Foshay Tower Museum and Observation Deck
Location
Phone: 612-215-3783
Tours arranged through the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce at 612-767-6824.
On the National Register of Historic Places, the Foshay Tower has been on a popular and sentimental landmark for Minnesota since opening in 1929. The only building in the world modeled after the Washington Monument, the Foshay Tower was built by multi-mullionaire real estate developer Wilbur B. Foshay in 1929 and was instantly heralded as a modern, art deco masterpiece. Foshay was a larger than life character and it's reflected in the building that bears his name. Painstakingly restored and transformed into a W hotel in 2008, today visitors to the museum, located on the tower's 30th floor, can follow the creation of this unique building and the man behind it; then venture out onto the only open-air observation deck in Minneapolis/St. Paul for panoramic, 360-degree views of the Twin Cities.
The museum is open 12pm to 9pm daily, year around. There is a $8 admission for guests 12 years & older. Groups of 10 or more are $5/person.
Information can be found at the Minnesota Historical Society's National Registration of Historic Places webpage.
The museum is located in the W Hotel.
The museum does not have a website of it's own.
Parking: There is a ramp directly across the street on Marquette between 8th and 9th St. (W Hotel also offers valet parking.)
Directions: The museum is located at the top of the W Hotel in Downtown Minneapolis. The entrance to the hotel lobby (and the elevator to the museum) is on Marquette Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets.
From Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP)
Follow MN-5 eastbound to MN-55.
Follow MN-55 westbound to MN-62.
Follow MN-62 westbound to I-35W.
Follow I-35W northbound and follow signs for Downtown Exits.
Take the 11th Street exit (Exit 16A).
Follow 11th Street for three blocks to Marquette Avenue and turn right.
The hotel will be two blocks ahead on the right.
From St. Paul (East)
Take the I-94 west to the 11th Street exit.
Continue on 11th Street for 3 blocks.
Turn right on Marquette Avenue.
Follow Marquette Avenue for 2 blocks, and the hotel is on the right past 9th Street.
From West
Follow I-394 East towards downtown Minneapolis.
Take the 12th Street exit and follow to Marquette Avenue.
Take a left on Marquette Avenue and proceed 3 blocks to 9th Street.
The hotel is located on the right between 9th and 8th street.
From Northwest
Take I-94 east to the downtown Minneapolis exit at 4th Street.
Follow 4th Street to 2nd Avenue South and take a right.
Continue on 2nd Avenue to 9th Street before taking another right.
Turn right at Marquette Avenue and the hotel will be on your right.
From South
Take I-35W to the downtown Minneapolis exit at 11th Street.
Continue on 11th Street for 3 blocks and turn right on Marquette Avenue.
Follow Marquette Avenue, and the hotel will be 2 blocks down on your right.
Learn More
- Music for Wind Band Vol. 1
contains "Foshay Tower (Washington Memorial)" march by John Philip Sousa
Naxos, 2000 - Minneapolis-St.Paul then & now
Hanje Richards
Thunder Bay Press, 2001 - Faint praise: a Jane Lawless mystery
Ellen Hart
Seal Press, 1995 - Foshay Tower Observatory Desk
peterodl
You Tube video, 2008 - Historic photos of Minneapolis Heather
Block Lawton
Turner Pub. Co., 2007 - Minneapolis in the Twentieth Century: the growth of an American city
Iric Nathanson
Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010 - American Art Deco: architecture and regionalism
Carla Breeze
W.W. Norton, 2003 - Downtown: a history of downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul in the words of the people who lived it.
David Anderson, ed.
Nodin Press, c2000 - Mr. Foshay's Legend
MPR
February 1, 2000 - AIA guide to the downtown Minneapolis
Larry Millett
Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010 - Art deco architecture: design, decoration and detail from the twenties and thirties
Patricia Bayer
Harry N. Abrams, 1992 - Minnesota marvels: roadside attractions in the Land of Lakes
Eric Dregni
University of Minnesota Press, 2001
