Cooper

The Cooper neighborhood, part of the larger Longfellow Community, of southeastern Minneapolis runs along the western shore of the Mississippi River, and is adjacent to the Mississippi River Gorge – an 80+ foot gorge cut by the years of engineering maneuvering during the milling boom of the history of Minneapolis. This is now a federally protected natural landscape.

The neighborhood of Cooper got its name from James Fenimore Cooper, an American novelist who was born in 1789 and is probably most famous for writing The Last of the Mohicans. It is now primarily a residential neighborhood, with a commercial corridor near Lake Street. Residents and visitors can find parks scattered among the banks of the Mississippi River. Homes in the area are on average between $100,000 and $200,000, with virtually all of them being priced less than $300,000.

In 2005 the residents said goodbye to Cooper Elementary School, meaning that those children now have to travel to other communities for their education. However, Cooper is also home to the very prestigious Minnehaha Academy on West River Parkway, a rigorous private Christian school that overlooks the Mississippi River. There are also a variety of restaurants and stores in the Cooper neighborhood, including the Blue Moon Coffee Café, Corazon, the Craftsman Restaurant, and Riverstone Salon and Spa.