Memories of gritty '70's & '80's downtown Minneapolis (Nicollet: city hall, houses)

[emcee squared]

Originally Posted by Explorer John

Very interesting topic.



Dug up the link. The program is called "Down on Skid Row."

Minnesota Video Vault | Home

That's an excellent documentary.

It shows up on TPT/PBS every so often.

[M74]

I really enjoyed this documentary. Thanks for posting.

[X-Northsider]

Personally, i didn't think D/T was that gritty from 1975-81, the time period i spent the most down there. Of course that's when i was about 15 or so, and not too aware of my surroundings. But i never had any trouble down there, back then.
I remember we would go to "Uncle Sam's"(First Avenue) on the weekend, (18 & under & no alcohol) unless we brought our own in, which we did. It was right around when Disco started and that place was hopping. It was our own "Studio 54".
Some of the other Bars were not carding,(In those days that was not unusual) so we eventually gravitated to them...Moby's, Anchor Inn, etc... No Problems, but some unsavory looking characters in there.
I remember cruising Hennepin ave. when i 1st got my wheels, in the summertime. It was 2 way traffic, like it is again now, and the girls from the Western suburbs came down there looking for some action. Wow, Was that fun ! It made the girls from the Northside(my stomping grounds) look like Stuck-Up Bottom Feeders.

Another Memory was a Bar on the edge of D/T, south of broadway, on the river called "Boyd's on the River". This was the most fun, exciting, socialable, best bands in the state, etc........ the place was happening. Imagine 2 levels with 2 Premium Rock-n-Roll Bands in the same bar on the same night.(Chamleon, Fragile, Dare Force, etc...) Some nights(Weekends) there was over 2500 patrons there including myself. I would spent 5 nights a week, every week, there because it was so much fun.
And then.....for some unknown reason to this day, they changed to a "Country Western" Bar, and filed for Bankruptcy shortly after and closed. Not even trying to go back to Rock-Roll. There had to be something else going on, because before they made the switch, they were still packing the patron's in every week. I just don't get it!

But Downtown in the 70's,,, was the place to be with little concern.

[audadvnc]

Originally Posted by X-Northsider

...the girls from the Western suburbs came down there looking for some action. Wow, Was that fun ! It made the girls from the Northside(my stomping grounds) look like Stuck-Up Bottom Feeders...

Heh. My partner is one of those gals that used to come into town looking for adventure. She's got some harrowing stories!

As for those big rock-n-roll bars, I remember them from my teenage years in New Jersey. One night I went to some bar and Foghat (!) was onstage. They'd pull in big names all the time. And, like you say, there were over 1000 partying kids there. A pitcher of beer was $6, and the bartenders didn't worry about whether ID's were legit or not. What a world! Somewhere along the line our meddlesome governments decided to save us from ourselves, and raised the drinking age to 21, thereby wrecking the bar scene for bar owners, musicians and attendees alike. Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.

[warrconn]

Originally Posted by Duluth07

Up here in Duluth, our downtown recently experienced the fire of our last rough bar, which has pretty much cleared downtown of those who hung out and caused trouble at the Kozy Bar at 129 E 1st St.

I lived downtown in Minneapolis for a decade and worked at the Downtown Y - many of the longtime downtowners would tell me about the 1970's & 1980's downtown (the infamous Fairmont Hotel, which was right across from the Y at 9th and Hennepin, who knew it would be the Chambers today?!); the Tourist Hotel (later the Hotel Amsterdam and Saloon Hotel at 830 Hennepin above the Saloon Bar); Moby Dick's, Block E between 1970-1980; the Continental Hotel...I wasn't even born until 1980 but the stories of a much gritter downtown Minneapolis, something associated with the old Greyhound Bus Depot called the 'Minnesota Pipeline' that would send runaway girls from MN to New York to walk the streets...

Does anyone remember this downtown? Share your stories of what downtown used to be like before all the rich people came in and developed the condos and yuppie bars! I heard a lot of hard to believe stories about the downtown YMCA (and YWCA) before the current buildings were built and they still had the rooms for rent!

Funny. I now live in Duluth on 1st street, just down from the Kozy. I grew up in Mpls and in the 70s, while in high school and going to the U of M, I worked for Loop Parking in the early to late 70s. These lots were at 5th and Hennepin (strip clubs, Plantation Pancakes...a front for other ****), the lot behind Moby Dick's and the lot behind Brady's Bar on 6th and Hennepin....I worked days, nights, whatever, for years. We let the Moby's bartenders park free and we drank at the bar for free. I was literally there hundreds of times. It was a grittier downtown, but not as crime-ridden as some would have you believe.

Not that it was Disney World. Cold as it sounds, the few times I saw a bouncer/cop/thug give someone a beat-down...it was usually deserved. Mind your own biz, and you were generally okay.

[yoyoma02]

These stories are awesome! My earliest memories of downtown wasn't until the early 90s, but none of these places sound familiar at all... (except First Ave obviously).

[green_mariner]

I never went to Mpls until 1992. It never came off as gritty to me. Other than that, other things I know of Mpls include stuff I have seen from National Geographic, mainly those from the 1970s. The pictures I saw of the Twin Cities never reminded me of grittiness. Maybe it's because I was born in 1986. Maybe I need to travel more. What do you remember from the 70's and 80's.
One of my friends is from the St. Cloud area. He remembers the diesel buses from the 70's and how they were very dirty.

[Laggard]

To me the most stunning change has been the transformation of Washington Avenue east of Hennepin from a vibrant active commercial/residential area in the forties to the wasteland that it is now.

Wish I could find some now verses then photos.

[audadvnc]

Of course, in the 1950's through 70's that "active commercial/residential" area of Washington east of Hennepin was considered a wasteland. It was Skid Row, where old bums went to shuffle off this mortal coil.

I witnessed the last bit of it at the Andrews Hotel - a charming old grande dame of the city, reduced to slum housing for dying, syphilis-riddled alkies. Have you ever seen somebody with tertiary syphilis? It's a sight we don't get to experience much nowadays.

I believe the Andrews is a parking lot next to the Library now.

[yoyoma02]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

I never went to Mpls until 1992. It never came off as gritty to me. Other than that, other things I know of Mpls include stuff I have seen from National Geographic, mainly those from the 1970s. The pictures I saw of the Twin Cities never reminded me of grittiness. Maybe it's because I was born in 1986. Maybe I need to travel more. What do you remember from the 70's and 80's.
One of my friends is from the St. Cloud area. He remembers the diesel buses from the 70's and how they were very dirty.

I moved to Minneapolis in 1991 and it wasn't dirty at all. I'm assuming all of the "grittyiness" was more in the late 70s/early 80s?

In fact, I remember my parents being really impressed by how clean it was.