The second story of former Dinkytown, Minnesota drug store was the famous location of Bob Dylan's first apartment in Minneapolis - and as an adult away from home. After a redevelopment and three failed businesses since 1998, the former pharmacy now sits empty.
Robert Zimmerman was born in Duluth in 1941 and lived there until he was six years old.
His family then moved to Hibbing where Zimmerman attended school.
He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1959.
In September of 1959, Zimmerman moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota.
There, he landed in the Bohemian Dinkytown neighborhood, which is adjacent to the U.
While in Dinkytown, he rented an apartment above Gray's Campus Drugs on the corner of 14th Avenue SE and 4th Street SE - yes, positively 4th Street.
He began his "big city" performing career at a coffee house just up the block called 10 O'Clock Scholar, or simply "The Scholar."
It was around this time that Zimmerman began introducing himself as Bob Dylan.
By January 1961, Dylan had dropped out of the U and relocated to Greenwich Village in New York. But he continued to maintain ties with Minneapolis. His 1975 album Blood on the Tracks was recorded here.
By the time I moved Dinkytown and started at the University of Minnesota, Dylan was long gone. Gray's Campus Drug, on the other hand was still a going concern - as it had been since 1904.
In 1998, however, a developer bought the building, and it became a restaurant and music venue.
It was first known as the Loring Pasta Bar, then simply The Loring, when it ditched the restaurant end of the business and became an event venue.
Both eventually failed. The space was ultimately revived again as a restaurant concept called Gray's. By 2022, that, too, had shuttered.
Dylan's legacy is still a source of pride and celebration in Dinkytown.
Whereas the building where his first apartment was located, and which housed a successful drug store for almost a century, has become paean to failure.
With this location, the former Gray's Campus Drugs certainly won't be vacant for long. But one can't help but wonder how long the next business will last. Change isn't always good, apparently. If you visit Dinkytown to knock around a few of Dylan's old haunts, be sure to stop in and grab some pancakes or a "Spike" at Al's Breakfast - another Dinkytown institution.
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