Questions about the history of MN construction (Minneapolis, St. Paul: upper-class, apartments)

[queenswake]

I figured I'd write this after not seeing any new threads in a while and getting really tired of the current ones. I guess the lack of new threads by people asking about moving to MN is a reflection of the improving economy. People aren't moving to MN out of desperation anymore.

1) South Minneapolis has so many huge houses. I'm talking about two-level ones with the front porch on both the first and second levels. Today many are split into duplexes, but I'm gathering that when they were built they were single-family houses. Who lived in these? Were so many people that well off that they could afford the purchase, utilities, and maintenance of such a huge house? When were most of these built?

2) Why are there so few brick houses in MN? Is brick not made nearby and so back then it was too impractical and expensive to ship it? The nice thing about brick is that it holds up so well, and would be ideal to stand up to the harsh winters. Homes in the upper midwest tend to look a lot more rundown than homes like in Boston that are much older and I'm assuming that's because of the weather.

3) Can anyone recommend a book or documentary about the history of Minneapolis? I'm curious to see how the city expanded and what immigrant and classes of workers moved to which area.

4) This one is weirder. When I was a kid, I went into a lot of Minneapolis schools and churches for volunteering, community events, and other activities. And all of them were cold! Cement floors, cinder-block walls. I get that it's cold in MN and so many of these places could not afford to run the heat high, but some carpet would've helped at least psychologically. So many buildings were like this. This is coming from someone who is very warm-blooded. It got to the point where I associated church with being cold. I suppose it was a combination of not being able to afford paying the heat and not being able to pay for the improvements. I haven't been into any of these buildings for many years so I'm sure they have been remodeled and improved by now.

[Glenfield]

1. For the most part, the duplexes you see in south Minneapolis were always duplexes. Some mansions in areas like Whittier were built around the turn of the century and later converted to multi family residences and other uses. The reason is that the rich people moved away.

[uptown_urbanist]

To build on Glenfield's response (which is spot-on), the people who owned the large mansions worked in a variety of businesses, but they were the city's wealthiest residents. A typical pattern for the owners of a large, but not massive, house on, say, Garfield in Whittier (i.e. the home of an upper-middle class family, but not a lumber baron) would be that the parents built the house, the kids eventually grew up, wanted their own place, and bought or built their own place farther south. A lot of the people who built the houses around Minnehaha Creek were the children of those who owned nice homes closer to downtown. To complete the cycle, once the parents in the original house were older and retired (or in many cases, when the wife was a widow) they'd sell and downsize. Meanwhile neighborhoods continued to evolve, housing needs and tastes change, and eventually some of the grand old houses were converted into multiple-family homes or were demolished.

One thing that I also find interesting is that if you look at the first several decades of the twentieth century you'll find that live-in servants were fairly typical even in apartment buildings. If you look at the census information for many of the nicer brick apartment buildings in the Uptown area, for example, you'll find many plenty of examples of that dynamic at work. As apartments became less fashionable or desirable for middle to upper-class Minneapolis families more of those people moved into single family homes or duplexes.

Here's a history book that I haven't read yet, but keep meaning to read; I've heard good things about it, and it's fairly new. Amazon.com: Minneapolis in the Twentieth Century: The Growth of an American City (9780873517256): Iric Nathanson: Books If you check out the local history section of the library you'll also find a wide range of excellent books, including a decent selection of neighborhood-specific history books. If you're interested in architecture, Larry Millett's AIA Guide to the Twin Cities is a great book to have on-hand. It's not as useful for overall sweeping patterns of change, but it's wonderful for browsing.
Amazon.com: AIA Guide to the Twin Cities: The Essential Source on the Architecture of Minneapolis and St. Paul (9780873515405): Larry Millett: Books

[queenswake]

I'm asking these questions from afar and my memory is lacking of the housing stock in different neighborhoods. But I just remember so many of these huge houses in the Uptown or Powderhown area with the front porch on both levels. I guess it does make sense now that they were built as duplexes from the beginning because why would you have a big front porch on the second floor of a one unit house. But it seems odd that duplexes were even built back then. The popularity of duplexes in the midwest is strange.

What's also funny to me is that some of the patterns we see now also existed back then. When my grandparents got married, they fled to Fridley and built a small house because that's what they could afford and they were also lured by the suburban lifestyle. It was the typical case of guy gets home from WWII, gets married, and likely drooled over the pamphlets of the new subdivisions out in the burbs. It's also funny how I complain about how many new suburban housing developments today have massive houses that are literally 6 feet apart from each other. They may as well be attached as row houses. If you open your window you could just about shake hands with your neighbor. But these huge houses in Minneapolis were not that much further apart from each other. The difference is that you expect that kind of closeness in the city. To move way out to the outer suburbs and still be on top of each other cancels out the reason why you moved out there in the first place.