Approaching Lake Calhoun — A Couple Years Later
Julieann Swanson, Assistant Curator of Digital Collections and Archives at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design just sent a fabulous photo of the Lake Street, Dean Parkway, and West Calhoun Parkway intersection from about 1956 in response to my post earlier today. See Julieann’s comments on that post for more information on this photo and the Digital Content Library.
Looking west on Lake Street toward the intersection with Dean Parkway and West Calhoun Parkway. (Photo: University of Minnesota, Digital Content Library)
Julieann suggested that the photo is circa 1955, but I’ve advanced it a year to 1956, because I believe that is a red 1956 Chevy sitting at the east-bound stop light. And, yes, the traffic lights are quite visible in this photo! Would that car have been called, “Cherry”? I’m a little too young to remember ’50s slang.
Thanks, Julieann.
David C. Smith
© 2013 David C. Smith
Minneapolis Park History 
[…] I also reposted stories on the intersection of Dean Parkway and Calhoun Parkway. […]
Thanks for uploading the photo, and the nice promo David! I will make note of the date correction. Some car enthusiasts might confirm your suspicion.
Thank you, Julieann. I suspect we might hear from people who can identify all of the cars in the photo.
The Lake Street/Dean Parkway/West Calhoun Parkway Building is located at 3033 Excelsior Blvd.
Hennepin County’s Property Information System lists the construction year as 1955. The City of Minneapolis’s Property Structure Information page lists the year built as 1955.
It is always a possibility that both are from the same original source, such as the construction permit records.
Thanks for looking that up, Gary. Good info. Permits were probably issued and construction began in 1955 and was completed and cleaned up in the summer of 1956, which led to a bunch of photos appearing then, including the newspaper aerial photo, which was dated August 1956. Another 1956 photo of the building in the Minnesota Historical Society collection was by Norton and Peel. Notes indicate their client was American Hardware Mutual Insurance Company, who probably wanted to document completion of the new offices.