Vince Mpls

Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 17:33 UTC

I wonder what unmentionables they were selling? 🤔

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 16:12 UTC

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? 🤔

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 15:52 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 01, 2024 at 15:59 UTC

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.

36 replies 1164 reposts 2069 likes

Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 29, 2024 at 20:55 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 28, 2024 at 21:33 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 03:33 UTC

This reminds me of the famous @pyry.lutefisk.online post

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 24, 2024 at 23:05 UTC

I miss Leonid. Life was simpler then.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 21:34 UTC

Yea that's tough image that evokes several layers of feeling

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 21:05 UTC

Appreciate that! I too get annoyed with the squishy fact brigade, and even had a large account retweet something I did but with wrong facts added. We live in perilous times.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 21:00 UTC

whew 🖖

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:58 UTC

Wow I've never seen that before!

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:57 UTC

I wonder why that is? 🤔

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:56 UTC

I couldn't fit it in one :( I also copied it from my Twitter thread, which ofcourse brings out the worst in people.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:48 UTC

Exactly. We were first.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:47 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:47 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:46 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:45 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:44 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:43 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:40 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:36 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:34 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:30 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:23 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:22 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 20:20 UTC

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!

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:54 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:47 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:45 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:44 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:40 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:38 UTC

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

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:34 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 19:31 UTC

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! 🧵

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 20, 2024 at 18:21 UTC

Is this the original sin of skyways @blindeke.bsky.social ? 😂

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 20, 2024 at 16:35 UTC

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.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 18:05 UTC

Ok now it all makes sense. And yes that museum is one of the best in the US.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 17:54 UTC

Fantastic!

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 16:37 UTC

Yes and then another question is how did they get that thing from the White House in the first place?

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 16:32 UTC

I remember being completely amazed that little museum owned and displayed one of the 3 "Washington Crossing the Delaware" paintings for a few years, before selling it for a cool $43 million in 2022.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 16:26 UTC

Crowds gather on the steps of the new Minnesota State Capitol to welcome the arrival of the regimental flags. Flag day, 1905.

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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 16:15 UTC

Today in history: Civil War veterans carry the Minnesota regimental flags from the old state capitol to Cass Gilbert's magnificent new building on Capitol Hill, June 14, 1905. The 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment saved the Union lines during the battle of Gettysburg.

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