Sunday, August 6, 10-11:30 am. During the early 20th century, the Gateway District (or Lower Loop) was the largest Skid Row in the Upper Midwest. Flophouses, missions and bars mixed with a variety of other businesses that needed cheap rents and a central location. Between 1959 and 1963, in an effort to clean up the area, Minneapolis demolished 25 blocks, or almost 40% of its historic downtown—turning this part of the city into a wasteland of uninviting buildings and surface…