Old Brick Houses North Minneapolis - Jan 2006

I'd driven past these two old brick houses in North Minneapolis at least 50 times, all the while thinking I really should take a photo of them. They were the kind of narrow, tall and simple box-shaped houses that you just don't see anymore -at least not in Minneapolis. The pair of homes -only just feet apart from one another both appeared to have built around the same time, of the same yellowed brick and having very similar construction -especially those old, tall windows with the arched top -something you'd be hard pressed to find nowadays even if you were looking for it. These houses resided on 2nd St. North right near the intersection of 2nd & Lowry, leading up to the old Lowry Avenue Bridge. In fact if you click on the photos to enlarge them you may be able to see the green metal top of the old Lowry Avenue Bridge. Whenever my wife and I would pass these houses our conversation would turn to wondering if anybody -or who- lived in those houses. At the time it DID look like at least one of them was occupied even though many of the windows were already boarded up. I don't remember which one we thought might have been occupied but I'm thinking it was the one on the right -with slightly less windows boarded up. The age of the houses was obvious in a lot of ways -from the weathered and cracked brickwork to the deteriorating and surely leaking roofs but mostly to the added electrical utilities that didn't seem to be part of the home's original plans. In January of 2006 we began to notice some activity around the houses including an orange construction fence in front. I figured I'd better stop and catch at least one photo of these houses so on a cold January day in 2006 we did just that. It was clear the homes were about to be demolished and it was sort of a neat feeling that we may well be the last people to be admiring them, daydreaming of the history that happened inside and outside of them. Both houses had been added onto at the rear, almost doubling the depth of each, making me wonder if they had been used for another purpose other than a simple family home. During our stop I finally capture the address of one of the two houses still above the front door -3210. Shortly after I looked up this address on the Hennepin County Property Tax web site and was not too surprised to see the last sale-price was for an astounding low rate. I don't remember exactly but I think it was somewhere shy of $10,000. Unfortunately I didn't keep those records. In fact, at the time of shooting these photos I didn't even have the faintest thought of what I would do with the photos -much less creating a blog someday. I don't remember but it wasn't very long after we stopped that both houses were totally gone - a testament to why it's almost always worth stopping to admire and/or photograph an old structure before it is gone. If you do a google map search on the address today you will see there is just an empty field. https://maps.google.com

A Short Drive North of the Cities

I few years ago, something struck us as we were headed either to, or from a weekend kayaking excursion. Despite the fact that we live in one of the most populated areas of the state, if you get onto the right road in the right direction, it is amazing sometimes how fast you can find yourself out in the country. This Sunday evening we were feeling a bit adventurous, not wanting the weekend to end -and likely in need of a vacation. On a total whim we decided to drive north on Central Avenue (Hwy 65) just to see where we ended up and what we might see along the way. After going through Ham Lake and East Bethel, the city gradually thinned out and we soon found ourselves somewhere around Isanti. A brown sign for a county park caught our attention so we headed west towards the town of Oak Grove. At this point we realized from a map that we were surrounded by small towns in almost every direction. We decided on a destination of the town of "Oxlip" probably just because of it's odd name, and headed further west past Hwy 47 (or University Ave in the city). We found Oxlip to consist of pretty much just a few houses and a very large Evangelical Church. Just a 1/2 mile or so east was a nice old abandoned house. Unfortunately many old houses like this often sit on property located right next to a newer, occupied house, making me leery of stopping for a photo. This was not all the case, with no other houses for miles and I had a chance to walk around the property for just a bit. On the other side, you could see where the original frame was added on to. There was curious looking, angled entry way that jutted out even further from the addition. This side actually had a fair amount of white paint still clinging to the wooden siding, another hint at the history of the house. There was one more smaller building on the property, a sort of shed with a rusted metal roof but surprisingly intact glass windows. In hind sight I really wish I would have peeked inside there before leaving. We then set our sights on the next closest small town -Bradford. There were actually a few businesses here, including a newly renovated bar and restaurant called "Ravens" that called to us for a quick beer. Before heading back, we stopped at another abandoned house on the west side of Hwy 47 just south of the bar. This was a much larger house than the other, built in an "L" shape, with at least one dormer window and an added front porch. There were also two chimneys, one of which had almost completely crumbled away. The yard here was so overgrown that I couldn't even get that that close. A grapevine had attacked an devoured almost the entire front porch. At the back of the house was a porch that seemed to be part of the original construction -especially obvious by the layers of different colored shingles showing. There were a few barrels, a grill and even a mailbox tucked away behind the porch. Though much larger, I'd guess that this house was older than the other, simply by it's state of disrepair. Though the backside showed some paint the front side was mostly gray, weathered wood. I sure like this house and I wonder about who lived there.

Various Abandoned Farmsteads

The main content in this post was contributed from a viewer and fellow abandoned enthusiast. All are abandoned farmsteads within the southeastern corner of Minnesota -one of the best areas to encounter such sights. I've added a few comments of my own to some of the photos in addition to the descriptions "in quotes" provided to me by the photographer. "This was an abandoned farm stead near Lanesboro, MN. It is close to the Root River and Trout Run and looks to be a victim of frequent flooding. The house is deteriorating quickly along with the barn and several farm implements on the property." These pics brought back memories of a couple of trips to far southern Minnesota where I visited the towns of Lanesboro, Preston, Harmony, Canton and more. In fact, I have a lot of good photos from that area that I will likely use for future post. This next one I think is so picturesque and really captures the essence of a prairie home. What a fantastic old tree! "This was a small home near Zumbrota, MN. The tree in front was lovely. The home sits lonely by itself, with the grass neatly trimmed, windows boarded up." The following farm house looks quite old. Houses like this with absolutely no trace of paint on the outside are among my favorite kind to come across. To me it appears that the severely sagging portion was added later to the original structure. "This house was found near Grand Meadow, MN. Obviously abandoned for many years, it sits close to several large farms and a wind farm." Lastly, this cool photo was also taken near Grand Meadow. I couldn't decide between the two photos that were sent to me. One was further away and really showed how out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere it is. I decided to post the other however because the contrast of the modern day windmills behind it was so striking. "This old well sat by itself in the middle of a bean field outside of Grand Meadow. At one time there must've been a house there, but is since long gone. This is all that remains." Thanks very much to Derik (derik.gustafson@gmail.com) for the wonderful photos and text! I'm now inspired again to go through some of my previous southern MN pics and see what I can find for the Blog.

Historic 1880 Jabs Farmstead

The Jabs Farm is one of the coolest -and most abandoned- places we came across in 2009. This place definitely fit the bill as we stumbled upon it purely by chance while on an April hike around Louisville Swamp. The Louisville Swamp area itself is just a small part of a much larger area known as the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and is located between the cities of Carver and Jordan, Minnesota. Not only was the farm not even mentioned on the DNR info center in the parking lot, it was also remote as heck, being about a 5 to 6 mile hike just to get there. After traversing some backwaters of the Minnesota River known as Sand Creek by way of a piled rock crossing, you come up a hillside to the original farmhouse. Surprisingly, there were historical markers to read about the homestead and you could even walk inside the house. Inside was a barrel stove surrounded by a few rustic benches. From the outside, it looked like it had been repaired to some extent, probably even having it's original wooden shingles replaced in the last 10 years or so. Even more intriguing than the house, were two quite large structures, the larger of which was missing it's entire main roof as well as large sections of wall from additions that appeared to have been added later. The third and furthest building was in the best condition, probably having been refurbished the most. It was locked down and even had iron grates over the windows. The historical markers themselves were somewhat vague and rustic. The one thing I do remember reading is that the farm remained in the Jabs family up until the 1950's before being donated to the state -or something to that effect. I'd really like to visit this place next year to learn more about it.