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Venerable — 8 Comments

  1. Over in Minneapolis, the more than 100 year old Schubert Theatre was saved from destruction and literally lifted and moved 3 blocks away to 5th and Hennepin. If you go to the Schubert Theatre website, there is a Youtube fast forward video of the building being moved to 5th and Hennepin. It was am amazing feat!

  2. Your talk of neighborhood & urban design patterns reminds me of a book called “A Pattern Language” by a group of architects & urban planners. It was written in the 70’s but from what I understand continues to be one of the best-selling books on architecture. It describes a set of design patterns that promote healthy neighborhoods. You described a number of them in your post (shopping streets, neighborhood boundaries, density, etc.). Great to have a number of these design elements in Mac-Groveland supporting this being such a livable community.

  3. Jim, thank you for the reference! I have seen A Pattern Language; at some point I perused it standing up in a bookstore somewhere. Will keep an eye out for it. Katharyn was a bookseller back in Massachusetts, and we brought a hundred or so boxes of the cream of the collection with us; perhaps there’s a copy still awaiting shelving downstairs.

  4. You and Katharyn might be interested in a new (and maybe the second?) bookstore in Mac-Groveland called Addendum. It is young-adult focused and located at Randolph & Cleveland. I have not had a chance to stop in yet but the Pioneer Press did a nice article on them and another bookstore earlier this summer (link below). Great to see some openings and expansions of local brick-and-mortar bookstores instead of the opposite that has typically been the case.
    http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/ci_28313384/st-paul-booksellers-start-new-lives-new-locations

  5. Jim, thanks again. Very nice profile of the two stores. It happens we dined at Luci this evening, 2 doors down from Addendum. We’ll visit soon when they are open.

  6. Enjoying the blog! A New York transplant that has lived here for 5 years. You mention how the businesses cluster at intersections of “super blocks.” I am pretty sure all those little micro villages trace back to where the street cars had stops. But not 100 percent sure.

  7. Thank you, Benjamin. Good observation! I will see what I can turn up in the way of old streetcar maps.

  8. Benjamin, look what I found: a map of old Twin Cities streetcar routes. Below is a close-up from it. Your theory is half borne out. Lines ran down the east-west super-block bordering streets Selby / Marshall, Grand, St.Clair, and Randolph. Of the north-south streets, only Snelling was covered.
    mac-groveland streetcar routes

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