Our History

In 1887, the city of Minneapolis was a young, fast-growing milling and transportation center of more than 100,000 persons. Real estate agents (they would not use the term REALTOR® until 1916) had been active for at least three decades, though not always with the happiest results for either the public or the more ethical practitioners among their number.

The market itself, despite the city's rapid development, was an up-and-down affair, susceptible to the booms and busts of the economy at large.

Clearly, what 18 local real estate pioneers had in mind when, on January 15, 1887, they organized the Minneapolis Real Estate Exchange was something that would promote high standards of behavior within the industry while helping to stabilize and enhance the industry itself.

As it happened, that original organization and its immediate successor would survive only a few years before collapsing, along with the local market, under the pressure of the nationwide financial panic of the 1890s.

The first real estate office in Minneapolis, 1957. Simon
Synder and William McFarlane are believed to have
formed the city's first real estate company in 1855.
(Photo: Minnesota Historical Society)

But just as the market would come back, so would the organization—first as the Minneapolis Real Estate Board, eventually as the Greater Minneapolis Area Board of Realtors. And the commitment of those original pioneers to the highest professional standards, to civic progress and improvement, and to the stabilization and enhancement of the real estate business became the abiding commitment not only of the Minneapolis Board, but of the national organization its members helped found.

It is a commitment—as well as a legacy—that continues to this day, a full and busy century later.

This publication officially marks the centennial of the founding of the Minneapolis Board. It is intended to be at one and the same time a glance backward to the Board's origins and a celebration of its considerable—and continuing—achievements. It is, admittedly, an incomplete record; only a handful of the many pioneers and uncountable practitioners have been mentioned in its pages.

Yet, by mentioning these few, its intention is to honor the many—including all current REALTORS® who are carrying the pioneers' commitment to professionalism and excellence into a second eventful century.

Bridge Square, downtown Minneapolis, middle 1890s. The city's population was rapidly growing, but its commerce was in the grip of a nationwide financial panic.
( Photo: Minnesota Historical Society.)

Charting the Growth of a Community, Industry, Organization...

1849
Ard Godfrey moves his family into a house in St. Anthony. The following year, John H. Stevens completes the first frame house in Minneapolis on the west bank of the Mississippi River near St. Anthony Falls.

1855
Simon P. Snyder and William K. McFarlane form Snyder & McFarlane, believed to be the city's first real estate company.

1860
Samuel C. Gale establishes a real estate and loan office in Minneapolis. The model of a civic-minded professional, Gale will also be active as a member of the city's library board and board of education, a long-time booster of the local arts and sciences, and a pioneering force in the development of the Minneapolis park and boulevard system.

1867
Minneapolis is incorporated; its population totals 17,000.

1880
A transplanted New Yorker, David Cooper Bell, forms the David C. Bell Investment Company. In addition to real estate, Bell is active in local banking and industrial circles, and a founder of the YMCA and other civic and cultural institutions.

1885
Thorpe Bros. opens its doors at 258 Hennepin Avenue advertising "Real Estate Sales, Rentals, Mortgages." One of the founders, Samuel Skidmore Thorpe, a tireless advocate of professional ethics and community planning, will become a major influence in real estate circles both locally and nationwide.

1887
Eighteen local pioneers organize the Minneapolis Real Estate Exchange, which is committed to "maintaining principles of honesty and fair dealing" and to placing "real estate upon a foundation of influence and permanence."

The group's original members meet every weekday morning around its black slate "call board" to exchange information on properties for rent or sale. A Call Committee is formed to help bolster the local market. Other committees include Executive, Public Affairs, Membership, Valuation, and Arbitration.

The Exchange lasts five years, boasting as many as 100 members. Elwood Corser is its first and only president.

E.S. Corser, President of the Minneapolis Real Estate Exchange, served from 1887 to 1892.	I.C. Seeley, President of the reorganized Minneapolis Real Estate Board from 1893 to 1897.

1890
The population of Minneapolis reaches 165,000, reflecting a gain of more than 250% over the past decade.

the local real estate market fluctuates wildly about this time. Within the span of a decade, property on Hennepin Avenue ranged between $100 and $700 a foot; land in the Minnehaha area soars from $100 to $3,000 an acre, then plummets to $15.

1892
Fred James, Lester Elwood and others organize the Minneapolis Real Estate Board. The new group initially comprises 43 charter members representing 17 local firms, and espouses aims and ideals similar to those of the short-lived Exchange. Isaac C. Seeley is elected its president.

1893
Financial panic grips Minneapolis, wiping out several banks and businesses, and reducing real estate activity to minimal levels.

1902
The Bell Investment Company acquires title to a large parcel of land between the east shore of Lake Harriet and Dupont Avenue in South Minneapolis. Bell's subsequent development, called the Lynnhurst addition, becomes one of the city's first major subdivisions with restrictions on cost of house and setback from the street line.

A parade of motorized real estate pioneers inspect the new Lynnhurst development of South Minneapolis in 1902. (Photo: David C. Bell Company.)

1908
Minneapolis Board official Samuel Thorpe helps found the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges, forerunner of the National Association of REALTORS®. Owing in large part to the importance of its Minneapolis-based members, the National Association will be headquartered here for the next several years. Initial dues are $1.00 a year.

A membership booklet of the Minneapolis Board,
dated 1909, lists, among other things, an expanded
slate of committees that reflect the growing
sophistication of both the community
and the local real estate business.

1910
Minneapolis population now exceeds 300,000, for an increase of almost 50% since the turn of the century.

1911
Sam Thorpe becomes President of the National Association; another Minneapolitan, Thomas Ingersoll, becomes Executive Secretary.

The Minneapolis Board now comprises 144 members.

1912
The Minneapolis Board sets up its first formal multiple listing program.

1913
Encouraged by members from Minneapolis, the national association adopts a National Real Estate Code of Ethics. The national association is the second major trade group in the country to adopt such a code of ethical standards.

1916
Charles Chadbourn coins the term REALTOR® to designate active membership in the Minneapolis Board. "Why could we not adopt a title which would designate our members, would imply that they are vouched for by our Board as well as qualified and responsible, and would confirm the confidence of the public in them?" Chadbourn reasons. The term is eventually used nationwide.

S.S. Thorpe, President of the Board, 1904–05, helped organize the National Association of REALTORS® and served as its president in 1911.	C.N. Chadbourn, President of the Board in 1912, coined the term REALTOR® four years later.

The Minneapolis Board publishes the first issue of its membership publication, The REALTOR®, which has been published continually since.

The Board establishes committees to help build the city's playgrounds, solve docking and depot problems along the river, fight mosquitoes, pave streets and develop boulevards.

The David C. Bell Company office at 111 South Fourth Street at about the turn of
the century. Paul E. Von Kuster, President of the Minneapolis Board in 1919, is
seated at the far right. (Photo: David C. Bell Company.)

1922
Thorpe Bros. begins developing the Country Club area of suburban Edina. The area, formerly part of a 300-acre farm, is originally divided into 585 home sites. Before the first lot is sold, Thorpe has invested more than a half-million dollars in what would become one of the nation's finest residential communities.

M.B. Hagen, who founded his Hopkins company in 1918, takes his message to the
1925 Hennepin County Fair. (Photo: ERA—M.B. Hagen Realty)

1923
Herbert Nelson, Executive Officer of the Minneapolis Board, replaces Tom Ingersoll as Executive Secretary of the national association.

1925
Minneapolis Board membership reaches 322.

A Thorpe Bros. advertisement in the Minneapolis Journal,
Sunday, August 10, 1919. According to the ad, $26,000
would get you a manor on Lake of the Isles; less than
$8,000, a 12-room bargain in Sunnyside, at 22nd
Street and Aldrich South.

1930
Minneapolis population now exceeds 460,000.

1938
The Great Depression flattens the local real estate market. Minneapolis Board membership falls to a low of 147.

1947
The Minneapolis Board creates a Human Relations Committee.

Bernard Rice, the Board's Executive Officer since 1936, becomes Executive Officer (part-time) of the Minnesota association.

1950
Minneapolis population reaches an all-time high of 522,000.

Minneapolis Board membership rebounds to almost 300.

1951
The modern-day Multiple Listing Service is established in Minneapolis as the Multiple Listing Exchange; its charter is signed by 25 REALTORS®.

1955
The Minneapolis Board adopts a Minority Housing Policy, stating the principle that "all people, regardless of race, religion or national origin, should have a like opportunity to avail themselves of the housing resources of the community."

The Minnesota Legislature passes a bill requiring the licensing of real estate brokers and sales people.

1957
The Minneapolis Board initiates a citywide clean-up campaign, with special emphasis over the following years placed on city lakes and the Mississippi River.

1960
The Board's first Annual Housing Report, based on MLS data, is published.

1964
The REALTORS® Credit Union is established

1969
The Commercial Multiple Listing Service begins operations.

1976
Board officers sign the voluntary Affirmative Marketing Agreement developed by the national association and the federal government.

Bernard Rice becomes the first full-time Executive Officer of the Minnesota association. Lee Doucette, the Minneapolis Board's Executive Secretary since 1960, becomes Executive Vice-President.

Philip Smaby, Co-Founder of Bermel-Smaby Realty, is elected President of the National Association of REALTORS®. Long active on local, state and national levels, Smaby will be elected President of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) in 1980.

1978
The Minneapolis Board sets up its own comprehensive educational program to help members meet new state rules requiring continuing education. Active in educational programs since the turn of the century, the Board by this time offers its members more than two dozen approved courses annually.

1985
The Minneapolis Board constructs its new meeting facility, library and offices at 5750 Lincoln Drive.

The Greater Minneapolis Area Board of REALTORS® began its second century of service in a new facility in October 1985.

1987
The Minneapolis Board, celebrating its 100th anniversary, comprises nearly 5,000 members. It is the 13th-largest of more than 1,800 local real estate boards in the United States.