Downtown: Minneapolis in the 1970s - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1681341174 ISBN 13: 9781681341170

Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2018

Synopsis

Downtown Minneapolis in the early 1970s was a scene.

Dayton's was in its prime, the new Nicollet Mall was full of people, the Foshay Tower was still king, and the IDS Center was beginning its rise. Bustling sidewalks teemed with shoppers and businessmen, young and old, no matter what the weather, because the skyway system was just being born. 

Mike Evangelist, a seventeen-year-old from the suburbs, found everything about the city to be amazing. He turned his lens to the scenes around him--young women hitching a ride, a disabled vet selling pencils, stylish shoppers strolling Nicollet Mall, once-grand movie houses on Hennepin Avenue--capturing a vibrant and rapidly changing city. 

Writer and artist Andy Sturdevant, who has been called "the preeminent wit, flâneur, and psycho-historian of the Twin Cities," explores these streets as a congenial companion, commenting with a sharp eye and thoughtful insights.

Do you miss the seventies? Did you miss the seventies? Downtown takes you there.

About this title

About the Author

Mike Evangelist was born in Minneapolis and grew up in nearby New Brighton. He developed his love of photography while in high school and attended the University of Minnesota intending to make photography his career. But life intervened, and he spent the next twelve years working in the advertising field. He moved into personal computers in the late 1980s, first with Apple as a director of product marketing and later as chief marketing officer at Code 42 Software. Since retiring from 'business' in 2014, Mike has returned to his roots in street & documentary photography, gathering material for the (potential) next book.

 

Andy Sturdevant, an artist, writer, and arts administrator, writes about art, history, and culture for a variety of Twin Cities-based publications and websites.

From the Back Cover

"Mike takes us on a visual odyssey of a Minneapolis long gone by. A compelling look at a city on the verge of social and political change; the home of Hubert Humphrey and Mary Tyler Moore. It's a lovely remembrance of the Minneapolis that once was--and a thoughtful look at how far we've come."

ROBYNE ROBINSON, Arts and Culture Director, Airport Foundation MSP


"I prowled the streets and avenues and establish- ments of Minneapolis in the 1970s as a cub. Mike and Andy have stopped a clock that has been slowly ticking. I remember, vividly, these stories, the buildings, and even the faces look familiar. It is a family album long lost, returned at long last."

DON SHELBY, former anchor and reporter for WCCO-TV and Radio


"These extraordinary pictures of our history help guide our future."

R.T. RYBAK, former mayor of the city of Minneapolis


"There's a nostalgic pleasure in looking at Mike Evangelist's photographs of Minneapolis in the 1970s. But the greater pleasure, for me, is in inhabiting the eyes of the shy suburban teenager who made these pictures. Evangelist's nervous thirst for the world blossoming (and decaying) around him is contagious."

ALEC SOTH, photographer and author of Sleeping by the Mississippi

Edition details

• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1681341174
• ISBN 13: 9781681341170
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144