Eastman Flats, Eastman Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1878-1959)
From Placeography
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Eastman Flats | |
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| Address: | Eastman Avenue |
| Neighborhood/s: | Nicollet Island, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| City/locality- State/province | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| County- State/province: | Hennepin County, Minnesota |
| State/province: | Minnesota |
| Country: | United States |
| Year built: | 1878 abt |
| Year razed: | 1942-1959 |
| Historic Function: | Apartments/condominiums |
| Builder: | William Wallace Eastman |
| First Owner: | William Wallace Eastman |
(44.986675° N, 93.262815° WLatitude: 44°59′12.03″N
Longitude: 93°15′46.134″W)
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Memories and stories
Nicollet Island has a northern residential section, a middle commercial section along Hennepin Avenue, and a southern industrial section. The first houses were built in the 1840s, accessed by walking logs in the summer or ice in the winter. In 1879 William Eastman brought industrial power to the island by stringing an overhead cable from the east channel water turbines to island mills and factories, including those for building boxes, furniture, paint, machinery, boilers, wagons, rubber goods and gaskets. Later, steam boilers replaced the cable. There were several ice houses along the southern end of the island, where winter-cut ice would be stored for summer's use. Early factories and mills burned and were replaced in stone. The Williams Brothers Boiler Works (now the Nicollet island Park Shelter) and the Island Sash and Door Company (now the Nicollet Island Inn and restaurant) survive. The Island was a fashionable place to live in the 1870s with several mansions and four-story townhouses. Later the island's fortunes declined, and many houses and townhouses were subdivided. Many of the townhouses were torn down for the DeLasalle High School in the 1920s and 1930s, although some remain and have been rehabilitated as the Grove Street Flats. Some old houses from elsewhere in the city have been moved onto the island because of its quiet ambiance. Most of the commercial buildings of Hennepin Avenue were demolished in the 1960s (Anfinson, Scott 1989-90).
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