Getting Started Researching Your House’s History

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Reader Mike recently emailed me; I found your great house blog the other day!  I’m also working on renovating a S. Minneapolis bungalow and I’ve been trying to find out the history of the house.  What resources did you use to find out your house’s history? Well, Mike, although I hardly consider ...

Ms. J Writes Again

Friday, February 24th, 2006

For weeks I was consumed with guilt for not writing back to Ms. J (daughter of the original owner of this house) after she so generously mailed me a lovely letter and photos from when her family built and lived in this house. So about ten days ago I finally got ...

Streetcar Tokens

Wednesday, February 15th, 2006

At a time when Minneapolis’ suburban fringe consists of cul-de-sacs connected by miles and miles of highways, it’s hard to imagine that 80 years ago our house a few dozen blocks from downtown represented the edge of suburban development. Today’s large lots in far-flung suburbs would be unthinkable without two or ...

Old Drawer Liner

Friday, January 20th, 2006

While dismantling the storage drawers and shelves in the basement workshop, I found some interesting old paper lining a couple of the drawers. The papers date from the house’s “parsonage era” from 1952 to 1973 when it was owned by the last Norwegian-language Lutheran church in the city and occupied by ...

1925 Golf Course Plan

Sunday, December 18th, 2005

I was cruising through Uptown the other day and noticed a couple antique shops I’d never visited. I had a couple minutes to spare, so I decided to check out their wares. Whenever I visit a local antique dealer, I look for a cool old map of our neighborhood from ...