Elliot Park is a neighborhood within the larger Central community in Minneapolis. It was the home of some of Minneapolis's wealthiest citizens in Minneapolis's early years. As the city grew and encompassed the neighborhood, most of the wealthy citizens left to build in more secluded neighborhoods like Lowry Hill and Kenwood. A few historic mansions and buildings from Minneapolis's early years can be found in some parts of Elliot Park. It is bordered on the north by the Downtown West and Downtown East neighborhoods, on the west by Loring Park, on the east by Cedar-Riverside, and on the south by Phillips. Its official boundaries are 5th Avenue South to the northwest, 5th Street South to the northeast, Highway 55 to the east, the Interstate 94/Interstate 35W commons to the south, and 4th Avenue South to the west. The neighborhood occupies both the Downtown Minneapolis street grid (running parallel to the Mississippi River) and the South Minneapolis street grid (running north–south and east–west), creating many triangular street corners where the two grids meet. Elliot Park has recently begun a gentrification process that is returning the neighborhood to a popular place to live in Minneapolis. History Elliot Park is one of Minneapolis's oldest neighborhoods, with plots set for housing as early as 1856. It was close to industrial developments on the nearby banks of the Mississippi River, which made it a popular settlement for early Swedish immigrants. The namesake for the neighborhood is Mr. Joseph Elliot, an area physician, who donated his farm land to the city in 1893. This land is the site of the current Elliot Park, and another generous donation of Mr. Elliot resulted in the founding of Steele Park - these were the city's first two parks. It began to rise to wealth near the end of the 19th century, as Downtown Minneapolis began to experience rapid growth. The neighborhood at that time had the city's only two parks, which made it a fashionable area to live in. Several large mansions sprang up along Park Avenue. During the next twenty years, as the city began to grow more and more quickly, the character of the neighborhood began to change. The need for higher concentrations of people transformed the neighborhood into an area of three and four storey brick apartment buildings. Of these, the Rappahannock Condominiums are among the oldest in the city. Included are boston-esque brownstone buildings that