Minnesota Avenue: Businesses work to build street with rich legacy into a destination

Tammy and Melody Fletcher take old pieces of furniture and make them new again, and theyve found the perfect place for their shop, For the Funk of It, in downtown Billings.

The Billings couple are artists and veterans of auctions and estate sales, hunting through forgotten items that could become treasures in their new shop at 2702 Minnesota Ave.

With upholstery and creativity, they can flip discarded $10 dining room chairs for more than a hundred dollars. An old bicycle could be a fountain just replace the seat with a basin and run a water line past the spokes to create a funky conversation piece for the home.

We like to introduce a lot of colors into peoples homes and make it fun, said Tammy.

The Fletchers opened For the Funk of It in February, the newest business to pop up on one of Billings oldest streets. They have big plans to boost foot traffic, like parking their Flaming Ladies food truck out front during warm weather and holding a street fair, and they want to honor their neighborhoods history. Minnesota Avenue dates back to the founding of Billings and was once a bustling, raucous cultural center.

In recent years, Minnesota has been plagued by vacancies and blight, and improvement efforts have stalled. The city designated the area as an historic district in 2009, but business owners say they need more help to continue redevelopment of the streets core and reclaim its status as a Billings destination point.

There certainly is some unrealized potential there that were trying to realize, said Randy Hafer, owner of High Plains Architects at 2720 Minnesota Ave. and a major driver of the streets redevelopment in recent years.

If Montana Avenue is the golden child of downtown Billings, then Minnesota Avenue is its spunky stepsister. The two

streets were named after the Montana & Minnesota Land Co., which oversaw Billings first developments in the 1880s along the rail lines.

Montana runs along the north side of the railroad tracks, with Minnesota running along the south side. Minnesota starts at the Montana Rail Link building on its west end, runs for about a dozen blocks through the center of town, then curves under the tracks at the Phillips66 refinery and spills into North 13th Street.

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Minnesota Avenue: Businesses work to build street with rich legacy into a destination