Stevens Square (officially Stevens Square-Loring Heights) is the southernmost neighborhood of the Central community in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. Although one of the densest neighborhoods in Minneapolis today, the land was originally occupied by a few large mansions. Today, the area is composed mostly of old brownstone apartment buildings or mansions that have been subdivided into apartments, giving the neighborhood a heavy population density within its small geographical area; a short and wide neighborhood, it is nearly a mile long but only three blocks tall. Much of the neighborhood is a National Historic District, and five of the apartments were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1993. It is bordered on

Lyndale Avenue Lyndale Avenue is a major street in the U.S. state of Minnesota that traverses the cities of Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, Richfield, and Bloomington. A noncontiguous portion also exists in Faribault, part of Highway 21. There are several com ...

on the west, Franklin Avenue on the south, and Interstates 94 and 35W on the north and east, respectively. Although Stevens Square faced many of the same challenges which confronted other inner-city neighborhoods through the 1990s, the neighborhood has seen significant increases in safety and average income in recent years. These have been attributed both to a successful Neighborhood Revitalization Program and to limited

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

, with many apartments buildings converted to

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

s or

co-ops A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

. The half of the neighborhood east of

Nicollet Avenue Nicollet Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Richfield, Bloomington, and Burnsville in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It passes through a number of locally well-known neighborhoods and districts, notably Eat Street in south Minneapolis an ...

(Stevens Square) is part of City Council Ward 6, while the part to the west (Loring Heights) is in Ward 7. The whole neighborhood is represented in the

Minnesota State House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint P ...

in district 62A, in the

Minnesota State Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any U.S. state legislature. Floor sessions are hel ...

in district 62, and in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

Minnesota's 5th congressional district Minnesota's 5th congressional district is a geographically small urban and suburban congressional district in Minnesota. It covers eastern Hennepin County, including the entire city of Minneapolis, along with parts of Anoka and Ramsey countie ...

History

Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was inhabited by

Dakota Sioux The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...

. Although the area was platted in 1856, it remained sparsely occupied for several decades. Most land in the area was purchased by Richard Mendenhall, who developed the land into a small number of large houses and several massive greenhouses, which supplied Mendenhall's floral business. However, the neighborhood's central location and the rapid growth of the city in the 1890s, facilitated by the introduction of horse-drawn and then electric streetcars which passed through the area on several streets, made the area an increasingly attractive area for redevelopment. In 1907, the property owners, along with one of the biggest property developers in town, petitioned the Park Board to purchase the site of Stevens Square Park, whose irregular grade made development impractical. The Park Board quickly accepted the offer, purchasing the site for $41,820, financed partly by an assessment on local landowners. The park was named in honor of Col.

John H. Stevens John Harrington Stevens (June 13, 1820 – May 28, 1900) was the first authorized colonial resident on the west bank of the Mississippi River in what would become Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was granted permission to occupy the site, then part ...

, the first authorized settler on the west bank of what would eventually become Minneapolis. Construction on the

Abbott Hospital Abbott Hospital is a former hospital building in the Stevens Square neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The hospital was originally built in 1910, with several additions up until 1958. The hospital eventually merged with Nort ...

, now converted to apartments, began in 1910. Apartment construction soon followed, largely in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style set by Stevens Court. Most buildings were constructed to the limits of fire codes at the time, maximizing land coverage and density while building to the three and a half story limits established for non-fire safe construction. Most of the older buildings in the neighborhood were constructed by the mid-1920s, when a slump in the housing market combined with a lack of available land drastically slowed the pace of further construction. Although the neighborhood was originally inhabited primarily by middle-class office workers and single women, by the mid-century the rise of the automobile and

white flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...

to the growing suburbs led to significant decline, as average incomes in the neighborhood dropped precipitously. Although spared from destruction by the construction of Interstate 35W, originally planned to pass directly through the center of the neighborhood, the two new Interstates isolated the neighborhood from downtown except by a few bridges on major arterials. Several large high-rise

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

projects were completed in the 1960s, which contributed to the reputation of the neighborhood as dangerous and low-income. Starting in the 1970s, however, an active neighborhood organization and interested landowners began working actively to revitalize the neighborhood, renovating many buildings and addressing quality-of-life issues in the neighborhood. Much of that renovation was financed by

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

, which believed there were significant profits to be made in revitalizing the inner city, although disappointing financial returns led the company to divest from the project in 1980. A successful block patrol program was set up, and in 1994 the Emily Peake Memorial Garden was established at the corner of Third Avenue and 19th St, in part to discourage what was then a favorite location for drug sales. In recent decades, crime has declined precipitously, although some quality-of-life problems persist.

Transportation

Several important arterial streets pass through the neighborhood, including

(Eat Street), First Avenue, and Franklin Avenue. In addition, the neighborhood has easy access to nearby Interstate highways, and to downtown Minneapolis, located less than a mile to the north. In addition, the neighborhood is served by several important transit lines, including the high-frequency 18 bus on Nicollet, as well as the 2 (on Franklin Ave), the 11 (on 3rd Ave S), and the 17 (also on Nicollet Ave). Although the neighborhood was considered as part of the routing for the METRO Green Line extension, an alternate route (bypassing the neighborhood) was chosen. The planned Nicollet-Central Streetcar would pass directly through the neighborhood. In addition, there is a Nice Ride station located at the corner of Franklin and Nicollet, providing easy access to the city's

bike sharing A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...

system.

Landmarks and attractions

Several buildings within the neighborhood are listed on the

. These include the historic Amos B. Coe House on Third Avenue, which is home to the Minnesota African American History Museum and Cultural Center; the

, now apartments, displays an architectural view of the progression of the medical industry, and the George W. and Nancy B. Van Dusen House, a

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

mansion now used as an event space. The bells of the historic Plymouth Congregational Church, located in the center of the neighborhood, can be heard by a wide radius in the area. There are several restaurants and coffee shops in the neighborhood, including the Boiler Room coffee shop, the Tibet Kitchen restaurant, and four small corner grocery stores. The neighborhood is in walking distance of the many restaurants of Eat Street in Whittier, as well as those in

Loring Park Loring Park is a park in the Loring Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. History Loring Park was established in 1883 after the passage of the Park Act, which first created the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The park was first ...

Gallery

File:1904–1906 First Avenue South.jpg File:1910 First Avenue South.jpg File:1916 First Avenue South.jpg File:Amos B. Coe House.jpg File:Semple House.jpg File:Apartment building along Franklin Avenue.jpg File:First Avenue Stevens Square.jpg File:Franklin Towers cropped, Minneapolis.jpg File:St. George Apartments, 137 East 17th Street.jpg File:The Blackstone, 102 19th Street East (1).jpg File:Van Dusen Mansion.jpg

References

External links

Minneapolis Neighborhood Profile - Stevens SquareStevens Square Community OrganizationStevens Square Center for the Arts
{{Geographic Location , Center = Stevens Square , North =

, Northeast = , East = Ventura Village , Southeast = , South = Whittier , Southwest = , West =

Lowry Hill East Lowry Hill East is a neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, part of the Calhoun Isles community. Lowry Hill East developed in the 1880s along a horse-drawn streetcar line built by Thomas Lowry. The interior of the neig ...