaning. Many cities had vibrant ethnic neighborhoods that were formed around a church, or other establishment crucial to its residents. Overtime many of these ethnic enclaves, particularly after a couple generations would be assimilated into the broader U.S. culture. This particularly started to occur in the 1950’s. Some cities still retain the original ethnic flavor, whereas others have had their ethnic flavor altered. For some, the ethnic makeup has diversified, forming a polyglot of ethic food stores and restaurants. To many suburban subdivisions, diversity of form or type that allows for different socio-economic groups is anathema to their existence. As touched on in post 2, we have become a nation separated by social and income status. The Whittier Neighborhood (and its adjoining neighborhoods, such as Lowery Hill East) of Minneapolis seem to defy current thinking of this preferred socio-economic stratification, a level of thinking which is prevalent in the vast suburbs of Minneapolis. This neighborhood has had its trials, but today it is diverse, meaningful, and in a view formed by impressions of only a few days, it works.
 |
| Single family home in Whittier Source: Author, August 2014 |
A look at its history would show that Whittier did not always function well. Like many urban neighborhoods it fell on rough times in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Named for poet John Greenleaf Whittier, for whom a school in the area had been named, Whittier makes up one of 84 Minneapolis neighborhoods that are part of eleven communities. It is one of the eight neighborhoods that make up the Powderhorn community. The neighborhood was founded when John T. Blaisdell, and his brother Robert each claimed 160 acres of farms from part of the former Fort Snelling Military Reservation (other sources say they squatted). The northern portion of the neighborhood would see development first, while the southern portion remained in agriculture or was used for industrial purposes. From 1858 to the early 1910’s much of the northeast portion of the neighborhood would become grand estates of limestone homes—an outgrowth of the gilded age. The first mansion built would be for Dorilus Morrison. Others would follow. A horse drawn street car, put into operation in 1878, would allow movement of wealthy barons from their home in this neighborhood just south of downtown to downtown. In 1879 the Lyndale Railway Co. began operating along what is Lyndale Avenue to Thirty-First street and then to the shore of Lake Calhoun. The industrial development to the south would see the construction of worker housing. Showing that even worker housing can be of architectural value, there are homes originally constructed for industrial workers on West Twenty-Ninth Street that are now recognized as good examples of Italianate design.
 |
| Minneapolis Institute for the Arts Source: Google images |
During its period of early growth, multi-family dwellings began to appear mainly along transit lines, even though single family was the predominant choice. Some duplexes, with the appearance of a single-family home, were also built. Whittier School, for which the neighborhood is named, would be converted to a condominium building. In an act that would be found perplexing today, in the 1920’s the city zoned the Washburn-Fair Oaks area as multi-family. This is an area which had large gilded age mansions. Some of these limestone manors would be torn down to make way for multi-family housing, and some converted to multi-family. The zoning change for multi-family use was precipitated by the close relationship of Whittier to downtown Minneapolis. Perhaps the city of Minneapolis chose to mimic the then current thinking of the concentric ring theory of urban growth popularized by urban ecologists at the University of Chicago through their study of the city of Chicago. The pre WWII apartment buildings were constructed of stone, brick or terra cotta and many are fine examples of what was then modern design. Multi-family construction would pick up again in the 1950’s and 1960’s as the city would continue to follow its 1920 style thinking. Today, over 90% of Whittier’s population is in multi-family housing. In the 1960’s single family homeowners would start to leave urban neighborhoods, and coupled with the construction of Interstate Hwy 35 W in that same decade, the neighborhood would enter a time of decline.
 |
| Strip mall near Nicollet and Lake Streets, near I-35 W Source: Google Maps |
Highway construction is viewed as great for the commuter, but it is a destroyer of neighborhoods. It destroys property values, and neighborhood cohesiveness. It is reported that one affected resident commented that a one block to St Stephen’s church was now over eight due to the highway which is in the back yard of the church. He also noted that people quickly moved out due to highway noise, and squatters would move in and trash the homes. In 1985 St. Stephen’s celebrated its centennial. A history of the neighborhood would quote an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune which said that 100 years earlier it was the place for the city’s wealthy to attend mass, but by 1985 it was a mission church dependent on the diocese. In 1981 St. Stephen’s would start the first church- based homeless shelter in the city of Minneapolis in order to assist the growing homeless population. That mission continues, although it is now its own separate non-profit corporation.
 |
| Urban type street fronts, Nicollet Ave Source: Google Images |
Typical of the auto-oriented thinking in the 1970’s, a redevelopment plan for the Nicollet-Lake St. area was approved that was a suburban dream. It provided for a discount department store and a grocery store well set back from the street, to assure ample parking. This would bring a slice of the suburbs to the city, and while many residents opposed the project, the city approved it thinking it of it as a solution to neighborhood problems. But, the solution was not so simple, and that project would, in the end, prove again that development alone does not solve the problem. In the early 1990’s Whittier would be one of the first neighborhoods in Minneapolis to utilize what was termed a Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP). This program began first with planning and then with implementation. As often happens, funding fell well short of what was needed, yet the neighborhood persevered. Luckily, by this time, it appears that lessons of past mistakes have been learned, but also a growing movement would come to assist in the situation.
 |
| Redevelopment (1970's) near Nicollet and Lake Streets. The buildings are so far back you they are not well visible Source: Google Maps |
Changing demographics, previously shown with immigrants, now shown with the move of millennials to urban neighborhoods over the past few years, has likely assisted in making this neighborhood work. A few days does not make one an expert, but yet what one sees is a diverse neighborhood demographically and in its land use. It has single family mansions, and section 8 housing. It is a neighborhood with core institutions, like St Stephen’s, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and a school constructed in 1997. In the later part of the twentieth century Nicollet Avenue was a street of of crack houses, but immigrant communities reinvented this street. In fact, it is thought today that Whittier is comprised of persons from 30 different countries speaking 25 different languages. It is a neighborhood that has taken its diversity and turned it into strength where it is now known as the international neighborhood. Nicollet has become the “Eat Street” due to its variety of ethic food stores and restaurants. Programs to promote homeownership have also helped. The Milwaukee Road railroad became part of the rails to trails program. Showing the fugacious nature of auto-oriented development strip development, the shopping center that contained the grocer and discount retailer, and which was proclaimed as the magic elixir for the neighborhood less than forty years earlier is apparently now in the planning process of urban renewal. What have survived are many of the retail stores and shops that are near the street often dating back to or before the 1930’s. The uses in these store fronts have changed, but these small stores and shop buildings have stood the test of time. They are what helps makes an area urban, and it is the urban nature that helps give flavor, and leads to walkability.
 |
| Fair Oaks Mansion built by Wm. Washburn in 1884. Donated to city Parks Division by owner. Torn down by city in 1924 It is now Fair Oaks Park |
This is a neighborhood that has a single family mansion next to or across the street from an apartment building. It has moderate housing, and it likely still has a number of duplexes that you cannot tell apart from single family. It is a neighborhood with three section 8 multi-family housing complexes. The main streets have a variety of shops and restaurants ready to serve a population more diverse than its housing stock.
 |
| Single family mansion on Pillsbury St. Source: Author, August 2014 |
 |
| Source: Author, August 2014 |
On my first visit to Whittier in May of this year I was struck by its diversity of land use, and people. One of the first people I came across was a man on a bike going down an alley opening the garbage and recycling bins ahead of the garbage truck. Around the corner were large homes and mansions, part of the gilded age and early twentieth mansion construction boom. Some of these mansions are now owned by non-profits, others are still single family. My two days in August showed a vibrant, eclectic and socio-demographically diverse neighborhood. Parking on the street is a premium, but it adds to the neighborhood flavor and its vibrancy, as do the many bicyclists. (What happens to parking in the winter may be another story.) My wife and I spent the night at a Bed and Breakfast just west of Lyndale, and the street on which it is located is a bicycle boulevard. While technically outside of Whittier, it shares much in common with Whittier. The owners of the single family home B&B have lived there for over forty years, during the bad times and now the better. A 1960 era apartment building is across the street from their home and they have appreciated the limits on new multifamily—the preservation of some aspect of home ownership. In the book The Smart Growth Manual, the authors state the following: “For many reasons, a healthy neighborhood includes a wide range of dwelling types.” Whittier fits that description. Yet, the book goes further, saying that “authentic social networks” depend on age and income diversity. Whittier does that and more. Whittier is a neighborhood that can provide life-cycle housing, one can move from an apartment to a duplex or two-flat, then to a single family home, all the way to a mansion. On the walk score index, the apartment building in which my son, who lives in Whittier, scores an 86, very walkable. I am sure there are some uses not present due to the desire of retail, and now many services for big box locations that cause the score to be reduced.
 |
| Multi-family dwelling, in what is known as a bowfront style Source: Author, August 2014 |
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| Marie Antoinette Apartment building Source: Author, May 2014 |
At least to this observer, Whittier works even though it runs counter to development principles that have been followed over the past 60 or 70 years. It lacks wide streets, it lacks uniformity of housing, it lacks block after block of single family housing, and it lacks cul-de-sacs. My goodness, it even contains many apartment buildings, and some are section 8. You can even walk. It works, because it has a predominant form of development that has stood the test of time. It works because it decided to play off its strength of diversity. It works because people who live their care, whether they are a single family homeowner or an apartment renter. Possibly, it works because millennial's are now recognizing the advantages of urban living and the vitality that produces. It works because the city recognized its early planning mistakes and has worked with the neighborhood through its NRP. It works because of core institutions like the school, art institute and St. Stephen’s church. I am sure that there is more that can be done, but neighborhoods, like society itself, are organic and fluid. Like us they go through good times and bad. They grow, as do we, by dealing with trials and past experiences. This is what the institutions and residents of Whittier did to make a lively urban neighborhood. That is why this urban neighborhood works.
 |
| Pillsbury Mansion, now a occupied by a non-profit Source: Author, August 2014 |
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