Dinkytown

Dinkytown Dinkytown, USA
Commercial District
The Varsity Theater on 4th Street SE
Coordinates: 44°58′51″N93°14′10″W / 44.98083°N 93.23611°W / 44.98083; -93.23611
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
County	Hennepin
City	Minneapolis
Neighborhood	Marcy-Holmes
Branded	1940s
Founded by	Unknown
Named after	Grodnik or Dinkys
City Council Ward	2
Government
• Councilmember	Robin Wonsley
Elevation	830 ft (253 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code	612

Gophers fans riot in Dinkytown after the Gophers won the 2003 Frozen Four

Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by various small businesses, restaurants, bars, and apartment buildings that house mostly University of Minnesota students. Dinkytown is along the North side of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities East Bank campus. ^[1]

Notable landmarks

Notable landmarks include the Dinkydome (a former theological seminary converted to a food court, which sometime later was converted into loft space), the Loring Pasta Bar (formerly Gray's Campus Drug and also the building where Bob Dylan lived in Minneapolis), Al's Breakfast (arguably the city's smallest restaurant), and the Varsity Theater. It's also the location of the second store opened by Richard M. Schulze called "Sound of Music", which later became Best Buy and is now closed. ^[2]

Notable establishments

The former Marshall-University High School on the corner of 14th Avenue and 5th Street was closed in 1982 due to changing city population demographics and was purchased and converted into the University Technology Enterprise Center (UTEC) for startups. ^[3] The building was razed in 2013, and today the location is home to The Marshall, an apartment building for University students. The Chateau co-op built their brutalist-style 22-story apartment in 1973 at 13th Avenue Southeast and 5th Street Southeast. ^[4]

History

The City of Minneapolis' Heritage Preservation designated a portion of the area as the Dinkytown Commercial Historic District in 2015, due to its significance in the history of streetcar development. ^[5] The historic district covers an area roughly two blocks around, surrounding the intersection of 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast. ^[6]

The name Dinkytown is of uncertain origin, although it was in definite use by 1948, when the Dinkytown Business Association formed. Stories regarding the origin of the name include:

• The streetcars, called Dinkys, that used to provide transit throughout the area.
• The theatre in Dinkytown had only four rows of seats, and for years was known as "The Dinky Theater." Shortly thereafter, it was just "The Dinky."
• It's a small (dinky) town-like area; everything is within walking distance.
• The Loring Pasta Bar, previously Gray's Drug on 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, has the name of an early owner carved in cement over the doorway: "Grodnik." Theories claim this means a small (or dinky) town, under the claim that "Grod" means "town" and "-nik" is the diminutive form. Another possible translation (from Polish and Belarusian) is "gardener"; "grod" meaning "garden", and"-nik" as a person-reference, giving "one who gardens". ^[7]

References

1. Weber, Tom; Kaiser, Emily (July 9, 2015). "The Dinkytown history you don't know: Three stories". Minnesota Public Radio News. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
2. "Self-guided Dinkytown History Tour". Dinkytown Business Alliance. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
3. Sacarelos, Callie (July 18, 2012). "Apartments could replace Dinkytown's UTEC building". Minnesota Daily. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
4. "About Us". Riverton Community Housing. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
5. "Dinkytown Commercial Historic District". Resident Services. City of Minneapolis. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
6. Community Planning and Economic Development (July 10, 2015). "Dinkytown Commercial Historic District" (PDF). City of Minneapolis. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
7. "About Dinkytown". Dinkytown. Archived from the original on March 19, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2015.

External links

• Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association Dinkytown is a commercial district, and one of the 5 character areas, of the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.
• Lileks.com -- University of Minnesota pages—contains information and reminiscence about Dinkytown, by Star Tribune columnist James Lileks
• The Dinkytown Project
• Dinkytown Hub Archived 2015-04-12 at the Wayback Machine Contains information about Dinkytown including a complete list of all businesses.

Further reading

• Designation Study for Dinkytown Historic District Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine
• Violent, colorful protests in Dinkytown in 1970 at the Wayback Machine (archived February 9, 2012)
• MN Daily article at archive.today (archived January 15, 2008)