Minneapolis’ Powderhorn Community Highlights
The Powderhorn community of Minneapolis is just south of the Phillips community. Because the community has a strange L-shape, its borders are confusing and vary, but a map of Powderhorn can be found here. The area takes its name from Powderhorn Lake, a small lake shaped like a powder horn at the heart of the community. The lake, and the surrounding Powderhorn Park, is a central feature. At 65 acres, it is Minneapolis’ largest neighborhood park. It features a bandstand, ball fields, basketball courts, fishing dock, ice rink, walking paths, picnic areas with grills, horseshoe pits, and a community center with teen center. Powderhorn Park is also a name of one of Powerhorn’s neighborhoods. More about the neighborhood later. The population of Powderhorn is diverse, including residents of African-American, Asian, European, Latino, Somali, Tibetan and Scandinavian decent. Powderhorn community is within easy walking or bussing distance to downtown Minneapolis.
Now, let’s begin to explore the neighborhoods of the Powderhorn community!
Bancroft - The Bancroft neighborhood is located in the southern portion of Powderhorn. It lies between 38th Street East to the north and 42nd Street East to the south, and between Chicago Avenue on the west and Cedar Avenue on the east. The neighborhood was named after a school, as many other Minneapolis neighborhoods are. The Bancroft elementary school was named after George Bancroft, an American historian born in 1800. The Bancroft neighborhood is also home to the newly opened school, El Colegio/ CreArte center for the arts. The neighborhood provides convenient access to downtown via Interstate 35W, the Hiawatha Corridor, and the airport and Bloomington area via Cedar Avenue. For residents who like recreation, Bancroft lies just blocks north of Lake Nokomis, the Hiawatha Golf Course and the scenic Minnehaha Creek.
Bancroft is a small but vibrant residential community. More than 80% of the structures within the neighborhood are single-family homes built before 1940. Many are primarily owner-occupied. The neighborhood also has some commercial development along Bloomington Avenue and 38th Street.
Bryant - Bryant neighborhood is in the southeast portion of Minneapolis’s Powderhorn neighborhood. It is bound on the west by Interstate 35W, on the south by 42nd Street East, on the east by Chicago Avenue, and on the north by 38th Street East. The neighborhood was named for William Cullen Bryant, an American poet who lived from 1794 to 1878. The neighborhood area was incorporated by the City in 1887. By 1930 it was fully developed. In 2000, Bryant’s population was 2,789.
The Bryant Unity Development Garden is located at East 40th Street and 3rd Avenue South. It was founded in 1994 by Bryant Residents Judy Anderson, local artist, and Sharon Parker, local publisher. Phelps Park, also located within Bryant’s boundaries, is home to a Boys and Girls Club.
Bryant is a residential neighborhood with mostly single-family dwellings. There are some multifamily buildings interspersed mainly in its northwestern quadrant.
Central - The Central neighborhood is bordered by Lake Street on the north, Chicago Avenue to the east, 38th Street on the south, and Interstate 35W to the west. The Central neighborhood is named after Minneapolis Central High School, which was one of the city’s largest schools. The school was built in 1878, closed in 1982, and razed shortly after.
This is a residential neighborhood. Here, single-family dwellings are interspersed with multifamily low-rise buildings. There is a high proportion of renters in this neighborhood, though home ownership is on the rise in Central.
Corcoran - Corcoran neighborhood can be located between Lake Street East and 36th Street East and between Cedar Avenue South and Hiawatha Avenue. This neighborhood was named in honor of William Wilson Corcoran, who lived from 1793 to 1889 and who founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. The light-rail stop at Lake Street gives the neighborhood an easy connection to Downtown, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America. Plans to develop the Lake Street corridor as a commercial thoroughfare are under way, and are sure to have a direct local impact. Corcoran is home to Minneapolis South High School.
The Corcoran neighborhood is primarily residential. Housing in Corcoran is about evenly divided between rental property and owner occupied housing. About 60% of the real estate in the Corcoran neighborhood is devoted to single family detached homes.
Lyndale - Lyndale neighborhood of the Corcoran community of Minneapolis is bound on the north by Lake Street, on the east by Interstate 35W and Stevens Avenue, on the south by 36th Street and on the west by Lyndale Avenue South. To explain where the name Lyndale comes from is actually quite lengthy. The neighborhood was named for Lyndale Avenue, which in turn takes its name from Lyndale farm. The 1,400-acre farm, owned by Hon. William S. King, was named in honor of Mr. King's father, Rev. Lyndon King, an itinerant Methodist minister of northern New York. The Reverend was named for Josiah Lyndon, colonial governor of Rhode Island in 1768-1769. That’s a long line of naming!
The Lyndale Neighborhood has over the past 30 years worked together to fight crime, promote economic development, provide youth enrichment programs, rebuild the neighborhood’s housing stock, and most importantly build community spirit. The Lyndale Neighborhood developed and operates under the “Lyndale Model.” This model is a nationally recognized asset based model of community organization which encourages individual residents to propose, develop, and lead programs for the neighborhood. This philosophy has helped Lyndale develop one of the strongest and most active neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Lyndale’s programs and activities involve over 1,000 Lyndale residents each year as both volunteers and participants.
The neighborhood is predominantly residential, with about 36% of the real estate occupied by multifamily residential structures. This neighborhood is pretty evenly split between families and people living alone. Commercial uses of real estate tend to be concentrated along Lake Street.
Random Fact: The Lyndale neighborhood has one of the highest populations of artists in the nation.
Powderhorn Park - The Powderhorn Park neighborhood is bound on the north by Lake Street, on the east by Cedar Avenue South, on the south by 38th Street East, and on the west by Chicago Avenue. As noted previously regarding the name of the community, it is named after Powderhorn Lake. The neighborhood was annexed by the City in 1887. In 1986, its southern boundary was moved from 36th Street to 38th Street.The Powderhorn Park facility in the northwestern part of the neighborhood includes Powderhorn Lake, playing fields, playgrounds, and a park building that hosts community education classes. The park and lake are also used as the setting for the last act in the city's annual May Day parade, which is actually a traveling play that has been put on by the In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre since 1975. As the parade moves south along Bloomington Avenue, participants wear a variety of costumes or manipulate giant puppets to produce a story based on sociopolitical themes. The story changes each year, but the emphasis is primarily on peace, environmentalism, current events, and more.
Approximately 9,000 people live in this neighborhood. Powderhorn Park is a predominantly residential area consisting of single-family homes on narrow residential lots. There are also quite a few duplexes and brownstone apartment buildings. Most of the housing was built between 1905 and 1920.
Standish - The Standish neighborhood is bound on the north by 36th Street, on the east by Hiawatha Avenue, on the south by 42nd and 43rd streets, and on the west by Cedar Avenue. This neighborhood was named after a local elementary school, which had been called Miles Standish after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem “The Courtship of Miles Standish.” The area was considered the outskirts of Minneapolis until mostly Swedish and Norwegian immigrants began building their homes here early in the 1900s.
This neighborhood allows quick access to Downtown Minneapolis, St. Paul, and some of the best parks in the City. The new light-rail train line along the Hiawatha Avenue corridor connects the neighborhood with downtown, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Mall of America. New homes are being built along this corridor.
Standish is a mainly residential neighborhood with a population of around 7,000. Oddly, it shares a neighborhood organization with the Ericsson neighborhood, though Ericsson is part of the Nokomis community. Signs within the neighborhood boundaries welcome visitors to "Standish-Ericsson."
Whittier - The Whittier neighborhood is bound on the north by Franklin Avenue, on the east by I-35W, on the south by Lake Street West, and on the east by Lyndale Avenue South. Having been originally settled in the 19th century, it is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. It was named for the influential American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who lived from1807 to 1892 and was an ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery.
About 60% of the real estate in Whittier includes a wide variety of uses including eclectic restaurants and neighborhood businesses. In fact, the area is known for its diverse restaurants, coffee shops and Asian markets. Nicollet Avenue is even commonly referred to as "Eat Street"! The neighborhood is also home to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Jungle Theater, the Children's Theatre Company, and the Hennepin History Museum. The neighborhood presently has a neighborhood action plan that maps out a strategy to continue to improve the neighborhood and attract residents back to the area.
Blaisdell and Third avenues have some of the oldest houses in Minneapolis. Some of the homes along Stevens Avenue have been beautifully restored. Almost 40 percent of this neighborhood’s 348 acres are used for multifamily housing, and almost 90 percent of those housing units are renter-occupied.
In June 2007, the average home sales price for a single family home or condo in Powderhorn, MN was $172,078.
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