Doors Open Minneapolis

Doors Open Minneapolis lets you explore buildings from theaters and houses of worship to government buildings and businesses for a FREE behind-the-scenes look at 100 venues throughout the city.

Once again the city of Minneapolis will be opening up their doors to the public. We are excited to see it return and with more amazing places to visit, put this event on your calendar to attend. 

We’ve had a chance to visit some amazing locations around the city and are looking forward to more this year. It’s time to make a plan!

This year it takes place May 17th and 18th. It’s a chance to check out buildings in the city of Minneapolis that are architecturally, culturally, or socially significant. The Doors Open event is free and gives everyone the rare opportunity to see areas and buildings we might not normally see.

The event is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about the City of Minneapolis, its history and how it runs today. It’s also ideal for anyone with an interest in architecture. 

With so many great venues on the list, we often have a hard time deciding where we want to visit and often end up splitting our visits between Saturday and Sunday.

Some of the things we’ve done is take a tour of The Woman’s Club Of Minneapolis, explored the beautiful Purcell-Cutts House, learned a lot at the City of Minneapolis Eastside Maintenance Facility, made a brief stop in the Minenapolis Traffic Management Center (but it was packed and we left quickly), visited the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, went to the top of Foshay Tower and walked through the Milwaukee Avenue Historic District.

Doors Open Minneapolis Venues

There are over 100 venues on the list, but here are just a few to get you started….

• Manhole Entrance- City of Minneapolis Public Works Surface Water and Sewers Division
• Basilica of St Mary 
• Grain Exchange Building
• Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church
• Kramarczuk Sausage Co Inc
• PLUS sooo many more

Doors Open Minneapolis Map and Registration

This year they have added a map and registration for better planning.  These great tools help make the best of planning out where and how you can see everything you want to see for this rare event. 

The list is long and fascinating.  I want to visit ALL of them and hope this event can be an annual thing going forward. 

There are so many great places to visit and just not sure a weekend is long enough to try to fit them all in.  We are sharing this early so you can plan accordingly. 

It also takes a lot volunteers to make this type of event successfully happen. Check out the Volunteer page if you are interested.

A few more details from Doors Open Minneapolis about how and why this event is taking place: 

Doors Open Minneapolis is your chance to explore the buildings that tell our city’s story. From theaters to business hubs, sacred spaces to private clubs, sports complexes to engineering wonders, historical gems to not-even-open-yet buildings, Doors Open Minneapolis will give visitors a FREE behind-the-scenes look at over 100 exciting venues.  We’re hoping to enrich experiences by presenting meaningful conversations with many of the people who make these venues the marvels that they are.