2619 Newton Ave. N. Goes Down, Sustained Damage In North Minneapolis Tornado...

Photos and blog post by John Hoff

The condition of 2619 Newton Ave. N. before the tornado is unknown to me. It probably wasn't in very good shape. But the tornado didn't do this place any good and, actually, was probably what put this property right over the edge toward a date with The Backhoe Of Doom.

Pictured above it what it looked like about a month ago. In the last couple days, however, 2619 Newton Ave. N. was demolished. Nothing is left now but a big, sandy hole in the ground...

Pictured above is "Before."

And below? That's today. That's "After."

Here is another photo, taken from the alley and looking the opposite way to capture the enormous hole in the ground.

The photo above makes it appear the houses in the background are sitting in front of an enormous barren moonscape, but that's kind of an optical illusion. This hole only takes up one lot and the houses are just in the background.

The last owner of 2619 Newton Ave. N. was James C. Hunt, listed at the same address. The name means nothing to me. He is some kind of mystery man.

This stretch of Newton Ave. N. has its issues. Only day before yesterday there was a shooting on the corner. The house at 2650 Newton Ave. N. has issues with the sale of pit bull puppies. And there's a Mahmood Khan house on this block at 2631 Newton Ave. N. 

A single Khan house is enough to drag down any block. However, there is one vacant lot on this block owned by the city and, with the demolition of this wrecked and vacant structure, we see some effort to make the block better.

Trying to dig up some kind of information to remark on the passing of a house that stood for 100 years, I can find a few names associated with the house. Somebody named Wayne NMN Barlow, DOB 2/1/1983, once appeared on the Hennepin County jail roster with this home as his reported address.

And a 1921 alumni directory from Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota, lists a guy named Adrin Ellsworth Sorenson, B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) as having the profession of traveling salesman for Creamery Package Company, which had its address at 2619 Newton Ave. N. Though the directory is from 1921, Sorenson is listed as part of the class of 1919 and reportedly lived in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

The interesting little "Creamery Package Company" trail doesn't run very far because the name is too common to produce much with an internet search. If such an entity existed at 2619 Newton Ave. N., I suspect it was a franchise and not the entire company.

But to think once upon a time there was such an entity in our neighborhood with such a productive and nice sounding name as "Creamery Package Company."The very sound of the name fills me with a buttery flavored feeling of inner peace.

Though I had nothing to say about this house during its lifetime, I did manage to snap that one picture right before the end. Honestly, I didn't know its end was coming so quick. I simply felt the need to take a picture and document "is" before it turned into "was."

It's a good thing I did. The passage of a house in a neighborhood should not go undocumented and unremarked.

Rest in peace, 2619 Newton Ave. N.