Calhoun-Isle / Lowry Hill
Lowry Hill was the first established select neighborhood in Minneapolis. While pockets of expansive houses were built elsewhere in the city earlier, by the beginning of the last century, Minneapolis had matured enough, socially and financially, to support entire subdivisions of wealthy business-civic leaders. It is not much of a generalization to observe that "Lumber" (meaning Walkers and Wintons) built along Mount Curve in Lowry Hill; "Flour" (meaning Pillsburys and their milling colleagues) built around Fair Oaks Park; and other elites built on Park Avenue.
Today, Lowry Hill remains a highly desirable neighborhood, with a stable population and high income. Overwhelmingly, this is an area of very large single-family homes, most still undivided. A thin edge of apartments and retail fronts Hennepin Avenue, with townhousing along Franklin as far west as Fremont Avenue. A large cultural district made up of Walker Art Center, its Sculpture Garden, the Parade fields, and Dunwoody Institute occupies the northeast corner of Lowry Hill neighborhood.
As one would expect, Lowry Hill is replete with significant architecture, including the Romanesque Long House at 25 Groveland Terrace; George Maher's expansive Prairie School Winton House at 1324 Mount Curve; and the highly refined Italian Renaissance Quinlan House at 1711 Emerson.
Contact Jamie Mathwig, for Calhoun-Isle / Lowry Hill real estate help
Calhoun-Isle / East Isles
East Isles is the next neighborhood south of Lowry Hill, officially extending from 22nd Street to Lake Street, west from Hennepin to Lake of the Isles. Being "downhill," of Lowry Hill, houses here are generally slightly less imposing than those to the north. But several houses along East Lake of the Isles Parkway are impressive, to say the least.
Like Lowry Hill, East Isles is predominately made up of detached houses, also with a stable population and high incomes. The primary exceptions are the commercial strip along Hennepin Avenue, and the apartment district along Lagoon, which is perceptually within Uptown.
While Lake of the Isles is, of course, the neighborhood feature, significant architecture can be found throughout East Isles, especially Prairie School architect William Purcell's own house at 2328 Lake Place (now owned by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and open for highly recommended tours), and Edwin Lundie's Fiterman House, located at the northeast corner of East Lake of the Isles Parkway and 26th Street
Contact Jamie Mathwig, for Calhoun-Isle / East Isles real estate help
Calhoun-Isle / Lowry Hill East
This triangular-shaped neighborhood bounded by Lyndale, Hennepin, and Lake Streets is affectionately known as the Wedge. It is filled with substantial American Colonial Revival houses, such as one built in 1902 at 2447 Bryant Avenue. Solidly middle class when developed, and for a couple of generations more, the Wedge experienced a decline in the postwar years, when many of its houses were subdivided into rental apartments, gaining area a reputation as a center of counter culture.
As the ebb-and-flow cycle continued into the 1970s and 1980s, now-shabby houses were picked up at bargain prices (compared to housing just across Hennepin) by buyers who recognized their intrinsic qualities. Many have been restored as single family residences, and the Wedge seems to be on the upswing.
Although the neighborhood's visual character is established by many handsome though not architecturally distinguished houses, the Wedge does contain one architectural landmark, Purcell & Elmslie's Goetzenberger House, at 2621 Emerson. The area is conveniently located between Uptown and Downtown, well served by Hennepin and Lyndale bus routes.
Contact Jamie Mathwig, for Calhoun-Isle / Lowry Hill East real estate help
Calhoun-Isles / Cedar - Isles - Dean
Tucked away along the city's western edge, almost completely surrounded by lakes and parklands, Cedar Isles Dean Neighborhood is, environmentally, an embarrassment of riches. Relatively small in area compared to most Minneapolis neighborhoods, its defining natural and built features effectively subdivide Cedar Isles Dean into several distinctive residential enclaves. Much of this is of single-family housing, but a surprisingly wide choice of apartments and condos is also available, from modern towers to a charming walkup quarter along Xerxes Avenue that includes Art Deco duplexes at 2801 and 2805 Xerxes.
In addition to parkways, Cedar Isles Dean is the nexus of an extensive pedestrian trail/bikeway network, interconnecting the nearby lakes with the Midtown Greenway and also with a trail/bikeway extending all the way into Downtown. The recent explosion of boutique retail and restaurants at the neighborhood's southern boundary along Lake Street and Excelsior Boulevard only enhances this splendid residential setting.
With all these stellar qualities, Cedar Isles Dean is of course highly attractive. Over the past two decades, its population has grown by a third; virtually all of this growth has been absorbed by new multifamily housing built along or near Lake Street. Unsurprisingly, the neighborhood's median-family income is well more than double the citywide average. Even so, the neighborhood's exceptional variety of housing accommodates a range of incomes.
Contact Jamie Mathwig, for Calhoun-Isles / Cedar - Isles - Dean
real estate help
Calhoun-Isles / West Calhoun
Located at the western city limits between Lake and 36th streets, West Calhoun neighborhood is a physically cohesive "neighborhood" in name only. The vast open spaces of Lake Calhoun and Minikahda Golf Club occupy most of West Calhoun's official planning area. These features separate a handful of amply sized single-family houses at the south from larger areas of apartments and condos at the north, off Lake Street and separately, off Excelsior Boulevard.
The burgeoning boutique retail-restaurant district near the Lake-Excelsior intersection provides a chic social setting. The neighborhood's environmental setting is enhanced by its parkway location on the Minneapolis Grand Rounds, overlooking Lake Calhoun and the distant Downtown skyline. The Bakken Museum at 36th and Zenith, offering fascinating exhibits of electricity and magnetism, is an unusual cultural attraction.
Contact Jamie Mathwig, for Calhoun-Isles / West Calhoun real estate help
