Northside Inn
1011 OLSON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY
The first mention of the Northside Inn in the Minneapolis papers is in December 1935. The tavern sponsored a baseball team from 1941 to 1948.
An ad selling all of its fixtures was published on October 9, 1957. This location was replaced by the Twin Cities Opportunities Industrial Center in 1961.
546 OLSON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY
The new Northside Inn was owned by Rodger Benton. Whether it had music is unknown.
The building was very old, and in 1939 had been used by the Sunrise Food Products Co. to make potato chips, perhaps among other things.
The first mention in the papers of the Northside Inn was in December 1957, with the report of a shooting. A knifing was reported in 1958, and a spate of shootings, robberies, and knifings were reported in 1959.
The Northside Inn is the darker building on the right. Photo courtesy Hennepin County Library via Alan Slacter
The last straw was a shooting on October 9, 1959, which wounded a policeman and killed a bystander. The assailant, who was also wounded, was sentenced to 30-80 years in prison. At the scene were found several whisky bottles (remember this was a 3.2 only tavern). At this point, James T. Fuller, Sr. had just recently become a co-owner, and was on the scene when the shooting happened and the whiskey was discovered. He was arrested and charged with spiking the beer. He was eventually acquitted for lack of evidence.
Revocation of its 3.2 license was advocated by Alderman Walter Halloran at a City Council meeting on January 6, 1960; cited were numerous “shootings, knifings and other trouble.” Although attorney Gerald Singer insisted that Benton and Fuller had been taking steps to improve operation of the tavern, Police Chief Milton Winslow read a list of offenses to the Council, ending with the fatal shooting the previous October. Winslow said that patrolmen have “reported a remarkable lack of co-operation” from the owners.
The fact that the establishment was “primarily a colored place” was brought up by Alderman Frank Wolinski. “It’s a tough place. We closed up Jimmy Baker’s Good Eat Cafe, and now ask Halloran what’s happening in his ward, or downtown. I just want you to see the problem we have along Olson Highway.”
Alderman Frank Moulton noted that “all this talk about color is beside the point,” and that “any place should be closed up if it requires an undue amount of police protection.”
At that point “Fuller left the room shaking his head, predicting the place would be operating again within two months.”
Benton and Fuller at the January 6, 1960, City Council hearing – Minneapolis Tribune photo
THE REGAL TAVERN
The Inn’s 3.2 license was renewed in May 1960, this time with Fuller as the sole owner. He reopened the place at the same address in November 1960, this time renamed the Regal Tavern. It became a place for black entertainers to come after their gigs.
Other evidence of its musical pedigree is that on July 18, 1964, a man accidentally shot himself while dancing. He had a gun in his waistband with a defective safety lock. And that’s the last we hear of the Regal Tavern.
An item in the Minneapolis Star indicates that in October 1969, the address was that of the Robert White Post 437 of the American Legion, which was raided and charged with selling liquor without a license.
The building was demolished some time after 1972. In its place is now Metro Transit’s Fred T. Heywood Office Building, located at 560 Sixth Ave. North, at the corner of North 7th Street and Olson Memorial Highway. The Heywood Garage opened in 1984, replacing the Northside Garage, which was located on Washington Avenue in the North Loop.
Heywood Garage