Milwaukee Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
Milwaukee Avenue, Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis,

MN

United States

Milwaukee Avenue

Located southeast of downtown Minneapolis between Franklin Avenue and 24th Street, this two-block road was platted in 1883 by widening a corridor originally intended to be an alley. This arrangement resulted in small lots that were more affordable for the city’s rapidly growing working class, with most purchased by immigrants, particularly those from Scandinavia. Wedged between 22nd and 23rdAvenues, Milwaukee Avenue was known as 22-1/2 Avenue until the early twentieth century. 

Real estate speculator William Ragan platted the land and built many of the road’s modest wood-frame houses clad in brick veneer. Other houses sharing a similar vernacular design soon populated the avenue’s petite lots. Buildings were closely spaced, with little setback from the street and minimal side and back yards. 

The neighborhood had deteriorated by the mid-twentieth century and was targeted for urban renewal. Local advocates succeeded in stopping proposed demolition of the Milwaukee Avenue houses in 1970 and gave momentum to efforts to rehabilitate the houses as the city’s first planned-unit development. Vacant lots were filled with displaced houses of similar vintage and compatible new construction displaying similar scale and materials. With plans prepared by architects and planners from the Seward West Project Area Committee, the narrow street was closed to vehicular traffic and transformed into a pedestrian way with concrete sidewalks, grass panels, planted beds, and an extensive deciduous tree canopy. Visitor parking was provided on vacated perpendicular streets. Maintenance of the mall is overseen by a homeowners’ association. The Milwaukee Avenue Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Location and Nearby Landscapes

Nearby Landscapes