53) Blanche La Du house at 1075 14th Avenue SE (HE-MPC-3392)

58) General Mills Laboratories at 2010 E. Hennepin Avenue (HE-MPC-3360)

59) Woolery Machine (Manufacturing) Company at 2115 Como Avenue SE (HE-MPC-3357)

60) August Nimmer house (Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey residence) at 890 19th Avenue SE (HE-MPC-3367)

A quick survey of the list shows 18 properties identified in Marcy-Holmes, 3 in Prospect Park (though most of Prospect Park wasn't included in this survey), 3 in Northeast Minneapolis, a few in North Minneapolis, and the bulk in Downtown Minneapolis.

A Como neighbor brought in this Star Tribune obituary about a fellow Como-ite. We've included an excerpt and a link to the whole article about Valentyna's long and interesting life.



By Mary Jane Smetanka, Star Tribune

Excerpt -

"The Ukrainian-American's instincts and education helped her overcome hardship in her homeland and become a force in her ethnic community in Minneapolis.

Even as a teenager in the Ukraine, Valentyna Yermolenko had a survivor's instincts. Adults who heard her sing urged her to study opera. She chose architecture, a practical field that might protect her in a Stalinist country where sometimes people disappeared and were never seen again. The scrappy Yermolenko eventually talked her way across Europe and to the United States. She died at age 98 on Aug. 10 in Minneapolis, blind but still sharp and witty. . . ."

August 2011: We've received word that the historic re-survey for the part of Minneapolis including the Como neighborhood has been completed on time. As soon as we receive access to the report results, we'll share them here. Stay tuned!

A few examples of what you can find:

A May 31, 1983 article by Tom Omestad titled "Neighborhood groups flexing political muscles" mentions a first-ever Neighborhood Priorities Coalition convention and how neighborhood funding via the city had plummeted from $400K to $100K a year.

A June 3, 1997 article by Joe Carlson titled "Community hopes to revitalize area" covers a large community meeting held at Van Cleve Park in May for Southeast Como's Neighborhood Revitalization Program planning for funding. Including this quote, "Como resident Frank H. Meyer said the town meeting last week was one of the best experiences he has had in the 32 years he lived in the area. For the first time, I saw this community really come together and really (act) as a community, rather than a neighborhood of people living next to each other."

A new document has also been included. It's a 3-page handwritten biography of Calvin Tuttle on Minneapolis, Minn. stationery (written by his granddaughter, Mrs. Leo Cooper). It was sent to Tuttle School in 1937.

. . ."[In 1970/71 the plan for the future Como Student Community Cooperative housing complex] became mired in a public debate over whether the University should continue to build student housing of any kind. Much of the debate turned on the tax-exempt status of University-owned land and buildings. Minneapolis city officials felt that it would be unfair for the city to provide municipal services to student families living on land exempt from the property taxes that financed the municipal services. Minnesota voters recently had passed a constitutional amendment that called on legislators to tighten up the definitions of non-taxable land. . ."

. . . "[University officials] offered to pay the city an annual sum equal to approximately one-half of the tax which the city would have collected from the project had it not been tax-exempt. According to one University official, the Como housing project would never have been built without this payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT). The payments would later become the focus of an acrimonious debate between the University and the first CSCC Board of Directors. . . "

. . . "After protracted discussion, the Board of Regents voted in June 1976, to end the assessment against CSCC for the PILOT payments. All monies which the University had ever collected for PILOT were refunded with interest to CSCC, and the payments to the city were ended. . . ."