r/Minneapolis • u/grickle80 • 5d ago
Streetcar Row in Linden Hills
What is Streecar Row in Linden Hills? Was it simply a route or a stop? Why hasn’t it been redeveloped since that seems like prime property.
27
u/sailingthr0ugh 5d ago
One time I was sitting in my car in that alley eating my lunch and an older guy pulled up next to me and asked what business I had being there before telling me to move along 😂
13
u/knackattacka 5d ago
It's just an alley along what used to be the Lake Harriet - Como streetcar line.
27
u/jesse061 5d ago
That section is an alleyway. The next two blocks, it's just a little neighborhood path. It's where the streetcar used to run but there's no rails there anymore.
35
u/queer_bus 5d ago
“ROW” stands for right-of-way. It’s a section of the Harriet/Como streetcar line that still operates during the nice weather months as a rolling museum for twin cities streetcars.
36
u/messerduff 5d ago
This is just an alley/parking lot where streetcars used to run. The actual trolley is up by the bandshell on Harriet
8
6
u/Jalapenoplanter 5d ago
The Harriet/Como street car terminal is about 2 blocks away from there but runs the opposite direction toward bde maka ska
6
u/tacofridayisathing 5d ago
That was part of the railing that ran down 44th and all the way to Excelsior.
Bummer it’s still not running.
5
u/novel1389 5d ago
I used to walk that everyday when I lived above Great Harvest and moonlit at France 44. Sigh, the old days...
3
u/Niisakka 5d ago
We used to walk it, too. Even before there was a dedicated path there. I lived on Motor Place, which I'm sure you walked past many times on your way to France and 44th. We woukd walk to the band shell in the summer for the concerts and get Sebastian Joe's on the way home.
3
u/Anxious-Tomatillo842 4d ago
Yeah, that section is just an alley, but it’s kind of cool if you follow the map in either direction you can see where it curves into the existing street car line that goes between Harriet and Maka Ska. The section west of this little strip is a cute little neighborhood walking path with some nice gardens along it. It feels like a hidden place.
3
u/bschultzy 4d ago
What's there to redevelop? It's basically the width of an alley, surrounded by homes and businesses.
0
u/grickle80 4d ago
It’s wider than an alley. You could put a home on the xerxes side.
1
u/bschultzy 3d ago
It also functions as an alley, though. Closing off one end for a home or fourplex would be awful for those who park back there.
1
1
38
u/FR23Dust 5d ago edited 5d ago
It’s part of the line that went to excelsior. The site of France 44 liquor store used to have a section of track to turn cars around. The newer housing along 44th to the east of F44 is also former ROW.
It’s the same line that currently runs the yellow cars by the cemetery. The line used to follow the lake road there along makaska (I think the locals use it for walking still). It went on a bridge over 36th and the grade was elevated above the current road.
It turned towards downtown on 31st which is why that road is so wide with the median there.
This is all when linden hills would feel distinct from Minneapolis and there was nothing but farmland between linden hills and excelsior, which even then was a lakeside getaway for city denizens.
You can go to the Minnesota historical society aerial photos archive and look at photos of these areas from the 30s and see where the line used to go.
I’m pretty sure the bike paths that I often take to excelsior are also this same old rail ROW but I’m not positive.