Minneapolis Powderhorn Community
Neighborhood Boundary Signs

The Bancroft neighborhood is named after the Bancroft Elementary School. The school is named in honor of George Bancroft. He was a historian and politician. As Secretary of the Navy, he established the US Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845.

Bryant is named after William Cullen Bryant, attorney, poet, and long time editor of the New York Evening Post in the 1800s.

The Central neighborhood is named after Central High School, which closed in 1982 after just over 100 years of operation. The school building has since been demolished.

I noticed this new style sign for the Central Neighborhood in the spring of 2011. The new logo is part of a rebranding of the neighborhood that has coincided with it bouncing back from a bit of blight in the 1990s.

The Corcoran neighborhood is named in honor of William Wilson Corcoran, the founder Corcoran and Riggs, the bank that is more recently known as PNC Bank. He later founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

The Lyndale neighborhood is named after Lyndale Avenue. Lyndale Avenue is named after the Lyndale farm. The Lyndale farm, owned by William King, was named after King's father, Lyndon King. The senior King was in turn named after Josiah Lyndon, the governor of Rhode Island just prior to the American Revolution.

Powderhorn Park is named after the park surrounding Powderhorn Lake. The park is located in the center of the neighborhood. Powderhorn Lake got its name from early pioneers who thought it was shaped like a powder horn.

Standish was named after the Miles Standish Elementary School. The school was given its name based on a series of works by local poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow entitled the Courtship of Miles Standish. The Standish neighborhood is part of the Standish Ericsson Neighborhood Association along with the Ericsson neighborhood just to the south in the Nokomis Community.

Whittier is named after poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was a strong advocate for the abolition of slavery during the 1800s.

Lynlake is the name given to the commercial district in the area of the Lyndale Avenue and Lake Street intersection. While Lynlake is well known, it is not an official Minneapolis neighborhood.