Lake Street (Mpls, MN) in the 60s

Looking for pictures of Lake St in Mpls in the 60s. Used to cruise it in the late 60s & early 70s & would like to find some pictures.

 

Might want to edit the title to Lake St in Minneapolis. Probably alot of Lake Streets out there.

 

We cruised Lake Street a lot in the early 60's....never thought to take any pictures. I remember Porky's, the BigWheel, the Avalon theater, Sears, etc.

 

I wonder if you aren't thinking of University? At least today Porky's is on University in St. Paul, and Sears is just down the road.

 

1 of 2 original Porkys was on Lake back in the day. They use to cruise Lake and Uni back then. It was called cruising the loop. They still cruise Uni but the import kids and modern cars have pretty much ruined it. I haven't been to Porkys on Uni in a couple years.

 

The loop we used to do was Porky's East (close to Hiawatha Ave) to Porky's West (Out at the west end of Lake St.) Never got over to University when I was in High School. Lot of racing in Hy-Lake shopping center across the street from Porky's east.

 

I'm too young to have participated, but have heard many stories. I didn't know there were 3 Porkys.

 

Not quite a "crusier" but, some of Minneapolis' favorite sons.

 

John Hagen RIP

 

Richard Charbonneau

 

Wow Eracer, that's some cool shit!!!

 

Warren Johnson

 

i remamber a cranky old body guy with pics of east lake st. 4th ave auto body.
not sure if he's still there.

chuck i think

 

Try http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/search.cfm?bhcp=1 It's the photo database of the Minnesota Historical Society. Enter "lake street minneapolis" and the range of years you want, click on the box to show only online images, and a bunch of pictures will show up.

Both Lake Street Porky's later on were turned into Nora's restaurants (Nora was Porky's wife.) The west one was torn down a few years ago and some other restaurant is in its place; I'm not sure but the east building may still be there - I haven't looked for it in a while. I checked the MHS link and there are some Porky's photos, but only of the one on University in St. Paul.

 

Awesome link. Thanks!!!

 

AVOLON THEATRE!!!!!

OOPS I"m givin it away...... A MR Holmes used to hang out there...
SADLY I HAVE NO PICTURES EITHER..

THAT LOOP WAS MADE ONLY A FEW TIMES IN THE SUMMER BY US..WE DID NOT KNOW WHERE TO HIDE

 

right on, sweet pictures.

 

I came across this before while searching for Minneapolis hotrod history...

1950s — Lake Street Cruising: The latter half of the 1950s was home to dragsters; kids would cruise Lake Street until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. every day of the week in 400 horsepower muscle cars.
Porky’s Drive-In at 21st and Lake: The king of drive-ins. Specific guys had their own parking spaces on specific nights. This was the place for boys and girls to meet. The best lines were saved for the car hops. A police officer was stationed there.
Mr. Frank’s Drive-In, at Lake and Hiawatha: The drive-in for nerds, although it had better cokes than Porky’s.
Porky’s at Lake Calhoun: The hang-out for “snobs” and “high-rent girls”. Close by was Mac’s Millions (later Altman’s), where a guy would prep a girl for River Road (to see the submarine races) if he sensed that his date was ready for some physical activity.
Cost of gasoline: 29 cents a gallon. For $2.00 you could cruise Lake Street all night.
$1.00 birthday cake: $1.00 of gasoline poured on two blocks of Lake Street and lit.
Drag racing: The Hi/Lake Shopping Center parking lot was the favorite. Cars would race in the lot, hit the brakes at the sidewalk and slide to the curb on the other side of the street. Once in a while a car would go through a storefront. Another speed game occurred between 21st and Cedar Avenues. Cars started at 21st and attempted to make the yellow light at Cedar traveling at 80 mph.

from-http://visitlakestreet.com/about/history/

 

someone brought a harley drag bike down to porkys on east lake one night we got away with a lot back then

 

I used to work with a guy who was a bit of a hoodlum in the 1950s. He once told me about trying to get away from the cops in a '57 Oldsmobile, and trying to take the corner at Lake and Lyndale at 70mph. That didn't work out too well for him.

 

Toured with Hoovers a bit while in high school. Worked for WJ in Fridley. We'd cruise Centeral and the Sun after dark. Never did get to Lake much. Plenty of action for the serious money racers up in nordeast

 

hey what a time warp
this ford wagon was from my old nayborhood in Maple Grove we used to look at it when the garage door was open ask to go sit in it when we could ... we even where friendly to his kids so we could hang around the garage ... now that was always fun

 

Sorry, no pictures, but I fondly recall participating in a number of Stoplight Grand Prix's on Lake St. in the late 50's and early 60's. We'd head up from Bloomington on a Saturday night with someone's latest-and-greatest to try our luck. Interestingly enough, one of our more successful cars was a stock 6-cylinder '56 Ford with 3-speed transmission that belonged to the son of the Bloomington police chief. It was a real sleeper. Fortunately, he/we never got pulled in it. Later on, I used to take my dad's '59 Jaguar, which had a killer 2d gear. Again, luck was with us, and he never found about those escapades in his baby. Those were the days when 4 guys with $2.00 each could get a tank of gas and a case of Kingsbury beer, and make a night of it. After the beer was gone, we'd trade in the shell for enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes, and maybe stop at the White Castle for a 25-cent bag of gut bombs. It never occurred to us to take any pictures, probably to protect the guilty

 

hey its old home week !
a buddy sold WJ'S old 40 chev drag racer a few years ago it had had the big block engine that went into his camaro when he went P/S racing....the stock 307 from the camaro went into the 40 it was still in when sold... I have the 3spd that came from it
small world small world

 

Paperdog, my shop teacher Don Johnson from Fridley High was Warren Johnson's relative, cousin I think. He owned that 40 Chev he brought in pics and talked about it quite a bit. That was around 1994-95.
Did your buddy get that car from WJ's relative? He was a really great guy and I've always wondered what happened to him

 

Use to do a long night of cruising starting at Mr Bigs in Anoka, then the Nest in Robbinsdale, Porky's west lake, Porky's east lake, Porkys, Universite, the tea house drive in by lake Phalen Saint Paul, then Friskys in Anoka, and Home to the Farm in Dayton Mn.
Driving my 60 blue Studebaker lark, R1, Lincoln tranny, Stude pick up rearend. one fast street racer. The races were ran on Bunker Lake road behind Minnesota dragways. Miss thoose days back in 65-66. Back then I was the Studebaker man. My Uncle was the last Studebaker dealer.

jim h

 

yup i think it was a relative ..and the time line is right ..
i have other pics but they will not reduce enuf for the hamb..

i tried really hard to get my buddy to advertise nationally when he went to sell ...i had just bought a car myself and was tapped out.. but he took the first offer ...pretty cheap .... i was storing all the original parts from it for him .they went with except the trans (it was in a nother pile o stuff)

i thought the PETERSON MUSEUM would have been interested ... we had WJ sign the dash at the mdra bench racing day thats where the photo was taken...
sadly i never got to drive it .. it was a handful with the suspension set up for the drags..not fast just squirrily

 

Wow, I was WAY off, I wish I could have been around for all of this! Now it's all Hondas...

 

I was born way too late, I have heard alot of stories and wish I could have been there.

 

MN Historical Society is a great idea. I"ll check it out.