James T. Elwell

James Tallmadge Elwell was a Minneapolis, Minnesota real estate developer and state legislator. He founded and developed the Como, Minneapolis, where the Como Congregational Church and the Tuttle School are historic structures of the period. Later in his career, he played a major role in the public financing of the Minneapolis park system, and served as president of the Minneapolis Planning Commission.
== Elwell and the Como Neighbourhood ==
After some early success as an inventor and manufacturer, Elwell turned in the 1880s to activities in real estate and city development. The Elwell Additions to Minneapolis, known as the Minneapolis Como neighbourhood, were notable in the number of houses Elwell constructed and for the beauty of its elm-lined streets that he planted. For this real estate development, he applied his gift for practical invention to devise effective drainage of marshy areas into buildable residential lots. Elwell participated very actively in community life, seeking a park, improved streetcar service, and other amenities for the area, through Como Improvement Association activity centred at the Como Congregational Church. In line with his intentions, the neighbourhood had a notable demographic blend of blue collar residents (often associated with the adjacent railroad and milling industries on the main lines between St. Paul and Minneapolis), white collar office professionals, and faculty and staff of the adjacent University of Minnesota. The neighbourhood and its founding represent the industrial expansion period in the U.S. After a period developing farming and dairying enterprises in nearby Anoka county, he resided in Como near Van Cleve Park until his death in 1933.
==The Elwell Law and Development of Minneapolis Parks==
Based on his experience as a city neighborhood developer, and difficulties in obtaining a city park for his Elwell Additions to Minneapolis (the Como neighborhood), Elwell as a state legislator succeeded in providing an important funding mechanism for the city to fund the acquisition of parks, parkways and other elements of the proposed Minneapolis park system. This 1911 "Elwell Law" was recognized by Minneapolis park superintendent Theodore Wirth as the key tool for parks funding and acquisition, during the period when the Minneapolis park system tripled in size and realized the grand vision of early planners such as Horace Cleveland. Writing in a 1946 survey of his career, Wirth acknowledged Elwell's instrumental role: "Let us now give special attention to the period 1911 to 1930, during which time the park system of the city was really perfected Prior to 1911, there was no special assessment law permitting the assessments for improvements to park lands. The passage of the so-called Elwell Law (1911) provided that authority." Along with its designers and superintendents, Elwell as a public financing architect played a key role in creating one of the leading city park systems in the U.S. 
 
==Elwell at Minneapolis Parks==
Elwell is commemorated by name in several parks in SE Minneapolis since 1939: a playing field, a second playing field that was lost to 1960s freeway construction, and the current recreational Elwell Park that features mosaic art seating and play equipment along with a memorial. 
Category:Real estate and property developers
Category:State legislators of the United States