Commerce East – Minnesota History Center

Our recent visit to the Minnesota History Center was quite educational. Opening in October 1992, the history center is home to the Minnesota Historical Society. The building housed a museum (3^rd floor), library (second floor), classrooms (1^st floor), conference center, a 314 seat auditoriums, two museum stores and a café (1^st floor). We were not able to visit the library due to time constraints and the classrooms were full with elementary students on the day of our visit. About three different schools visited on Friday, April 13. We had lunch in the café and walked by the museum stores. There were no shows in the auditorium at the time of our visit.

We were dropped off on the second floor and had to take the elevator to the 1^st floor to purchase our tickets. As we reached the atrium of the building, this was our view.

At first, we were confused because we could have access to the museum without a ticket. We assumed tickets and information was on the first floor so that’s were we headed. It would be nice for the Museum to have signs indicating this but the only signs we saw were arrows pointing to Museum. The elevators were rather small but it fit a manual wheelchair and 4 people nicely. Any more and it would be too crowded.

We spent most of our time on the 3^rd floor where the center housed its museum. We toured Minnesota’s past through Minnesota’s Greatest Generation. 

We walked through the Open House: If These Walls Could Talk exhibit, showcasing ten families from the first German family to Italians, African American and Hmong families who occupied

470 Hopkins St.

Our next stop was Weather Permitting were we walked through some amazing displays.

Our last stop was a quick view at the We the People: The First Official Printing of the US Constitution.

The history center offers a great view of the state capital.

For further information, please visit the Minnesota History Center's website