Kenwood, Minneapolis: The Mary Tyler Moore House
Photo: The Mary Tyler Moore Show house in Kenwood, Minneapolis by Ross Griff, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
This week's Neighborhood of the Week is Kenwood in Minneapolis, home of the house where Mary Richards lived, at least on TV. The Mary Tyler Moore Show ran on CBS from 1970 to 1977.
Mary's Apartment
The show premiered on September 19, 1970. Mary Tyler Moore played Mary Richards, a single woman building a career as associate producer of the evening news at fictional WJM in Minneapolis. A TV heroine who was neither married nor depending on a man was still rare in 1970.
The show was filmed in Los Angeles, and Mary's fictional address was 119 North Weatherly. But the outside shots of her home were real. They showed a Victorian house on Kenwood Parkway, designed by Minneapolis architect Edward Somerby Stebbins and built in 1892 for S. E. Davis. The window of Mary's apartment on TV belonged to an unfinished attic in real life.
Once fans figured out where the house was, they started showing up. Moore later said the woman who lived there was “overwhelmed” by people asking if Mary was around, and the owners took steps to keep film crews from shooting more footage. When Mary moved to a high-rise at the start of season 6, the Cedar Square West building stood in for her new place.
Tour buses kept coming for more than a decade after the show ended. It's a private home, so please admire it from the sidewalk.
Lakes, Parkways and a Water Tower
Kenwood got its start in the late 1880s, when a rail line along Cedar Lake made the area easier to reach. Today it sits between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, and its parkways are lined with historic mansions looking out over the water and the downtown skyline.
The tallest thing in the neighborhood is the Kenwood Park Water Tower, a 110-foot octagonal tower of brick and stone built in 1910. City engineer Frederick William Cappelen designed it to fix water pressure problems in nearby Lowry Hill, and it hasn't stored water since 1954.
The Hat Toss
The show's opening credits always ended with Mary tossing her hat into the air on Nicollet Mall downtown, in front of what was then Donaldson's department store at 7th Street. In 2002, TV Land dedicated a bronze statue of that moment by sculptor Gwen Gillen, with Moore there for the unveiling.
The show won 29 Emmy Awards, a record that stood until 2002. Its last episode, “The Last Show,” even won an Emmy for its writing. It also won a Peabody Award in 1977.
Rep Kenwood
Live in Kenwood, grew up there, or just love it? Grab the Kenwood Neighborhoodie. Nearby, we also make the Lowry Hill Neighborhoodie and the East Isles Neighborhoodie. Not your neighborhood? We make Neighborhoodies for more than 21,000 neighborhoods across the country, so find yours or browse more Minneapolis Neighborhoodies.
Know a neighborhood with a story we should tell? Email us at hi@704shop.com and it could be next.
Sources: Television Academy: The Mary Tyler Moore Show; Wikipedia: The Mary Tyler Moore Show
More stories from 704 Shop: Fact Friday, Charlotte history every Friday since 2015.
