Preserving Downtown’s Core, Minneapolis

Bringing back a historic district

Elliot Park, just east of downtown, is one of Minneapolis’s oldest neighborhoods. It rose to wealth near the end of the 19th century, as the downtown area began to grow. At that time, it had the city’s only two parks, which made it a fashionable place to live.

However, as the city grew more and more quickly, the neighborhood began to change. The need for higher concentrations of people transformed it into an area of three- and four-story brick apartment buildings. In the 1960s, the eastern and southern edges of the area were gutted for freeways 94 and 35W. That massive construction also displaced many area businesses, substantially changing the neighborhood’s character. Between 1950 and 1970, Elliot Park’s population had dropped by 54%, and it had become one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.

At that point, concerned neighborhood residents organized to turn the neighborhood around. In 1976, residents established Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc. to improve the quality of life in their area through a community development Master Plan. Their mission was to conserve the existing housing stock, ensure the delivery of needed services for residents of every age and economic situation, and promote economic development and cultural activities that celebrated the neighborhood’s diversity and history.

Elliot Park’s revitalization accelerated in the 1980s when a locally designated historic district was established to further protect the area’s heritage as one of Minneapolis’s most architecturally interesting neighborhoods. Housing developers built more than 500 affordable units, as well as moderate-income co-ops and condominiums—many of which echo the neighborhood’s historic look. A new recreation center went up in one of the original parks, community gardens were cultivated, and many other building restorations and streetscape improvements were made. Today, Elliot Park, which has experienced the fastest growth rate in the city during the past 20 years, is a safe, attractive, economically and racially diverse urban village—a testament to the vision, conviction, and success of residents and community developers.