At the turn of the twentieth century, Minneapolis became a national center for the arts movement known as Arts and Crafts. The city's Handicraft Guild led the way. Founded by women, the Handicraft Guild made the arts in Minneapolis more democratic and populist by offering classes like pottery and metalwork to artists and teachers.

In 1878, businessmen Henry A. Bruns and Henry G. Finkle built the first steam-powered grain elevator in the Red River Valley. In its first harvest season, the elevator handled almost 250,000 bushels of wheat from more than 5,000 wagons.

Tired of ethnic discrimination as well as dangerous working conditions, low wages, and long work days, immigrant iron miners on the Mesabi Range in northeastern Minnesota went on strike on July 20, 1907. It was the first organized strike on the state's Iron Range.

When Czech and Slovak immigrants moved to Minnesota in the late nineteenth century, they carried with them the idea of a Sokol—a social, cultural, and gymnastics society that combined physical and mental education. The St. Paul Sokol has served as a community center for more than one hundred years.

It is the rare financial institution that offers patrons an awe-inspiring architectural experience along with check-writing privileges. The Merchants National Bank in Winona, designed in 1911-1912 by the Minneapolis firm of Purcell, Feick and Elmslie, is one such edifice.

The opening of the Duluth Ship Canal in 1871 was a historical turning point for the city of Duluth and the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior.

When it opened at the corner of Marquette Avenue and Fifth Street in 1915, the Soo Line-First National Bank Building was the tallest skyscraper in Minneapolis and also among the most elegant.

Minnesota State University, Mankato, was founded as Minnesota's second normal school in 1868. It went through phases as a normal school, teachers college, college, and university. By 2011 it was one of Minnesota's largest and most comprehensive universities.

Erected in 1913 on Tower Hill, one of the highest elevations in Minneapolis, the Prospect Park Water Tower was built to increase water pressure in the area and thereby enhance firefighting efforts. Familiarly known as "The Witch's Hat," it has become the neighborhood's architectural mascot not for its function but for its singularity.

Designed by Leroy Buffington and Harvey Ellis in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, Pillsbury Hall at the University of Minnesota opened in 1889 and is part of the National Register-listed Old Campus Historic District.