2117 Milwaukee Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404, USA

Milwaukee Avenue Restoration - Hennepin County History

Milwaukee Avenue Restoration
19th Century Neighborhood Rehabilitated by Historically Minded and Dedicated Residents

By Jerilee N. Richtman

(Summary of the document, the full PDF is saved in below)

Milwaukee Avenue is an anomaly in the realm of historic preservation. It has not witnessed any great events, nor has it given birth to any eminent or notorious personages. Its historical message is delivered without fanfare through the quiet dignity of its aged visage. It is the story of the lives of immigrants who came to Minnesota when America was a new world to Europeans, and not yet a "melting pot." Throughout its history Milwaukee Avenue has provided homes for working class families. Its residences served often as temporary homes to immigrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The narrow street with its small, look-alike houses, tucked closely together offers a visual lesson in economic and social history. It serves as a contrast to those artifacts of the aristocracy, which have been the normal fare of historic preservation. Its vision does not entertain romantic notions of the "good old days." The simplicity of the late 19th Century streetscape and its individual elements speaks eloquently of the lifestyle of the common men and women who lived without servants, buggies and grand balls and without those amenities that are taken for granted today.

The reasons for the unique streetscape that formed along Milwaukee Avenue are, the continuity of modest and similar forms; and the simple rhythm of the gabled roofs of houses built right up to the sidewalk. The first house on Milwaukee Avenue was built in 1884 and most of the other homes were completed by 1890. The street was originally platted for an alley, and until 1906, this alley street was named 22 1/2 Avenue. Residents of the street had requested the City to change the name because, as they stated in a 1906 petition, " . . . we find the "1/2' objectionable in speaking of it or writing letters. The giving the impression that we live in an alley." These petitioners asked the City Council to change the name to Woodland Avenue and it is not known why the name Milwaukee Avenue was substituted. The proximity of the street to the "Milwaukee Road" tracks was perhaps the reason for the name selection.

The plot of land which includes Milwaukee Avenue was originally developed by real estate agent, William Ragan. "Ragan's Addition to Minneapolis," as it was originally platted, comprised two full blocks and two three-quarter-size blocks. To increase the development potential of his parcel, Ragan divided the land into four half-blocks. The alley between 22nd and 23rd Avenues was transformed to a street by taking thirty-eight feet from the cast-face of the short lots on Blocks I and 2 of Ragan's Addition. The lots thus platted, already shortened lengthwise because of the street easement, were then measured in widths of only twenty-five feet about half the normal size of a city lot of the time. As a result of Ragan's intensive use of the land, the forty-six houses which were built along Milwaukee Avenue were extremely close together and had little, if any, setback from the sidewalk. According to building permits that were recorded, William Ragan also acted as the contractor for the construction of many of the houses.

2117 Milwaukee Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Photo by Charles W. Nelson in October of 1973. Part of the inventory of homes used in the application for the National Register of Historic Places.