Minneapolis, then and now

Hennepin and Lyndale avenues
Left: Traffic traveling northbound on Lyndale Avenue and southbound on Hennepin Avenue on July 22, 2013, in Minneapolis. Right: Junction of Hennepin and Lyndale avenues, approximately 1910.
MPR Photo/Jennifer Simonson

This fall, voters in Minneapolis will consider the first major overhaul of the city's charter in almost a century. Adopted in 1920, the city charter regulates things like the discharge of steam by locomotives, the cleaning of stables, and the size and weight of bread. Now, the "plain language charter revision" aims to simplify the document without changing the way city government works. Minneapolis has changed dramatically in the decades since its charter took effect: Here's a look at the city, then and now, with all vintage photos courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

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