Thursday, May 5, 2011

Can You Name This Twin Cities Location?


The corner building in the photograph's foreground was the headquarters for one of the largest and most successful organizing drives among itinerant workers in North America.  The Minneapolis locals of the IWW moved into the building in late December of 1913 and had published this description of the hall in an April 1914 issue of Solidarity:


Though the structure has since been torn down (a discouraging and all too common trend in the Mill City), there are several details in the photograph that betray its original location.  Note that the two buildings to the right of the corner building still stand and very much look like they did when the photograph above was taken.  Another hint - the main entrance to the corner hall was not the light-colored brick storefront with large windows, but was in fact around the corner on the long side of the building - where you see the small wooden entryway.

Can you name the location where this important chapter of North American labor history was written?  Maybe a prize is in order for the first person who correctly identifies the intersection or address?

Keep an eye out here for more excerpts from the Twin Cities IWW history tour.

5 comments:

  1. okay...my guess is Nicolette and Lake.

    Cheers, FW,
    Matt M.

    ReplyDelete
  2. damn. okay. i think i have it: 7 corners.

    cheers again,
    Matt

    ReplyDelete
  3. Couldn'tbe lake and Nicollet. The post says the buildings on the right arestill standing. No old buildings remain at Lake and Nicollet.

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  4. Seven Corners on Washington. Seems that the second building from the corner remains in (or connected to) the Samuelson family. Amazing. And very cool!

    What do I win? ;)

    Here are two views from Google Street View. The second is a closeup with detail to make the comparison a snap.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1505+Washington+ave+south+Minneapolis&aq=t&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.301626,90.878906&vpsrc=0&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1505+S+Washington+Ave,+Minneapolis,+Hennepin,+Minnesota+55454&ll=44.972859,-93.247318&spn=0.010383,0.022187&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=44.97291,-93.247366&panoid=LTEJbxGlSCIq9eFQTEGUBg&cbp=12,223.63,,1,-2.87

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1505+Washington+ave+south+Minneapolis&aq=t&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.301626,90.878906&vpsrc=0&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1505+S+Washington+Ave,+Minneapolis,+Hennepin,+Minnesota+55454&t=m&layer=c&cbll=44.972857,-93.247311&panoid=aI7cxz8XKwJiLmql2X1lMA&cbp=12,251.94,,2,-9.94&ll=44.972905,-93.247361&spn=0.010383,0.022187&z=16

    ReplyDelete
  5. PS... I didn't realize you'd mentioned the possibility of a prize. I was just playing, hence the ;)

    ReplyDelete