The largest overall influx of Europeans to Minneapolis occurred just before the end of the 19th Century. Until the 1890s, most immigrants were from northern and western European countries, but by 1900 many of the newcomers came from countries like Italy, Greece, Poland, and southern or eastern European countries. During the first quarter of the 20th Century, rapidly growing immigrant populations flocked to Minneapolis and by 1930 Central had become a largely Scandinavian neighborhood, with Swedes the largest foreign-born group, followed by Norwegians and then Danish settlers. Other immigrant groups included Slovaks, Poles, French Canadians, Germans, and Irish. Much of Central's turn-of-the-century residential housing stock and commercial structures represent homes and businesses for these then new immigrants, workers, middle managers, and business and professional elite during the peak industrial expansion of lumber, railroads and flour milling in Minneapolis.

By 1880, there were 362 African Americans in Minneapolis, and by 1930 the African American population numbered 4,176. The African American community tended to concentrate in two areas: on the near north side of the city and on the south side near 4th Avenue South and 38th Street. From the time of World War II and after, Central Neighborhood attracted many African American families migrating north and looking to settle in Minnesota. During the 1960s, many African American families displaced from St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood by the construction of I-94 also moved to the area. Many African American churches and other important institutions serving Minneapolis's African American community began-and continue to this day-at and around 38th and 4th, including The Minnesota Spokesman Recorder http://www.spokesman-recorder.com/news/default.asp (which began publishing in 1934) and the Minneapolis Urban League, both housed in Central Neighborhood's Sabathani Community Center http://www.sabathani.org/

Minneapolis had the largest Chinese settlement in the state in the early decades of the 20th Century and the first large scale Japanese-American migration to Minneapolis occurred during World War II. The area's Asian residents have come from China, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea, and in the past thirty years, from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. The 1990s saw a burgeoning Latino population in Central Neighborhood. Dozens of Hispanic-owned businesses have since opened along Lake Street, contributing immensely to the new vitality of this bustling business node.

Even more recently, the area has seen a significant wave of immigrants-many of whom are refugees-from Africa (including a large Somali contingent), Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

Central Neighborhood is also home to a large number of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender (GLBT) residents, as well as several important GLBT institutions serving Central residents and the greater GLBT community, including All God's Children Church http://www.agcmcc.org/ at Park Avenue and 31st Street, and the Twin Cities' only GLBT magazine, Lavender Magazine http://www.lavendermagazine.com/ at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.

From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Park Avenue was considered the "Summit Avenue of Minneapolis." With its grand homes, 100-foot expanse, unusually wide boulevards, spacious lots, and generous building set-backs, the distinction of a Park Avenue address was actively sought by some of Minneapolis's most distinguished residents. The street's popularity and status was attributed not only to its convenient location just south of downtown, but also to the vision and dedication of a homeowner's group known as the Park Avenue Improvement Association. Founded in the 1880s, the association originated the street's building set-back; provided money to plant trees, to install sidewalks and curbs, and to have the street swept each night; and worked to ensure that in the mid-1880s, Park Avenue become one of the first streets in Minneapolis to be asphalt paved for a length of two miles (even before Nicollet Avenue). The organization eventually dissolved in 1931.

A typical Park Avenue scene around 1900 would have been one of grand Victorian houses with open front porches and detailed gingerbread trim; immaculately landscaped lawns and wide, grassy boulevards; dozens of cyclists darting about; and velvet-lined carriages-or in the wintertime, sleighs-meandering slowly down the street. When the automobile was introduced, "horseless-carriages" (as they were referred) became another symbol of Park Avenue distinction, and parading them proudly up and down the street became a neighborhood past-time.

Today, Park Avenue still boast many of the splendid homes that once made it famous-although a number fell prey to wrecking balls or were split up into rooming houses during the mid-1900s. Still, many of the houses that remain are slowly being restored to their original grandeur as Central Neighborhood's popularity grows among people who not only realize the value of the neighborhood's historic housing stock, but are drawn to its diverse community of residents and its centralized location within the city, providing quick and easy access to all that Minneapolis has to offer.

Those interested in historical research can find many photographs, newspaper clippings, and other interesting artifacts of the neighborhood in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society at www.mnhs.org, the Minneapolis Public Library at www.mplib.org, and the Hennepin History Museum at www.hhmuseum.org.