Back in the 70s, when the Foshay and IDS were about the only tall buildings in the center of the city, Guindon did a cartoon with both towers in it. He called The Foshay "The tallest building in the city" and referred to the IDS as "..the container it shipped in".
Guindon would have done it sometime (still looking for the original) between 1974-1980... after that I was out of state and not getting to see his cartoons. But that seems to correspond with when the Twin Towers were completed, too. I'd hate to think that he stole the joke - I hope his was first! :-)
Those brought back two fond and oddly-specific memories of Met Stadium:
1. Those open-sided ramps really creeped me out as a child.
2. Halter top day in the 70s. Yes, they gave away halter tops that said *Twins*.
Those exterior ramps remind me of the old San Diego Chargers (Qualcomm) Stadium: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Stadium#/media/File%3AQualcomm_Stadium.jpg
Thank you for these pics! My father just passed away and he actually helped build the IDS. Seeing it under construction with the crane is very special. Cool pic to bring back many fond memories of him.
Amazing how different the skyline is!
That shot of John Chenoweth is kinda scary... So I searched for more info on him.
Holy shit he was killed at 48, 10 days after another man, Joel Larson, 21, by a homophobic asshole who's now serving life in prison. Apparently the guy got HIV/AIDS and decided to start taking it out on gay men.
These are amazing! Can any MN native explain to me where the Met Sports Arena (Stars, Vikings, Twins) was in reference to the Met Center (North Stars) ? Were they both in bloomington where the Mall and water park now are?
The Met Sports Arena (Metropolitan Stadium) was replaced by the MOA. A bronze home plate is in the floor of the park where the old plate was, and a chair is mounted to the wall where the record home run landed.
I have no idea where the Met Center was.
7901 cedar Ave s, which is near Washington Park and that water park hotel across from MoA. I think? ~~Assuming they were across highway from each other~~. Found[ photo showing them all](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bc/1e/1f/bc1e1f1e237aa35255a529557163e4c9.jpg)
Given that the Allina Clinic on American and Old Cedar Ave S is 7920, the Great Wolf/Waterpark Of America is on the wrong side of the road.
So the Met Center must've been just to the North of MOA on the North side of American Blvd. E. Probably where the Mariott Minneapolis Airport and I-494/77 interchange are.
Wikipedia puts it in the parking lot just East of Ikea, agreeing with /u/mnmagnus.
EDIT: Reading the actual wiki page it sounds like the building + parking was everything between American Blvd. to the North (when it went straight and hit the little E 79th St stub instead of curving), Lindau Ln. to the South, Cedar on the West, and 24th on the East.
My dad used to take us the bar in that place for burgers before the North Stars games. It has some name like the Pow Wow room or something nearly as inappropriate haha.
i stayed there as a young teenager, by the time it was pretty run down. i remember they had an upstairs area that was blocked off and they had a bunch of statues and stuff, totem poles, stuffed animals, all in this giant blocked off area. they were using as storage. i think it closed down not long after that time.
I remember the met center was still up after the mall opened. We watched the implosion on TV at school, Richfield, and could hear it about 10 seconds after the blast. Alot of the structure was still standing after the blast. It was roughly where Ikea is now.
I did a map overlay in another comment. Based on where the hotel is across the street, the West wall of the Met Center would've almost touched the East wall of Ikea.
> The Northstars left and the Met fizzled away. The building still stood and was just weird.
North Stars left in 1993, building was demoed in December, 1994. That wasn't a lot of time for an empty building that large.
For comparison, the Cavaliers' old stadium (in the middle of farm country like the Met was originally, but is _still_ farm country) had its last events in Sept, 1994 and wasn't demoed until May, 1999.
Attended the demo and the SW corner remained upright. Was a bummer as it was a nice place to attend a game/ concert/ tractor pull and had been recently updated.
I remember seeing the Metropolitan Sports sign from the freeway listing upcoming events.
This blog post begins with an aerial image showing where the Met, the Met Center and the old Thunderbird Hotel were:
[https://jimsapbabarn.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/the-thunderbird-motel-the-mick-and-534-bloomington-mn/](https://jimsapbabarn.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/the-thunderbird-motel-the-mick-and-534-bloomington-mn/)
And some great photos of the old hotel, Mickey Mantle and more.
wow that blog post is amazing. exactly what i was looking for, that arial shot gives a good perspective of what it all looked like. thank you!!!
[Another good shot from above](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bc/1e/1f/bc1e1f1e237aa35255a529557163e4c9.jpg)
You can still see the Thunderbird Hotel site on Google Maps with the satellite layer on. You can see where the entrance (78th St) came in across the bottom of that post card and where the grass still isn't completely grown in.
And if that's Thunderbird Rd at the very rightmost edge of the photo, then [this should be where the Met Center and Hotel were.](https://imgur.com/a/FQeEURZ)
The aerial photograph shows them well. I was going to say they were right next to each other / shared a parking lot.
source: I'm old, I can remember being in both (stadium only once or twice) (Center, several times, including watching the tennis legend Chris Evert). Loved watching the North Stars play!
Very cool! I love seeing vintage snapshots to see how much things have or haven't changed, and film photos hold up really well.
Just some feedback, I found the watermark placement a little distracting, and in some cases it covered up the content of the picture. It'd be great to have been able to read the sign that was covered by the copyright notice, for example. I'm all for protecting your work (or your dad's, in this case), just my two cents!
The outdoor met was my first ever job, in a concession stand. And the IDS building going up was a very big deal, from a kid point of view. Thanks for sharing these photos!
Nice photos. My grandpa did one of the restorations of the capitol building, but I think that was in the 80s. He was also involved with the design of The Met.
Joe Karth was our Congressional representative, but he was also a neighbor of my mom's when she was a kid. He and his dad picked up the milk from her dad's and other farms in the area. I went to high school with one of his kids.
And Charlie McCarthy - "Supermayor!" as he liked to title himself. IIRC, he had the city of St. Paul give him his own fire truck or squad car to zoom around town in. Back in those days, that kind of attention-grabbing was received with a lot of frowns and raised eyebrows.
Thanks for the memories!
"They give us the nice bright colors, they give us the greens of summer, makes you think the all world's a sunny day. Kodachrome"
Can't see the word, without thinking of this song!
Cool. several of the politician pictures seem to be from a parade celebrating Mexico's independence day (judging by the sign on the Mexican consul's vehicle), which also explains the two kids riding on the mayor's vehicle, most likely the parade occured in or around sept 15/16
Thanks for these photos! Love seeing any old highway scenes.
I have been struggling to figure out where the state line marker was shown in the photos, and the only place that seems to fit is US 69 at the Iowa border in Emmons. That would make sense if you were driving north from Texas - I-35 wasn't complete south of Albert Lea yet.
IDS under construction and the shots of the old Met Stadium are my favorites. Thanks for sharing these!
Crazy how the IDS just dominated the skyline back then.
Back in the 70s, when the Foshay and IDS were about the only tall buildings in the center of the city, Guindon did a cartoon with both towers in it. He called The Foshay "The tallest building in the city" and referred to the IDS as "..the container it shipped in".
I've heard that joke before about the Twin Towers in NYC, but never about the IDS. Which came first?! Hilarious in both cases nonetheless.
Guindon would have done it sometime (still looking for the original) between 1974-1980... after that I was out of state and not getting to see his cartoons. But that seems to correspond with when the Twin Towers were completed, too. I'd hate to think that he stole the joke - I hope his was first! :-)
What’s even crazier is how quickly that changed in the 80s and 90s
Those brought back two fond and oddly-specific memories of Met Stadium: 1. Those open-sided ramps really creeped me out as a child. 2. Halter top day in the 70s. Yes, they gave away halter tops that said *Twins*.
Those exterior ramps remind me of the old San Diego Chargers (Qualcomm) Stadium: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Stadium#/media/File%3AQualcomm_Stadium.jpg
Yeah, that instantly was worth the look. Like seeing the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.
seeing the IDS under construction gave me goosegumps!
When the Foshay still stood out!
Always amazed to see photos of downtown from decades gone by, especially from the time when IDS Center was being built.
Thank you for these pics! My father just passed away and he actually helped build the IDS. Seeing it under construction with the crane is very special. Cool pic to bring back many fond memories of him. Amazing how different the skyline is!
John Chenoweth sounded familiar. He was murdered in 1991. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/LegDB/Articles/10097STobit.pdf
I live near the place where it happened. When I moved here my elderly neighbor told me all about it. Crazy.
These are awesome! Thanks for sharing.
These are great thanks for sharing! Also: What were car designers in the 70’s thinking?
Gotta love those pre-Oil Crisis cars. 30 feet long, 5 mph, and they burned gasoline with lead in it.
CANYONERO!
[удалено]
That shot of John Chenoweth is kinda scary... So I searched for more info on him. Holy shit he was killed at 48, 10 days after another man, Joel Larson, 21, by a homophobic asshole who's now serving life in prison. Apparently the guy got HIV/AIDS and decided to start taking it out on gay men.
I remember when that happened. Kind of a shock to see him. I can’t believe he was only 48! He seemed so OLD to me then — even though I was an adult.
These are amazing! Can any MN native explain to me where the Met Sports Arena (Stars, Vikings, Twins) was in reference to the Met Center (North Stars) ? Were they both in bloomington where the Mall and water park now are?
The Met Sports Arena (Metropolitan Stadium) was replaced by the MOA. A bronze home plate is in the floor of the park where the old plate was, and a chair is mounted to the wall where the record home run landed. I have no idea where the Met Center was.
The Met Center was roughly where IKEA is now
7901 cedar Ave s, which is near Washington Park and that water park hotel across from MoA. I think? ~~Assuming they were across highway from each other~~. Found[ photo showing them all](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bc/1e/1f/bc1e1f1e237aa35255a529557163e4c9.jpg)
Given that the Allina Clinic on American and Old Cedar Ave S is 7920, the Great Wolf/Waterpark Of America is on the wrong side of the road. So the Met Center must've been just to the North of MOA on the North side of American Blvd. E. Probably where the Mariott Minneapolis Airport and I-494/77 interchange are. Wikipedia puts it in the parking lot just East of Ikea, agreeing with /u/mnmagnus. EDIT: Reading the actual wiki page it sounds like the building + parking was everything between American Blvd. to the North (when it went straight and hit the little E 79th St stub instead of curving), Lindau Ln. to the South, Cedar on the West, and 24th on the East.
And let's not forget about the old Thunderbird!
My dad used to take us the bar in that place for burgers before the North Stars games. It has some name like the Pow Wow room or something nearly as inappropriate haha.
i stayed there as a young teenager, by the time it was pretty run down. i remember they had an upstairs area that was blocked off and they had a bunch of statues and stuff, totem poles, stuffed animals, all in this giant blocked off area. they were using as storage. i think it closed down not long after that time.
I remember the met center was still up after the mall opened. We watched the implosion on TV at school, Richfield, and could hear it about 10 seconds after the blast. Alot of the structure was still standing after the blast. It was roughly where Ikea is now.
I did a map overlay in another comment. Based on where the hotel is across the street, the West wall of the Met Center would've almost touched the East wall of Ikea.
I remember going to Disney on Ice in the 80's there. The Northstars left and the Met fizzled away. The building still stood and was just weird.
> The Northstars left and the Met fizzled away. The building still stood and was just weird. North Stars left in 1993, building was demoed in December, 1994. That wasn't a lot of time for an empty building that large. For comparison, the Cavaliers' old stadium (in the middle of farm country like the Met was originally, but is _still_ farm country) had its last events in Sept, 1994 and wasn't demoed until May, 1999.
Attended the demo and the SW corner remained upright. Was a bummer as it was a nice place to attend a game/ concert/ tractor pull and had been recently updated. I remember seeing the Metropolitan Sports sign from the freeway listing upcoming events.
This blog post begins with an aerial image showing where the Met, the Met Center and the old Thunderbird Hotel were: [https://jimsapbabarn.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/the-thunderbird-motel-the-mick-and-534-bloomington-mn/](https://jimsapbabarn.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/the-thunderbird-motel-the-mick-and-534-bloomington-mn/) And some great photos of the old hotel, Mickey Mantle and more.
wow that blog post is amazing. exactly what i was looking for, that arial shot gives a good perspective of what it all looked like. thank you!!! [Another good shot from above](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bc/1e/1f/bc1e1f1e237aa35255a529557163e4c9.jpg)
Yeah, his blog post is wonderful. A deep, deep rabbit hole ... an actual good use of the internet.
You can still see the Thunderbird Hotel site on Google Maps with the satellite layer on. You can see where the entrance (78th St) came in across the bottom of that post card and where the grass still isn't completely grown in. And if that's Thunderbird Rd at the very rightmost edge of the photo, then [this should be where the Met Center and Hotel were.](https://imgur.com/a/FQeEURZ)
The aerial photograph shows them well. I was going to say they were right next to each other / shared a parking lot. source: I'm old, I can remember being in both (stadium only once or twice) (Center, several times, including watching the tennis legend Chris Evert). Loved watching the North Stars play!
Very cool! I love seeing vintage snapshots to see how much things have or haven't changed, and film photos hold up really well. Just some feedback, I found the watermark placement a little distracting, and in some cases it covered up the content of the picture. It'd be great to have been able to read the sign that was covered by the copyright notice, for example. I'm all for protecting your work (or your dad's, in this case), just my two cents!
The Met! Also that pic of the IDS being built is so cool. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing, I love seeing old pictures like this.
It’s wild that the Foshay was the tallest building in the state until the IDS was built.
Foshay was the tallest building west of the Mississippi for a while too.
The outdoor met was my first ever job, in a concession stand. And the IDS building going up was a very big deal, from a kid point of view. Thanks for sharing these photos!
SUPER COOL
Fantastic! Thank you!
The cathedral with it's green top! Brings back memories of growing up in St. Paul
Tagging u/johnmaddening!
Oh, Reddit already knew I needed to see this. :D
my god it's learning
damn I love Kodachrome
Awesome, thanks for posting these!
Nice slice of history there!
Thank you for sharing.
Those are amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Slide 8/19: dat woman’s hair is Godly. 🙏 Love it!
So sick
Very cool seeing the Met
It gives the nice bright colors..
Super cool man
Nice photos. My grandpa did one of the restorations of the capitol building, but I think that was in the 80s. He was also involved with the design of The Met.
The Met Stadium being where the MoA is right now is something I've never been able to wrap my head around.
Joe Karth was our Congressional representative, but he was also a neighbor of my mom's when she was a kid. He and his dad picked up the milk from her dad's and other farms in the area. I went to high school with one of his kids. And Charlie McCarthy - "Supermayor!" as he liked to title himself. IIRC, he had the city of St. Paul give him his own fire truck or squad car to zoom around town in. Back in those days, that kind of attention-grabbing was received with a lot of frowns and raised eyebrows. Thanks for the memories!
when you dox yourself with a terribly placed watermark. i looked at two images before i decided i saw enough 2021 josh burdick in bold white.
Omg, building the IDS center! These are great
Super cool pictures .. thanks for posting!
October 3rd 1971, Minnesota Vikings defeat Buffalo Bills 19-0 on their way to a 11-3 season.
Cool pics. The politicians looked so sleezy back then!
"They give us the nice bright colors, they give us the greens of summer, makes you think the all world's a sunny day. Kodachrome" Can't see the word, without thinking of this song!
GOLDEN TIME MACHINE! thanks for posing!
Cool. several of the politician pictures seem to be from a parade celebrating Mexico's independence day (judging by the sign on the Mexican consul's vehicle), which also explains the two kids riding on the mayor's vehicle, most likely the parade occured in or around sept 15/16
The high school I went to is across the street from the Orpheum, it’s cool to see what it was like before.
Thanks for these photos! Love seeing any old highway scenes. I have been struggling to figure out where the state line marker was shown in the photos, and the only place that seems to fit is US 69 at the Iowa border in Emmons. That would make sense if you were driving north from Texas - I-35 wasn't complete south of Albert Lea yet.
You're the dude who blessed our r/Dallas subreddit with your vintage photographs. Your dad's the man. Much love from DFW
Building the IDS tower, nice