Jonathan, MN
From Placeography
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Jonathan | |
| Address: | 11000 Bavaria Rd. |
| City/locality- State/province | Chaska, Minnesota |
| County- State/province: | Carver County, Minnesota |
| State/province: | Minnesota |
| Country: | United States |
| Historic Function: | Neighborhood/community |
| Current Function: | Neighborhood/community |
(44.834171° N, 93.6245263° WLatitude: 44°50′3.016″N
Longitude: 93°37′28.295″W)
A planned community in Chaska.
(Suggested for inclusion in the 1968 tour by Facebook user Mark Schultz)Contents |
Site History
The community of Jonathan, MN was a planned community in Chaska spearheaded by Minnesota State Senator Henry McKnight. The community was intended to be a "new town," an entirely planned urban town, meant to help combat issues such as urban sprawl and pollution. The town was named after early Carver County explorer, Jonathan Carver.
The Jonathan New Town Project created the the Jonathan Development Corporation in 1965, and the organization hoped to create a community of 50,000 on 8,000 acres that would allow for its members to have access to employment, housing and services all within Jonathan, as well as ample amounts of green space for parks and trails.
By 1968, the corporation had started building and people were moving there, eager to live in the new community. The U.S. government was also becoming increasingly interested in "new towns" and the New Communities Act in 1968, where the government would provide money for new towns' construction and infrastructure.
A predecessor of the Minnesota Experimental City, the MXC movement applied for a grant to study Jonathan in 1969-1970, and the town gained increased coverage nationwide in publications such as Newsweek and the Washington Post. Jonathan was also one of the first new towns to receive a loan guarantee from the government under President Nixon when it received $21 million under the New Town Act in 1970.
However, in 1972 Senator McKnight died at age 59, and facing a recession and bad housing market, the development of Jonathan stalled and was foreclosed on by 1976.
Today Jonathan exists as a homeowners' association of about 8,000 in Chaska.
Badges
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Memories and stories
Notes
- http://www.the1968exhibit.org/
- http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/mxc.pdf
- http://www.jonathaninchaska.com/
- http://www.citypages.com/2005-07-13/news/arrested-development/2/
- http://books.google.com/books?id=MMrQxDmyTlwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
