Nicollet Avenue ( / ˈ n ɪ k ə l ɪ t / NIH -kə-lit ) 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 and the traffic-restricted Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.
33-499: The Young–Quinlan Building was erected at 901 Nicollet Avenue , Minneapolis , Minnesota in 1926. Elizabeth Quinlan and her partner, Fred D. Young, owned and operated a women's specialty dress shop when Young died in 1911. Miss Quinlan decided to expand her business and, wanting to have the best in design, consulted with department store managers and owners in New York and Chicago. She hired Frederick L. Ackerman of New York to design
66-633: A K-Mart store, and begins again at Lake Street , continuing through Richfield and Bloomington to 107th Street just north of the Minnesota River . Across the river in Burnsville , Nicollet begins again at Cliff Road West and ends at County Road 42 . Nicollet is a major commercial street in Burnsville, forming one of two main streets of their Heart of the City downtown area. Nicollet is
99-534: A Kmart store (opened in 1978) which covers two city blocks, detouring southbound traffic to Blaisdell Avenue and northbound traffic to First Avenue South. The city of Minneapolis has planned to restore Nicollet Avenue by reconstructing the Kmart site into a new configuration that would include both commercial and residential development since at least 2010. After a building fire at the former Kmart in October 2023,
132-424: A "'beautiful home' for her merchandise." The local associate architects were Magney & Tusler. Unique to the design of the building is making each of the four facades as if it were the front facade. Typically, commercial buildings were designed to have a street facade that would be the most attractive and welcoming side because it was assumed that other sides would be hidden by adjacent construction. The facades of
165-697: A city street in Minneapolis and Burnsville, while it is designated as Hennepin County Road 52 between 98th Street in Bloomington and W 61st St in Minneapolis (just north of the Richfield border). This designation resumes on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, though the county highway is not contiguous. Nicollet Avenue began as a military road between St. Anthony Falls and Fort Snelling . It
198-482: A jubilant Moore tosses her hat into the air while watched by a curious group of passersby who were, in fact, real people and not extras. 44°58′35″N 93°16′22″W / 44.9763329°N 93.2726852°W / 44.9763329; -93.2726852 Dan Patch Line The Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway ( reporting mark MNS ) was an 87-mile (140 km) long American shortline railroad connecting Minneapolis and Northfield, Minnesota . It
231-590: A marble staircase, crystal chandeliers, and metalwork of iron, brass, bronze, and pewter. One distinctive feature was the last elevator in the city still operated by an elevator operator . In 1979 staff at the City Planning Department of the Office of the Mayor recommended that the exterior of the building be awarded preservation status. In 1985, renovation of the building for use by multiple tenants
264-432: A touch of Victorian elegance. Management struggled to make the rail route profitable without consistent success. According to some reports, the railroad had an abysmal operating ratio of 147%. It persisted in operation until less than a week after the deaths of the horse Dan Patch and his owner Colonel Savage, it slumped into receivership on July 16, 1916. Four days after the bankruptcy, Charles P. Bratnober (president of
297-476: The Minneapolis, Lyndale & Minnetonka Railway Co. , also known as the "Motor Line". The Motor Line ran along Marquette Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, then turned west for one block at 13th Street South to reach Nicollet. The line was constructed south to 31st Street in 1879, to 37th Street in 1884, and was extended further south to 50th Street in 1887. It was converted to streetcar operation in 1890, and
330-746: The Baldwin DT-6-6-2000 , then to various EMD models. The railroad was purchased in 1982 by the Soo Line , and merged into the Soo Line in 1986. For decades prior to the sale to the Soo Line, the MN&S had a lucrative business interchanging with several Class I railroads. Rock Island and Milwaukee Road at Northfield, C&NW at Savage, Soo Line at Crystal, M&StL at St Louis Park, Great Northern at Cedar Lake Yard in Minneapolis, and CGW over trackage rights between Randolph and Northfield. By
363-469: The I&M Rail Link gained trackage rights on the former MN&S to Minneapolis but never utilized them. In 2004, during which Burnsville proposed reopening an at-grade crossing on the MN&S, Canadian Pacific stated that by the next five years Progressive Rail would be utilizing the MN&S route that is currently out-of-service, but this didn't happen. The Glenwood shops were closed and tracks removed in
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#1732802433361396-721: The Lakeville city park system. Richfield gardeners and farmers used the Dan Patch railroad for shipping produce, dairy products and other goods. Passengers shared the platforms with farmers. Original plans called for the Dan Patch Line to be electrified, but did not happen. The company used steam engines for their freight trains, while gas-electric locomotives and motorcars handled passenger traffic. Savage's penchant for first-class style did produce luxurious coaches – red, plush seat cushions and fringed shades on windows added
429-532: The Minneapolis, Anoka and Cuyuna Range Railroad ) was appointed receiver. The Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railroad, incorporated during June 1918 in South Dakota , bought the remnants of Savage's former company at foreclosure on August 6, 1918. The new owners promoted the Dan Patch's route from Northfield to Minneapolis, and successfully marketed the reconstituted railroad as a bridge line around
462-543: The Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) extended the route to Diamond Lake Road in 1911, 58th Street in 1928, and 62nd Street (now Minnesota State Highway 62 ) in 1947. Streetcars on the road had a service frequency of one every five minutes off-peak, and ran about twice as often during the morning and afternoon peak periods. The avenue was used as a backdrop for the end of the famous opening sequence of The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which
495-473: The Chicago Great Western from Northfield to Randolph and Mankato , and even after discontinuing passenger service maintained trackage rights to Randolph for freight service. Dan Patch's gas-electric locomotives were sold during bankruptcy, and freight was hauled by steam until the 1940s. Immediately after World War II, the MN&S began transitioning to diesel-electric locomotives such as
528-679: The Motor Line, was acquired and expanded by Twin City Rapid Transit; after the streetcar system was dismantled in 1953–1954, the carbarn has since been used for transit system buses. The station is located at Nicollet and 31st Street, just south of the site of the Minneapolis Millers ' Nicollet Park baseball field, which closed in 1955. The Metro Transit route 18 bus travels most of Nicollet Avenue. Historically, Nicollet had rail transportation, starting with
561-559: The Twin Cities and kept most of the ex-CGW inbound freight on its own rails. By 1982, the Soo Line was ready to make several moves and had sufficient funds to counter competing offers. Soo Line's grand plan was to secure MN&S to Northfield, then purchase the Spine Line to Kansas City from Rock Island in its liquidation. However, C&NW purchased the Spine Line for $ 93 million in 1983. The Soo Line saved face in 1985 by purchasing
594-508: The Young–Quinlan building look the same with arched windows, columns and decorative elements giving each side the appearance of being the entrance side of the building. A parking garage, a modern innovation for the time, was also included in the construction of the building. The building was clad with rusticated Kasota limestone on the first floor, with brick walls above and stone pilasters and columns surrounding windows. The interior has
627-407: The bankrupt Milwaukee Road. The Soo Line's loss of the Spine Line and the transfer of southbound freight to the former Milwaukee Road route to Northfield reduced service on the entire MN&S for the next 25 years. By 1997, six years after the Soo Line was purchased by Canadian Pacific, the last train had gone between Lakeville and Savage, and the tracks have remained out-of-service since then. In 1999
660-586: The bridge to protect what they feel may become a valuable shipping route in the future. In 2016, TC&W undertook a major rehabilitation of the Dan Patch Line Bridge in anticipation of an upsurge in grain traffic. By September of 2022, TC&W was seeking Minnesota state funding to rehabilitate a three-quarter mile stretch of the old MN&S main in Savage, a section of track that would enable direct service to resume. Progressive Rail, Inc. owns
693-485: The building was torn down in November 2023. The city of Minneapolis announced proposed street layouts for a reconnected Nicollet Ave in October 2023. Construction is expected to start in 2025. The Dan Patch Line , a separate railroad serving communities as far south as Northfield, Minnesota , ran parallel to the streetcar line between 60th Street and Diamond Lake Road. Nicollet Station, a carhouse originally built for
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#1732802433361726-550: The company never secured an entrance into Faribault and abandoned the project. The new railroad built four stations in Richfield, with platforms along the Nicollet Avenue corridor – on the Bachman's farmstead spur at 62nd, Goodspeed's farmstead at 66th, Irwin's farmstead on 72nd and Wilson's farmstead on the southwest corner of 78th. They also completed a company-developed picnic destination named Antlers Park, now part of
759-565: The congested Twin Cities freight yards. As finally constructed, the MN&S mainline ran in what is now the west metro of the Twin Cities . From its junction with the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad at MNS Junction in Crystal , it traveled through New Hope , Golden Valley , St. Louis Park , Edina, Bloomington , Savage , Lakeville and down to Northfield . Along
792-609: The mid 1980s after the Soo Line took over. Despite that, of the MN&S mainline extending south to Northfield, the Soo's owner Canadian Pacific Railway still owns the tracks from Savage to Lakeville and from the Minnesota River north to MNS Junction. The Twin Cities and Western Railroad owns the Dan Patch Line Bridge over the Minnesota River. TC&W has trackage rights over the MN&S Spur and purchased
825-492: The original passenger "High Line" ran from Auto Club Junction in Bloomington through Richfield and into south Minneapolis, ending just north of the current Crosstown freeway. Besides its freight service, the company continued passenger service using their gas-electric motorcars from Minneapolis to Antlers Park and Northfield until the 1940s. Until the Great Depression , the MN&S Ry. also used trackage rights on
858-501: The time of the sale to Soo Line in 1982, MN&S's interchange business was in shambles with the Rock Island and Milwaukee Road fading in bankruptcy and the sale of CGW and M&StL to C&NW in the 1960s leaving only the Soo Line and Burlington Northern as viable interchange partners. The loss of interchange traffic at Randolph when CGW merged with C&NW in 1968 was a significant setback as C&NW already had its own routes to
891-601: The time the Richfield - Minneapolis border, as the starting point for the new railroad. Minneapolis' Nicollet streetcar line ended at that spot, so passengers could easily transfer to the adjacent Dan Patch system. Its owners named their new firm the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Dubuque Electric Traction Company, but no one used the full name. Instead, they preferred the nickname "Dan Patch Line." Construction began in 1908, eventually reaching Northfield in late 1910. Grading began on an extension to Faribault in 1911, but
924-430: The track between Lakeville and Northfield, operating it as their Jesse James Line. Progressive Rail owns and occasionally operates two MN&S cabooses as well as a former MN&S EMD SD39 . Some of Progressive Rail's rolling stock is painted in an MN&S-inspired livery. The Minnesota Department of Transportation has performed studies on operating commuter rail over the Dan Patch Line. This service would be known as
957-681: The way, the line connected the Soo Line with the Milwaukee Road , the Omaha Road , the Chicago Great Western and the Rock Island's St. Paul to Kansas City "Spine Line". They had shops at Glenwood on a spur line that went from the present area of Hwy 100 and Hwy 55 to the edge of downtown Minneapolis . Along that spur were connections to the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and Great Northern Railway . In addition,
990-461: Was a Class I railroad ; in 1967, it reported 131 million ton-miles of revenue freight on 77 miles (124 km) of railroad. Marion W. Savage , owner of the race horse Dan Patch , planned an electric railroad that would connect the Twin Cities to his farm and stables south of the Minnesota River . Savage purchased Dan Patch for $ 62,000 (a fortune in 1902), then lavishly promoted his equine protégé. Savage and his backers chose 54th and Nicollet, at
1023-656: Was begun by the owners, The 614 Company, and three years later the company sought historic designation from the Minneapolis City Council. The building was designated as a local landmark by the Minneapolis Historic Preservation Commission in 1988. Nicollet Avenue The avenue begins at Grant Street in Loring Park and continues south to West 29th Street/Cecil B. Newman Lane, where it is interrupted by
Young–Quinlan Building - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-608: Was incorporated in 1918 to take over the trackage of the former Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Dubuque Electric Traction Company , also known as the Dan Patch Lines . On June 2, 1982, it was acquired by the Soo Line Railroad , which operated it as a separate railroad until merging it on January 1, 1986, along with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road). Until around 1963, it
1089-481: Was named for early 19th-century French explorer and cartographer Joseph Nicollet , who led three expeditions in what is now Minnesota. Nicollet Mall occupies the oldest section of the avenue. Before the mall was constructed in 1968, Nicollet Avenue stretched from the Mississippi River to the Minnesota River . One block of the street between 29th Street and Lake Street was removed in the 1977 to build
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