Post #36859 by DaneTiki on Sun, Jun 1, 2003 4:58 PM

The Hotel Nicollet and the Leamington were at opposite ends of the city. The Leamington site now has a big parking garage/city bus transit center in it. The second Hotel Nicollet was in Mpls's late, lamented Gateway district, once the pride of the city, later Skid Row, later still a bunch of parking lots, ugly condos and office buildings. I'm not sure, but I think the site is now a surface parking lot (it also has an old fancy bus shelter from the late 1980s sitting there forlorn.)

It's so sad to think of all the great Tiki locations that we once had here in the Twin Cities. All gone now. Likewise the nice hotels. I haven't stayed in any of the current ones, but judging from what I've seen (exteriors and lobbies and restaurants) they're just about the most uninspired collection of dreck you could imagine. I don't think there's a single large downtown hotel in Mpls that dates from before the mid-1970s.

Thanks to Sabu and Puamana! It's nice to see this history, despite the melancholy associated with it.