Sumner-Glenwood, Minneapolis

Sumner-Glenwood is the name of a small neighborhood in the Near North community of Minneapolis, MN. It is roughly contained by 15 city blocks bordered to the north by 11th Avenue N., to the south by Glenwood Avenue, to the east by I-94, and to the west by both Girard Terrace and Emerson Avenue N (2). 3,336 people lived in the neighborhood before 1998, of whom roughly 66% were Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, 29% were black, and 5% were white (1). Almost all of these people lived in public housing.

The Sumner Field Homes, constructed by the WPA in 1938, were the first federally subsidized homes in Minnesota. The homes were demolished in 1998, along with high-rise project housing buildings constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. According to the US Census (1), the area experienced a 95.7% population loss from 3,336 in 1990 to 144 in 2000. Plans are in place to rebuild the area, re-incorporating it into surrounding street grids. Buildings following the "New Urbanism" style will mix of affordable and market rate units, and will replace the old project housing.

The new development is named Heritage Park, and it is possible the name of Sumner-Glenwood will be replaced by that name.

References

(1) http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/citywork/planning/Census2000/maps/sumner-glenwood.pdf

(2) http://www.cura.umn.edu/NeighborhoodPages/Neighborhoodmaps/sumnerglenwood.jpg Neighborhood map