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The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

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Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#51

Post by angry_moose »

vitaflo wrote: post #45
blahedo wrote: post #20

Did all this arise because multiple smaller towns with their own survey grids got absorbed into the city at some point, or did the different alignments happen within an already-extant Minneapolis?

It's important to remember that Minneapolis is actually the merging of two cities, Minneapolis and St. Anthony. St. Anthony is everything east of the river (so the NE and SE quadrants). At one point in time St. Anthony was larger than Minneapolis. There was a large competition between the two cities because of their flour mills, Pillsbury on the St. Anthony side, and Washburn-Crosby (modern day General Mills) on the…

Also, everything up to Lake Street used to be Richfield:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richfield,_Minnesota#/media/Fi...

Minneapolis extended down to 62nd street in 3 successive annexations.

Though, this had a pretty minor effect on the streets as they were already continuous.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#52

Post by glitcher »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #31

I wish more cities would compile and publish this information. I grew up in Miami that has a sort of less-structured grid system where avenues are the primary north-south roads and streets are the primary east-west roads. There's a through road every half mile, or numbering-wise every 8 streets or 5 avenues. So if you know this fact, you'll know that SW 47th ave is extremely likely to be a through road until it reach…

Yes, this is a great idea. I grew up with a similar pattern where streets are mostly east-west and avenues are mostly north-south. But whenever I have explored new cities there always seems to be hidden patterns unique to that place, or at least new to me. And figuring out what they are sometimes takes more time than a short visit.

An example that bit me once, before smartphones and widespread gps, is that numbered streets and avenues in Phoenix both run north-south. The numbering gets higher in both directions as you move away from Central Ave, so the smaller numbered streets/aves are relatively close to one another. Very simple pattern indeed, but it was very surprising the first time I encountered it, didn't match my expectations I guess.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#53

Post by lapcat »

bilbo0s wrote: post #50
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably Milwaukee. Downtown Madison is sandwiched between 2 lakes, and most of the city orients North East for the roads that run between them.

This is the correct answer. I mean, yes, Madison is heavily planned. But so is any city you build on an isthmus. You have to heavily plan the layout or it won't work. At the same time they made a north-east flowing layout. Now it may be a "grid" if you rotate a grid 45%, but when someone generally thinks of "grid", they think of a grid oriented in cardinal directions. Obviously, this is not possible in Madison becaus…

> You have to heavily plan the layout or it won't work.

This is presuming that Madison roads "work", but they don't! They're a mess.

Note also that the state capitol was originally built at the present site in 1837, before the rise of the automobile. And North Hall, the first building on the University of Wisconsin campus, was built in 1851. I'm not aware of any grand road plan.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#54

Post by genocidicbunny »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #16

One of the things I find really amusing about "Minneapolis" streets is how they seem to go on forever. I now live roughly 40 miles away from Minneapolis, but I often come across nearby streets with the same name as the corresponding Minneapolis street if you extended it 40 miles south. And the numbers are suitably extended. So Chowen Avenue might end at the 6200 address in Mpls, but you'll find a Chowen Avenue in Bur…

Portland has that to a degree. A lot of streets will end due to terrain, only to start up again half a mile further where the terrain levels out a bit.

There's a related item that's amused me a lot. 110th at one point shifts like 50 feet to one side and becomes 111th.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#55

Post by retzkek »

blahedo wrote: post #19
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #16

One of the things I find really amusing about "Minneapolis" streets is how they seem to go on forever. I now live roughly 40 miles away from Minneapolis, but I often come across nearby streets with the same name as the corresponding Minneapolis street if you extended it 40 miles south. And the numbers are suitably extended. So Chowen Avenue might end at the 6200 address in Mpls, but you'll find a Chowen Avenue in Bur…

Chicago has that, but only in some directions. The south and southwest suburbs continue the city numbering out for a long way; the northwest suburbs all have their own numbering. I think most of the north suburbs are also on their own (but possibly the innermost ones share the city grid). Not sure about west. :)

> Not sure about west. :)

Unincorporated addresses in Kane and DuPage Counties do use a reference system based off State & Madison as baseline (although it's been codified based off county and township lines). Eg. 40W100 Keslinger Rd is a bit over 40 miles west of State St.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#56

Post by nkrisc »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #42
nkrisc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western Ave. is just shy of 30 miles in length. I’m not sure if that includes when the name changes to Asbury in Evanston. Also not sure if the changes at the Southern extents. Like a typical Northsider I rarely went South of Roosevelt.

North Ave. and Roosevelt Rd. go from the lake to about 2/3 of the way to Iowa. The names end at the DuPage/Kane county line, though. After that, they are just IL64 and IL38. The numbering system for just about all Chicago roads ends at the Chicago city limits, except for some of the streets on the south side, which continue all the way down into Will County. Even stranger is that there is a pocket of streets in Dyer…

> It would be interesting to know if some of the suburban street numbering schemes for the roads that cross municipal boundaries are still using the old system and that is why the street numbers seem to reset once you exit the city.

I was wondering about that, particularly for the named roads. I believe Pulaski/Crawford was always Crawford first until Chicago renamed their portion to Pulaski and Skokie kept the Crawford name. I recall my dad telling me that when he was a kid in the 50s Pulaski was Crawford all the way down. I think that might have been the case with Western/Asbury as well, but I’m not too sure on that one. I’m sure there are many other examples.

And here’s an unrelated yet interesting Chicago street fact for anyone still reading: Elston starts and ends at Milwaukee Ave., so there are two Elston/Milwaukee intersections.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#57

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

genocidicbunny wrote: post #54
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #16

One of the things I find really amusing about "Minneapolis" streets is how they seem to go on forever. I now live roughly 40 miles away from Minneapolis, but I often come across nearby streets with the same name as the corresponding Minneapolis street if you extended it 40 miles south. And the numbers are suitably extended. So Chowen Avenue might end at the 6200 address in Mpls, but you'll find a Chowen Avenue in Bur…

Portland has that to a degree. A lot of streets will end due to terrain, only to start up again half a mile further where the terrain levels out a bit. There's a related item that's amused me a lot. 110th at one point shifts like 50 feet to one side and becomes 111th.

Before everyone had a navigation computer in their pocket, I'd often get confused calls from pizza delivery people saying "I'm on your street, but that address doesn't exist" for a similar reason: farms instead of terrain.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#58

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

jccalhoun wrote: post #38

Southeast and Northeast streets reminds me of back in the 90s when I lived in a house on East street. I was on the south end of the street so telling delivery drivers I was on South East street was always tricky.

Similar situation to living in West, TX.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#59

Post by Kon-Peki »

retzkek wrote: post #55
blahedo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago has that, but only in some directions. The south and southwest suburbs continue the city numbering out for a long way; the northwest suburbs all have their own numbering. I think most of the north suburbs are also on their own (but possibly the innermost ones share the city grid). Not sure about west. :)

> Not sure about west. :) Unincorporated addresses in Kane and DuPage Counties do use a reference system based off State & Madison as baseline (although it's been codified based off county and township lines). Eg. 40W100 Keslinger Rd is a bit over 40 miles west of State St.

Those are also called fire addresses, because they were assigned by the fire department rather than the postal service. 6 or 8 decades ago, the post office decided to accept them as official rather than force people to change.

They have their own section in the postal addressing standards, under the "Unusual Addressing Situations":

https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/pub28apd_004.htm

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#60

Post by TMWNN »

Relevant: TIL that the West Side of Saint Paul, Minnesota is south of downtown. The separate city of West St. Paul (note the spelling) is also south of downtown Saint Paul. East of West St. Paul is the also separate city of South St. Paul. There is also a separate North Saint Paul (note the spelling).

https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1cbvtwt/til_t...>

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