In the summer of 1960, the Star Tribune sent photographers to snap a shot of every corner in downtown Minneapolis. This is the second installment in a series that takes a closer look at the pictures, and passes on a few pieces of Minneapolis history.
This 1960 Downtown Survey project was a look at the days when you could buy almost anything you wanted on Nicollet Avenue. Here's the intersection of Nicollet and 6th. Don't look for anything familiar. It's all gone.
Let's take a look to the right.
Juster's is gone now, but when this picture was taken it was more than 50 years old. P. B. Justers started selling suits in 1908 in the Dakotas, and moved to Minneapolis in 1914. Their downtown headquarters looks impressive in this picture, and no doubt they regarded themselves as a downtown fixture.
Just be safe, though, they'd already expanded to Southdale.
The Dyckman was one of downtown's grand hotels -- lavish for 1910 when it checked in its first guest, tired and outdated after half a century. The Chateau de Paris was still a destination restaurant for anniversary dinners, but it was doomed by the City Center project, and joined the Radisson and Andrews hotel in the grave of bygone hostels. Demolished in 1979.
The Juster's building, you'll note had its lower floor modernized. Under the stone might have been an interesting piece of old Minneapolis architecture:
An atelier with a big glass window. An artist's studio, perhaps?
