Cat Fight at the Laurel Flats

A Minneapolis apartment building's past includes animal cruelty, criminal hideouts, and a stunning transformation.

“I can’t help it if cats chase one another and in so doing fall out a third-story window.”

That’s what 56-year-old Mary Clark told police in February 1937 when her neighbor at the Laurel Flats, Anna Gentile, filed a complaint against her. According to Anna, Mary had thrown Anna’s cat out of a third-floor window, resulting in a fractured pelvis for the unfortunate feline.

Below is a timeline of this heinous crime:

On February 16, 1937, Anna filed her complaint with the Minneapolis police.

On February 17, local newspapers reported that vets were treating Anna’s cat, and that they believed the animal would be fine. Meanwhile, police arrested Mary Clark for animal cruelty. She was scheduled to be arraigned the next day and released on $15 bail. After she returned to the Laurel Flats, she “secreted herself in her room with her own tabby and refused to converse with anyone.”

On February 18, the Minneapolis Star reported that Mary Clark had failed to appear in court, and that a bench warrant was issued for her arrest.

On February 27, the Minneapolis Journal ran the headline, “Woman Wanted in Cat Tumble Disappears.” Neighbors told reporters that Mary Clark had packed up her belongings at the Laurel Flats and left, stating she was leaving “because I’ll never go into court to face the charge.”

“A bench warrant for her arrest was still unserved,” the Journal reported. “Officers so far have been unable to determine where the Clark woman went.”

What do you think, readers? Did Mary Clark tell the truth about Mrs. Gentile’s cat falling out the window, or did she throw it?

Bank Robbers Hide Out at the Laurel Flats

That same year, federal agents raided the Laurel Flats, arresting three men and four women after receiving a tip that “a gang of bank robbers had a hideout there.” The seven alleged criminals were taken to St. Paul for questioning in a “swindle racket.”

After determining that the individuals were not responsible for bank robbery, the Feds passed them off to the Minneapolis police, who turned them over to the St. Paul police, who questioned them “in the swindling of gasoline station attendants through a ‘loan’ racket.”

Laurel Flats: Gilded. Abandoned. Resurrected.

The Laurel Flats were erected in 1893 and were, at that time, "The most elegant flat building yet erected in this city.”

A news bulletin in a 1906 edition of The Minneapolis Journal notes that the building sold for $100,000 and “contains 38 flats, from four to eleven rooms in size.” The flats featured Victorian mantlepieces with tile surrounds and the kind of wooden millwork that you’d find in the grandest homes of the era.

Over the years, the building changed hands several times, and every new owner sliced and diced the apartments into smaller units. Eventually, those 38 flats turned into 102, the hallways narrowed, residents had to share communal bathrooms, and the building went into steady decline until, in 2017, it was declared unfit and its tenants had to find new accommodations.

The Laurel Flats as they appeared in spring 2020.

In 2020, before renovations began, the 1502 Laurel was a creepy place. The few street-level windows that weren’t boarded revealed empty rooms, broken doors that looked like they’d been kicked in during police raids and clothes hangers left behind by the people who had to move out quickly when the place was condemned. Through a cracked window, passersby could read some writing on an interior wall: YOU LIE ALL THE TIME.

Look very closely at the interior wall below the crack in the glass and you might glimpse the spooky graffiti.

Developers have since renovated the Laurel Flats, salvaging the original mantelpieces while removing the broken doors, mold, and dirty needles to reverse its long, slow decline. Today’s renters get to enjoy a blend of modern amenities and Gilded Age elegance. Some units offer views of the Basilica of Saint Mary.

Historical fiction tip of the week

Why not try blending genres? Historical fiction can blend with just about any genre: horror, romance, mystery, science fiction. My story, “The Terror of Sweet Briar,” blends historical fiction with horror to turn the Laurel Flats into a setting for a horror story.