The neighborhoods in Longfellow did not become a part of the city of Minneapolis until the early twentieth century. It was named after the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote a poem called The Song of Hiawatha, which talks about Minnehaha Falls, which are in close proximity to this neighborhood. The area was most developed between 1906 and 1920 due to the streetcar and it became known as a “streetcar suburb”. It made homes in the area more accessible and therefore more affordable. This brought many foreigners into the neighborhood, especially Scandinavians. The affordability contributes to it being a more diverse neighborhood, even still today. At that time most of the homes that were built in this suburb were bungalows, homes that have no upper floor or if they do it is set into the roof. Many lots were available for $300 and only $5 down, making family homes with a yard affordable for those in the working class. Still today many homes in Longfellow are bungalows that have been redone. Cooper was named after a popular writer at the time named James Fenimore Cooper who wrote books about the frontier and Indian life. Howe was named after Julia Ward Howe, an abolitionist, social activist, author and poet. She fought for the rights of African Americans, foreigners, women and more. Hiawatha was named after the main character in Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hiawatha, a Native American warrior who falls in love with Minnehaha a princess from another tribe. The story ends much like that of Romeo and Juliet. These neighborhoods that make up the Longfellow as a whole are still very diverse and affordable today, much like they were when they developed in the early 1900s.

In 2013, Minneapolis adopted their Climate Action Plan, which put into place a comprehensive set of emission reduction strategies. These strategies cover 3 areas: Buildings and energy, Transportation and land use, Waste and recycling. For buildings and energy, the goal is to reduce energy usage by 17%, and generate 10% of electricity from local, renewable sources. On the residential building side of things, Minneapolis is proposing a "home energy audit" as part of the Truth In Housing program (TIH or TISH, Truth In Sale of Housing). This would require sellers to have an energy score when listing their house for sale. They are proposing that the TISH inspectors be trained to perform this component of the inspection process. The end result of this energy score would be a single number, for example 37 on a scale of 1 to 100. 100 would mean that the house would have virtually no energy costs. Another part of this program is to make incentives for sellers to improve their homes energy-wise so that they can get a higher sale price due to energy efficiencies. If they don't, the buyers will at least have some knowledge about the energy efficiency of the house, making it an incentive to them to improve the house energy-wise. Also on the residential side of things, Minneapolis is proposing a "time of rent" energy disclosure for renters. Renters currently have no way of knowing how much their utility bills will be before renting a unit. The disclosure would be mandated so that renters could compare units on energy efficiency. This would give incentives to the landlord (owners) to improve their buildings to make them more attractive to the rental market. On the commercial side of things, some of them already have to do an energy score of sorts and disclose to purchasers. Minneapolis would like to extend that to all commercial buildings. They also have an Energy Reduction Challenge called the "Kilowatt Crackdown" to encourage commercial buildings to reduce usage. For renewable energy, Minneapolis is trying to create policies that promote renewable energy, develop a "solar-ready" certification, and encourage "net-zero" buildings. Making a building "solar-ready" adds virtually no cost at the time of construction, and would potentially have some value to purchasers. This would involve adding some structural supports and electrical conduit so that solar could be installed without adding structural support to the roof trusses, and/or digging in walls to add conduit. Both of these items can be added at a very low cost when in the construction phase. What is a net-zero building? Basically net-zero means the building (or house) would generate all the energy it needs to power the building itself. This generally means that the building is super insulated so that it requires less energy to heat and cool the building, as well as solar panels to generate the energy it needs. Oftentimes this type of building uses geo-thermal heat pumps to heat and cool the building, running off solar energy. You can read more about "Net-Zero" buildings at this link. You can read the entire action plan at the link below. Minneapolis Climate Action Plan: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/sustainability/climate-action-goals/climate-action-plan

The main housing type in Longfellow is the standard bungalow. There are so many that the Longfellow Community Council came up with a Longfellow Planbook as a resource for homeowners to expand their bungalows to gain the needed space for today's lifestyle without having to move out of the neighborhood. These bungalows line many of the streets in Longfellow. There are, of course, other styles as well, such as the Craftsman, some Tudors, and some Colonials along the river. If you are wanting to search for homes, or list your home for sale, click on the links below.