Elliot Park, Minneapolis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Downtown Minneapolis, as seen from Centennial Place, in the Elliot Park neighborhood

Elliot Park is a neighborhood within the larger Central community in Minneapolis, MN, USA. It is bordered on the north by the Downtown West and Downtown East neighborhoods, on the west by Loring Park, on the east by Cedar/Riverside, and on the south by Phillips. Its official boundaries are 5th Avenue South to the northwest, 5th Street South to the northeast Highway 55 to the east, the Interstate 94/Interstate 35W commons to the south, and 4th Avenue South to the west. The neighborhood occupies both the Downtown Minneapolis street grid (running parallel to the Mississippi River) and the South Minneapolis street grid (running north-south and east-west), creating many trianglar street corners where the two grids meet. Once the home of some of Minneapolis's wealthiest citizens, after World War II and the construction of I-94 and I-35W cut off the neighborhood, Elliot Park became one of the city's poorest neighborhoods by the 1970's.

It is one of Minneapolis's oldest neighborhoods, with plots set for housing as early as 1856. It was close to industrial developments on the nearby banks of the Mississippi River, which made it a popular settlement for early Swedish immigrants.

The namesake for the neighborhood is Mr. Joseph Elliot, an area physician, who donated his farm land to the city in 1893. This land is the site of the current Elliot Park, and another generous donation of Mr. Elliot resulted in the founding of Steele Park - these were the city's first two parks.

It began to rise to wealth near the end of the 19th century, as Downtown Minneapolis began to experience rapid growth. The neighborhood at that time had the city's only two parks, which made it a fashionable area to live in. Several large mansions sprang up along Park Avenue.

However, during the next twenty years, as the city began to grow more and more quickly, the character of the neighborhood began to change. The need for higher concentrations of people transformed the neighborhood into an area of three and four storey brick apartment buildings. Of these, the notable Rappahannock Condominiums are among the oldest in the city.

The area began to decline in wealth in the mid-20th century, as the high housing denisty attracted lower income families. The construction of the interstate system resulted in large areas of the city being gutted, and between 1950 and 1970 the population declined by almost 54%. The freeway construction also resulted in the relocation of several area businesses, which changed the character of the commercial sector, and resulted in a much higher transient population. At one point, 53% of the community lived below the poverty line.

Despite these characterists, the neighborhood's historical contribution to Minneapolis remains significant. The Ninth Street Historic District is certified as a historic district, and two of the neighborhood's buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places: The First Church of Christ, Scientist on 15th Street and the Hinkle-Murphy House at 619 S 10th Street.