During the 1980s, Minneapolis went through a significant transformation. The Lake Harriet Band Shell was rebuilt in 1985, and the remaining portion of Interstate 94, from U.S. Highway 12 to the city’s northern boundary, was completed in 1982. Formerly home to the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was built in 1982 and demolished in 2014.
An area of Minneapolis known as Block-E, filled with bars and beggars, was notorious in the 1980s. Despite the recent transformation of the city block into The Mayo Clinic Square, a medical center specializing in sports injuries, the memories of Block-E’s past still remain.
Take a look back at Minneapolis in the eighties through these fascinating vintage color pictures. For more photographs, visit Todd Jacobson's brilliant Flickr site.
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| Biking along Nicollet Mall, Downtown Minneapolis, spring 1983 |
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| 6th Street, May 1983 |
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| Nicollet Mall, May 1983 |
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| Old gas station at 3rd Avenue and 10th Street, Downtown Minneapolis. Piper Jaffray Tower under construction, 1983 |
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| Nicollet Mall near 10th Street, June 1983 |
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| West Lake Street, Uptown Minneapolis, February 1984 |
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| Minneapolis skyline from Highway 12 (now I-394) at Penn overpass, circa early 1984 |
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| Nicollet Mall, 1984 |
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| Skating at Peavey Plaza, December 1984 |
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| Ruins of mill, March 1985 |
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| Punks on Hennepin Avenue, in front of Hot LicksWax Museum record store, March 1985 |
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| The Uptown Grill, Hennepin Avenue, fall 1986 |
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| I-494 twilight, the Bloomington Strip. Minnesota Center UC at right, crane for 8400 Normandale visible in center background, fall 1986 |
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| Lincoln Center under construction, Downtown Minneapolis, fall 1986 |
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| Nicollet Mall, during construction of The Conservatory (Upscale Retail Mall), July-August 1986 |
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| Uptown Minneapolis, November 1986 |
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| Nicollet Mall, August 1987 |
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| Hennepin Avenue at 10th Street, December 1987 |
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| First Avenue, Warehouse District, December 1987 |
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| Different varieties of love, 10th St & Hennepin Avenue, December 1987 |
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| Hennepin Avenue looking north towards Lake Street, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1988 |
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| Nicollet Mall near 4th Street, December 1988 |
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| Dayton’s Department Store, 7th and Nicollet, October 1989 |
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| West Lake Street at Irving Ave, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1989 |
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| Nicollet Mall, October 1989 |
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| Looking south on Nicollet Mall from NSP Plaza at 5th Street, October 1989 |
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| Hennepin Avenue, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1989 |
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| Historic Main Street, December 1989 |
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| Near Hennepin and Lake, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1989 |
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| Nicollet Mall, December 1989 |
(via Bygonely)