4425 Aldrich Ave. N. Has Been Demolished, It Was Once The "Old Johnson Boarding House" Before Slumlord Mahmoud Khan Got His Hands On It...

Photo from Old North Minneapolis Facebook group, blog post 
by John Hoff

Information I wrote earlier tonight about 4425 Aldrich Ave. N. was out of date even while I was hitting the PUBLISH button. It turns out the house went down today. Complete information was found on Old North Minneapolis Facebook group, which I have joined as of today.

The loss of this house is all the fault of slumlord Mahmoud Khan, who turned it into a run down, overcrowded, unsafe rental.  Occupants barely escaped with their lives during a fire in March of this year. After that, the building sat vacant except, one suspects, for rats and the occasional crackhead trespasser looking for metal.

Today the building met its doom.

According to Old North Minneapolis Facebook group, the building was constructed around 1902s to serve...

...a bulging lumber worker population new to Camden Place. At one time it was owned by the family of City Council Person Barb Johnson and so was known as the Old Johnson Boarding House.

Some charming antique photos were shared on Old North Minneapolis and deserve a wider airing, so here they are with my own tongue-in-cheek commentary.

Seeing this old building more than a century later, the eyes of slumlord Mahmoud Khan lit up with delight at the thought of how many tenants he could pack inside. But look at this photo and think about the fact neighborhoods change.

They change slowly, but they do change.

We should be wildly encouraged by the fact NEIGHBORHOODS CHANGE AND WE CAN CHANGE THEM.

What a lovely party. I wonder, a century later, what OTHER scenes this room witnessed? How about the time somebody was stabbed over a dime bag? Or the joyful midnight arrival from Chicago by Greyhound bus, which quickly turned ugly when police showed up at the door with an interstate warrant?

What happened in this room during the March 2013 fire? How many babies were sleeping in there, and who got them out?

I bet that old wallpaper was still underneath there, somewhere, during today's demolition. It would have been delightful for an antique homes restoration buff to find.

Now all the history is lost but photos and words written down, and this because slumlord Mahmoud Khan is the devil.

In this photo, residents have heard a prophesy that He Who Is Called Khan And Hates America will turn their happy boarding house into a hovel. And so they have prepared split logs to serve as rails, to ride He Who Is Called Khan out of town on a rail.

Well, then it became clear to those who understood the prophesy that He Who Is Called Khan wasn't scheduled to appear for more than a century, so everybody was all, like, OK let's drink some beer.

The little boys in sailor suits are standing near the large boys, of course, having heard a prophesy about somebody called Spanky Pete who will appear in the neighborhood and present a danger to minors.

Here, the earliest known photo of a BALL CHOPPING AXE in North Minneapolis.

The more neighborhoods change, the more they come around full circle.

Oh, look.

Horsey.

The loss of this building, though inevitable due to its condition, was a dark day in North Minneapolis. But the building's demise was inevitable the minute it was purchased by Mahmoud Khan.

This bad man must be stripped of his rental licenses while there are still two sticks of history nailed together and left to preserve.