Longfellow, Minneapolis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Longfellow | |
 |
|
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Minnesota |
| Counties | Hennepin |
| Population (2000)[1] [2] | |
| - City | 27,776 |
| - Urban | 387,970 |
| - Metro | 3,502,891 |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 55404, 55406, 55417 |
| Area code(s) | 612 |
Longfellow is a defined community in Minneapolis, Minnesota which includes five smaller neighborhoods inside of it: Cooper, Hiawatha, Howe, Longfellow, and Seward. Grouped with South Minneapolis along the city's eastern border with the Mississippi River, Longfellow takes its name from Longfellow neighborhood which in turn is named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The reknowned American poet incorporated elements into his Song of Hiawatha from Henry Schoolcraft's accounts of native Dakota lore in Minnesota which included Minnehaha Falls in Longfellow's southern tip. The early reference of Highway 55 as Hiawatha Avenue, along the west border, may have influenced the naming decision when community borders were drawn in the 1960s. Hiawatha Avenue is the main thoroughfare leading north into Downtown Minneapolis and south to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport.
Longfellow is home to the Danish American Center, Minnehaha Academy, and the Longfellow House. The area is typically recognized by bungalow style homes made popular by ready-to-assemble houses. Minnehaha Falls was once a national attraction and still is an important cultural node of the Twin Cities.[3] The west border was once an agri-industrial and milling processing center served by the Northern Pacific Railway. Today the mostly abandoned tall grain silos and factories along the length of the highway are a reminder of the area's history.
[edit] History
The city did not acquire land south of Franklin Avenue until 1881 and 1883 with the last half of Longfellow annexed in 1887 from Richfield.[4] However the area was not largely built until 1906 to 1920 when streetcar and residential rail became accessible. Also the advent of ready-to-assemble homes such as Sears Catalog Homes made homeownership accessible to the primarily immigrant population of the city who could not afford the carpentry or craftsmanship to build single-family homes (or mansions) of the era. Most of these early homeowners were first and second generation Scandinavians who moved out from Cedar Riverside. Even by 1930, the south area was still a major immigrant hub compared to the southwest area with a high foreign-born or second generation population.[5]
Longfellow's popular Song of Hiawatha spurred national interest in Minnehaha Falls and his name became associated with the area. The poet's name would be further emphasized when the Longfellow House was built in 1906. A local businessman, Robert Fremont "Fish" Jones, commissioned the 2/3 scale replica of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's original home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house was placed as part of the Longfellow Zoological Gardens at 4001 Minnehaha Parkway East, which Jones ran. Jones died in 1934 and the house was deeded to the city. For a short period it was a Minneapolis public library serving the community until it was moved and restored by the Park Board in 1994 to its current location near Minnehaha Falls.[6] It is presently an interpretive and information center for the Minneapolis Park System.[7]
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
