Symbols on the Skyline
Several structures have dominated the crest of the hill above this spot. The first was a luxury hotel named the Winslow House, built in 1857 by James M. Winslow while St. Anthony was still a favorite resort and health spa. Its style of architecture according to a St. Paul newspaper had "a cupola and mortgage on top." During the Civil War, tourists from the South stopped spending summers at the falls, and the hotel closed.
The Winslow House was torn down in 1886 to make way for the Minneapolis Industrial Exposition Building. Testimony to the booming growth of Minneapolis in the 1880s, this "modified Renaissance" structure with a 240-foot tower was intended as a showcase for modern technology and industry. Its most historic moment came in 1892 when it hosted the Republican National Convention, but as the depression of the 1890s dragged on, the cavernous building failed to attract conventions and trade fairs. Later it was converted to a warehouse and storage facility.
In the 1940 the Exposition Building was replaced by a Coca-Cola bottling plant, which for a while used the old tower to carry the picture of a giant Coke bottle. Coca-Cola in turn gave way to urban redevelopment. The site is now occupied by townhouses.
St. Anthony Main was created in the 1970s and 1980s from the mid-nineteenth century commercial buildings on Main Street, encouraged by a national enthusiasm for historic preservation and riverfront retail development. Riverplace followed, but the developments failed as shopping malls. Nearby highrise buildings are now filled with homes and apartments, and most of the shops have been converted to offices.
Marker can be reached from Southeast Main Street south of Merriam Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
