30 Fascinating Vintage Photos Captured Street Scenes of Minneapolis in the 1980s

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.

Biking along Nicollet Mall, Downtown Minneapolis, spring 1983

6th Street, May 1983

Nicollet Mall, May 1983

Old gas station at 3rd Avenue and 10th Street, Downtown Minneapolis. Piper Jaffray Tower under construction, 1983

Nicollet Mall near 10th Street, June 1983

West Lake Street, Uptown Minneapolis, February 1984

    Minneapolis skyline from Highway 12 (now I-394) at Penn overpass, circa early 1984

Nicollet Mall, 1984

Skating at Peavey Plaza, December 1984

Ruins of mill, March 1985

Punks on Hennepin Avenue, in front of Hot LicksWax Museum record store, March 1985

The Uptown Grill, Hennepin Avenue, fall 1986

I-494 twilight, the Bloomington Strip. Minnesota Center UC at right, crane for 8400 Normandale visible in center background, fall 1986

Lincoln Center under construction, Downtown Minneapolis, fall 1986

Nicollet Mall, during construction of The Conservatory (Upscale Retail Mall), July-August 1986

Uptown Minneapolis, November 1986

Nicollet Mall, August 1987

Hennepin Avenue at 10th Street, December 1987

First Avenue, Warehouse District, December 1987

Different varieties of love, 10th St & Hennepin Avenue, December 1987

Hennepin Avenue looking north towards Lake Street, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1988

Nicollet Mall near 4th Street, December 1988

Dayton’s Department Store, 7th and Nicollet, October 1989

West Lake Street at Irving Ave, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1989

Nicollet Mall, October 1989

Looking south on Nicollet Mall from NSP Plaza at 5th Street, October 1989

Hennepin Avenue, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1989

Historic Main Street, December 1989

Near Hennepin and Lake, Uptown Minneapolis, October 1989

Nicollet Mall, December 1989

(via Bygonely)