Where are historic resources located along the University Avenue? With light rail transit on its way, addressing this question is critical to preserving and enhancing historically significant buildings and places along the Central Corridor.
To help answer this question, Historic Saint Paul is republishing (on our website) “Architecture by Bus,” an article from a 1992 Architecture Minnesota magazine by Kristy Aldrian and Steven Buetow. Using the map below, you can travel back in time to the early ’90s and visit 24 historic places along Metro Transit bus route 16 (which runs along the proposed LRT line).
Architecture by Bus
by Kristy Aldrian and Steven Buetow
reprinted from Architecture Minnesota
Snapshots of Minneapolis-St. Paul history are just a bus ride away. Hop aboard Metro Transit route 16 to catch sights along University Avenue. From the State Capitol in St. Paul to the ubiquitous grain elevators in Minneapolis, University Avenue is an architectural cross-section of Twin Cities’ heritage.
Named after Hamline University, University Avenue developed as the first interurban streetcar line in 1890. It remains one of St. Paul’s most important commercial streets, with many Victorian and turn-of-the-century commercial buildings, most of which have been altered at street level.
The University Avenue area, from Snelling Avenue North across the Minneapolis city limits to 15th Avenue Southeast, forms what has long been referred to as the Midway district. Around the extensive railroad yards has grown a large, industrial district composed of manufacturing, grain elevators, wholesale houses, and the like. University Avenue itself has tended to attract business offices and even some retail establishments; however, industrial complexes also have developed on both sides of the avenue, as well as academic buildings and single- and multifamily housing.
Other late 19th century developments include several residential parks, notably Prospect Park to the northwest in Minneapolis (1870s) and Lake Iris Park southwest of University Avenue at Lynnhurst Avenue (1883).
Ever since Interstate 94 connected Minneapolis and St. Paul in the 1960s, University Avenue has lost its importance as the main commuter artery, but the architecture remains a vivid portrait of the Twin Cities’ bustling history. So grab that bus pass and hail down the 16!
Click on the place-markers to view information about the historic sites along University Avenue.
