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1952 Map of Minneapolis South

Name: 1952 Topographic Map of Minneapolis South
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1954
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1954

About this map

Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, and Cedar Lake anchor the central landscape of this early 1950s urban survey, illustrating the sophisticated integration of water and parkland within the growing city. The residential expansion of Edina, Morningside, and St Louis Park is well underway, yet several gravel pits and substantial undeveloped tracts like Bryn Mawr Meadows still mark the transition between the dense downtown core and the emerging suburbs.

Industry and transport are concentrated along the Mississippi River and major rail corridors, where the Great Northern RR and Minneapolis and St Louis RR traverse the grid. A remarkable concentration of social infrastructure is visible, from the Dunwoody Industrial Sch and Municipal Market to sprawling institutions like Lakewood Cemetery. The map captures the city at a post-war peak, showing a detailed network of neighborhood schools and churches that served the maturing metropolitan area.