is now listed in the
National Register of Historic Places. In the 1780s, a village called Titanka Tannina existed in what is now Bloomington, at the mouth of
Nine Mile Creek. 'Titanka Tannina' is
Dakota for 'the Old Village', likely meaning that Titanka Tannina was the first Dakota community on the
Minnesota River. The Chief at that time was
Penasha, who would be succeeded by his son, Takuni Phephe Sni. He would then be succeeded by his son,
Good Road, in 1833. In 1839, with renewed
conflict with the
Ojibwe nation, Chief
Cloud Man relocated his band of the
Mdewakanton Sioux from
Bde Maka Ska in
Minneapolis to an area named Oak Grove in southern Bloomington, close to present-day Portland Avenue. In 1843, Peter and Louisa Quinn, the first European settlers to live in Bloomington, built a cabin along the
Minnesota River in the area. The government had sent them to teach the Native Americans European-derived farming methods.
Gideon Hollister Pond, a
missionary who had been following and recording the
Dakota language from Cloud Man's band, relocated later that year, establishing Oak Grove Mission, his log cabin. Pond and his family held church services and taught the Dakota school subjects and Western farming. Passage across the Minnesota River in Bloomington came in 1849 when William Chambers and Joseph Dean opened the Bloomington Ferry. It remained operational until 1889, when the
Bloomington Ferry Bridge was built. After the
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the territory west of the
Mississippi River, including Bloomington, was opened to settlers. At this time, native Dakota villages such as Titanka Tannina were abandoned. A group of pioneers settled in Bloomington, including the Goodrich, Whalon, and Ames families. They named the area Bloomington after the city they were from,
Bloomington, Illinois. Most early jobs were in
farming,
blacksmithing, and
flour milling. The Oxborough family, who came from Canada, built a trading center on
Lyndale Avenue and named it Oxboro Heath. Today, the Clover Shopping Center rests near the old trading center site and the nearby Oxboro Clinic is named after them. The Baliff family opened a grocery and general store at what is today Penn Avenue and Old Shakopee Road, and Hector Chadwick, after moving to the settlement, opened a blacksmith shop near the Bloomington Ferry. In 1855, the first public school for all children was opened in Miss Harrison's house, with the first school, Gibson House, built in 1859. In 1892,
the first town hall was built at Penn and Old Shakopee Road. By then, the closest Dakota to Minneapolis lived at the residence of Gideon Pond. In 1956, the first city land-use plan was initiated with the construction of
Interstate 35W and
Metropolitan Stadium. In 1957,
Bloomington High School opened at West 88th Street and Sheridan Avenue South. In 1958, the city changed from a village government to a
council-manager form. One of the first policies the council adopted was encouragement of commercial and industrial development, low-cost housing, and shopping centers. Due to the rapid population increase during this time, police and fire departments changed to a 24-hour dispatching system, and the fire department (now with 46 members) converted a garage into the second fire station.
1960s to 1970s was built in 1965 The 1960s saw accelerated school and business growth throughout the city. On November 8, 1960, Bloomington officially became a city as voters approved the city's organizing document, the city charter. The charter provides for a council-manager form of government in which the city council exercises the city's legislative power and determines all city policies (see
City of Bloomington Government). In 1965, a second high school,
John F. Kennedy High School, was built, and Bloomington High School was renamed
Abraham Lincoln High School. In 1967, a second and third official fire station were approved and built to more effectively combat fires in the increasingly large city. In 1968, Normandale State Junior College opened with an initial enrollment of 1,358 students. In 1974, it was renamed
Normandale Community College to reflect expanded courses of study. from 1961 until 1981. It was demolished in 1985 to make room for the Mall of America. From 1961 to 1981, Bloomington was home to most of Minnesota's major sports teams. In 1961, after the completion of
Metropolitan Stadium in 1956, both the
Minnesota Twins and
Minnesota Vikings began regular-season play. Though originally built for the
American Association Minneapolis Millers, a
minor league baseball team, Metropolitan Stadium was renovated and expanded for
Major League Baseball and the
National Football League. The first Twins game was held on April 21 (
Washington 5, Twins 3) and the first Vikings game was held on September 17 (Vikings 37,
Chicago Bears 13). On August 21, 1965,
The Beatles played Metropolitan Stadium, their only stop ever in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. In 1967, with the expansion of the
National Hockey League, the
Metropolitan Sports Center was built near Metropolitan Stadium and the
Minnesota North Stars began play later that year. A number of new city buildings were constructed in the 1970s. In 1970,
Thomas Jefferson High School, Bloomington Ice Garden rink one, and a fourth fire station were built. In 1971, school enrollment peaked with 26,000 students, and the fire department had grown to a force of 105 men. (In 1974, after a six-hour city council meeting, women were allowed to join the Bloomington Fire Department, but the city's first female firefighter, Ann Majerus Meyer, did not join the department until 1984; she retired in 2013). In 1975, a second rink was added to the Bloomington Ice Garden and a fifth fire station built, with a sixth added in 1979.
1980s to present The 1980s brought radical change to Bloomington with the departure of the Twins and Vikings. On September 30, 1981, the last baseball game was played at
Metropolitan Stadium (
Kansas City Royals 5, Twins 2) as the Twins and Vikings moved to the newly constructed
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in
downtown Minneapolis for the 1982 season. In 1985, the Bloomington Port Authority purchased the Met Stadium site and in less than two years approved first site plans for
Mall of America. Two years later, groundbreaking took place for the new megamall, and in 1992, it opened to the public. Today, tenants of Mall of America, when combined, constitute the largest private-sector employer in Bloomington, employing about 13,000 people. In 1993, the
Minnesota North Stars moved to
Dallas, and a year later the
Metropolitan Sports Center was demolished. In 2004, an
IKEA store opened on the west end of the former Met Center site. The remainder of the property is planned to be the site for Mall of America Phase II. In May 2006, the
Water Park of America (now Great Wolf Lodge) opened. In 2019, Bloomington passed an ordinance that forbade filming students of
Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in a public park. This led to a successful lawsuit in the
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit against the city to reinstate the
First Amendment rights of the parties involved.
Keith Ellison had previously asked the court to drop the case. Bloomington was a potential site for hosting the
Expo 2027. However, in June 2023,
Belgrade,
Serbia was chosen for hosting the Expo 2027. In November 2023, Bloomington voters
approved three
ballot questions enacting a 0.5%
local option sales tax to raise $155 million for the construction of three municipal projects: a new public health and community center replacing Creekside Community Center, renovations to the Bloomington Ice Garden, and restoration and improvements to
Nine Mile Creek. ==Geography==