Dinkytown, Minneapolis — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Dinkytown?

The University of Minnesota supplies most of the sights. Its galleries sit a short walk south. The Weisman Art Museum, a brushed-steel Frank Gehry building, stands on a bluff at the east end of the Washington Avenue Bridge, and the Katherine E. Nash Gallery keeps its rotating student shows nearby.

Sport fills the rest of the calendar. Hockey crowds pour into 3M Arena at Mariucci, while baseball plays out at Siebert Field and the old Northrop Field lends its name to the grounds beside it.

What is the history of Dinkytown?

Streetcars built Dinkytown. The little cars were nicknamed Dinkys. When the University of Minnesota grew along the river the crossing of 4th Street Southeast and 14th Avenue Southeast filled with shops that served the students who streamed off those lines, and the cluster earned the Dinkytown Commercial Historic District listing in 2015 for that streetcar past.

A young Bob Dylan lived and played here. The folk clubs of the early sixties gave the few blocks a name that still outruns their size.

Where is Dinkytown?

Dinkytown sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, wedged between the University of Minnesota campus to the south and the older streets of Marcy-Holmes to the north. The river bluffs edge it.