Photos By John HoffOne day when we were passing out fliers for the Hawthorne Annual Meeting, Peter Teachout pointed out some houses on 29th Ave. N, facing Farview Park, and said he'd heard they were called "the five sisters" because of being next to each other and having similar architectural details.
Today I was in the area, and...
...I finally had a chance to take their "family portraits." The houses are in order, top to bottom, which corresponds to moving eastward from the corner of 6th St. N. and 29th Ave. N.
Note how the last house is like the smallest sister, who is clutching her toy pony. (I added an additional image of the fifth house, to show that detail better) I wonder what the story is behind these five similar houses, all together?
I like these houses very much. I especially like the paint schemes on the second and third houses. Normally, similar-looking houses in a neighborhood can be boring (see blocks and blocks of literally the same house in Bloomington), but these five houses are quite charming.
ReplyDeleteHey Johnny,
ReplyDeleteSmall sister is my former house and that tiny pony is the Swedish Dalahest. everyone wants to take it down but the idea of climbing up four stories and trying to unhook it has us all peeing our pants! Word is that all five homes were built by Swedish immigrants who originally settled the neighborhood. Our house was built in 1902 and if you walk up onto the porch you will have the single most beautiful view of the city! The insides of most of these houses are really cool, our house for example has the original wood floor which was made with the scraps of buildings and barns that Swedish immigrants would collect and then hand miter to fit together. Our stairway has the original tiny tiny stairs that were hand finished and beautifully carved. Unfortunately all of these fixtures have been very abused by the crackheads that used to live there, but hopefully one day the house will be restored to its original beauty just as "the twins" did with their house.(the third house)I can testify that that block is one of the best blocks to live on in all of Minneapolis. The neighbors are an amazing array of personalities and kindness!