Minneapolis's Lake Street [Paperback]

As it cuts across South Minneapolis, Lake Street reflects the citys diversity and its rich history. Initially a narrow dirt road out beyond Minneapoliss early city limits, Lake Street evolved into a major transportation route after the turn of the last century. Spurred by the citys population boom during those early years, the Lake Street corridor soon filled in with retail shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and auto dealers. But Lake Streets role as a major commercial corridor did not last. Buffeted by the forces of suburbanization after World War II, businesses along the corridor began to close, leaving Lake Street pockmarked with vacant, blighted buildings. Then, starting in the 1990s, the seeds of the corridors renewal were planted when an energetic group of new arrivals to the United States began renovating Lake Streets deteriorating storefronts for their family-owned businesses. Lake Streets rejuvenation has continued into the current century as business and community leaders build on the work begun by those 20th-century urban pioneers.Iric Nathanson tells the story of this resilient urban street using images from archival collections at the Minnesota Historical Society, the Hennepin County Public Library, and the Hennepin History Museum. Nathansons most recent work, Downtown St. Paul, was published in 2019 as part of the Image of America series.