First Avenue (nightclub)

First Avenue & 7th St Entry are two historic music venues housed in the same landmark building in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. The nightclub sits on the corner of First Avenue North and 7th Street North, from which the venues get their names. The two are colloquially distinguished by locals as The Mainroom and The Entry.

The building was constructed in 1937 as the Minneapolis depot of the Greyhound Lines bus system and operated for 31 years. Allan Fingerhut purchased the facility in 1970 and converted it into a nightclub. During the 1980s, First Avenue flourished and became a landmark in the music and entertainment industry, playing a seminal role in establishing the '80s funk rock sub genre via the Minneapolis sound, and being the primary local venue for hometown star Prince. Since its rise to fame in the 1980s, First Avenue has hosted many notable local and national music acts. The building is marked by more than 400 large stars on its exterior commemorating these performers, along with other figures notable to the city.

The venue's history and cultural significance has resulted in local and national recognition. Journalist David Carr wrote in The New York Times that First Avenue's cultural weight and history is matched by only a few clubs in the United States: CBGB, Maxwell's, Metro Chicago and the 9:30 Club. It was also one of the first clubs to book Black performers in Minneapolis's once largely segregated music scene.

Black and white photo of corner building on a semi deserted street with round facade, sign saying Northland Greyhound, and two vertical signs reading Greyhound, surrounded by buses, Pantages Vaudeville and other buildings visible in rear

The Minneapolis Greyhound Lines depot was built in the Streamline Moderne style in 1937.

eight or ten light colored wooden tables with chairs seen from behind host station, lit with six bright ceiling lamps

The depot restaurant (pictured in 1951) became a coatroom which became the 7th St. Entry.

The building opened as a bus depot in 1937, decades after Greyhound Lines was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota. It was noted for its Art Deco style and amenities of air conditioning, shower rooms, and public telephones. The interior floor was checkered terrazzo, while the exterior was shiny blue bricks with white trim. The bus station moved to its present location on 10th Street in 1968.

The transformation from a bus depot into a concert venue has a disputed history.Clearly, Allan Fingerhut, heir to the Fingerhut mail-order merchandise company, had capital and invested $150,000, and Danny Stevens of the band Danny's Reasons had a hard-to-get liquor license.Both men agree promoter Skip Goucher had the original idea for a nightclub in the bus depot.

They opened The Depot on April 3, 1970, with Joe Cocker and Mad Dogs & Englishmen and a stage crowded with 27 musicians and singers who turned in two magnificent sets.Among Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen that night were Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, Claudia Lennear, Jim Keltner, Jim Price and Bobby Keys.

Following two years of steady business, The Depot was faced with a new reality: the public music scene was changing. Psychedelic rock was out and disco was in. In order to stay on top of this new trend, the club needed to change its image. After a short remodel, The Depot in July 1972, evolved into Uncle Sam's, a national franchise of the American Avents Corporation of Cincinnati. A red, white, and blue patriotic-themed club with recorded dance music, a drummer, a DJ, and a light-up plexiglass dance floor became what doorman Richard Luka described as, "Studio 54 for the discriminating Kmart shopper." In about late 1973, Steve McClellan (who'd become the club's talent buyer and eventually general manager) started working at Uncle Sam's as a bartender.He would enter American Avents' management training in 1975.

After American Avents left in 1979, general manager McClellan hired his former high school classmate Jack Meyers to help him manage money.an Lessard managed the bar staff. The club's name was shortened to Sam's in early 1980. The club got its third name change on New Year's Eve 1981 when it became First Avenue.

The 7th St Entry is a smaller stage (capacity 250) attached to the historic First Avenue (capacity 1500). This space was once a restaurant (the "Greyhound Cafe") and later a coatroom, before staffer Danny Flies and McClellan spent $1,500 to turn it into a barebones music venue as part of Sam's. Meyers donated his own Bose speakers for stage monitors. Like Jay's Longhorn Bar and Duffy's, the Entry catered to local bands, often too new to play the Mainroom.

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3149 Fernbrook Ln N, Plymouth, MN 55447

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