History

The Prospect Park East River Road neighborhood has always contained a mixture of residential, industrial and commercial uses. People began living east of SE Oak Street in the last half of the 19th century and in the Tower Hill area (then a Minneapolis suburb reachable by trolley!) in 1884. Sledders could glide from Tower Hill all the way to what is now the Franklin Avenue Bridge (built in 1923 and rebuilt in 1971).

Sidney Pratt School at Malcolm and Orlin was built in 1898. Residents rallied to save Tower Hill from being leveled in 1901 by organizing the first neighborhood organization in Minneapolis: the Prospect Park Improvement Association (now PPERRIA).

In 1913 the water tower was built and was used for more than 40 years. A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house was built in 1934. The Glendale Housing Project was conceived after World War II and completed in 1952. The I-94 freeway project, conceived in the late 1950’s, was completed in 1964. State Highway 280 was completed in 1972.

Several articles have been written about the neighborhood over the years:

• "Going Back to Prospect Park" by Jean Riss, in Ford Times, 1969, pp. 10-15;
• "Prospect Park: One-of-a-Kind Neighborhood" by Ann Wick (about fighting for what it believes to be the Common Good) in Hennepin County History, Vol 32, No 2, Spring, 1973, pp. 3-13;
• "A Few Good Fights" by Claire Aronson (about fighting for Prospect Park over the years) in Hennepin History, Vol 54, No 1, Winter, 1995, pp. 4-17.

Many articles have appeared in issues of these monthly Minneapolis community newspapers:

• Riverbank Rambler, 1987-1990;
• SouthEast Journal and SouthEast Angle May, 1975 to 2005 (now The Bridge 2005-present);
• Tower Talks, 1974 to 1982 and 1988.

In 2003, the PPERRIA NRP History Project published the first edition of its work: Under the Witch's Hat - A Prospect Park East River Road History 2003.