Open from 1973 to 2001, Oar Folk (as it was informally called) was a popular record store hub for the music scene in the Twin Cities.

One of the only places to buy punk records in the late 70's and early 80's, Oar Folk provided a meeting place for many many members of the T.C. music scene like the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, the Suicide Commandos, and Soul Asylum.
Bob Mould would buy records here. Lori Barbero of Babes in Toyland said of the 8,000 records she owns, 7,000 were purchased at Oar Folk (source: Magnet magazine, June 12, 2005).

In 1984, a fire gutted most of Oar Folk. The owner opened again with the help of Mark Trehus (of Treehouse Records). The record store has since been renamed Treehouse Records and remains open at the same location.

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Sylvia Plath, the American writer and poet, committed suicide at this location on February 11, 1963. Plath had asphyxiated from carbon monoxide by putting her head in the oven.

In 1982, Plath was the first poet to win the Pulitzer Prize posthumously for her poetry book, The Collected Poems. Her book, The Bell Jar, was originally published under the pseudonym, Victoria Lucas, and was first published a month after her death in 1963. In 1967, it was published for the first time under her name, and not published in the United States until 1971.

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In the early spring of 1972, Robert Pirsig wrote the final five chapters of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in a two month period. To avoid interruptions he acquired a camper and drove it to a commercial campground that was closed for the winter on the north shore of Lake Superior. He lived and worked in the camper, working while there was natural sunlight because lights in the camper weren't adequate.

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Established in 1900, the Blake School is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian PK-12 college preparatory school. It is consistently ranked as one of the ten best day schools in the country.

In 1936, Robert Pirsig received a scholarship to the Blake School. While at this school, his IQ tested at 170 when he was 9 1/2 years old (a 1 in 50,000 result).

Prior to attending the Blake School, Pirsig had been accelerated from kindergarten to second grade. This obviously caused friction with his classmates- he was bullied, forced to write with his right hand (although left-handed), and he developed a stammer. Entrance to the Blake School allowed Pirsig to develop at his own pace, and he quickly accelerated to attend the University of Minnesota High School at the age of 10.

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Located on the same campus as the Weisman Art Museum, the McNamara Alumni Center is another example of eye-catching modern architecture. Designed by the New Mexico-based architect Antoine Predock (and named after an alumnus who donated $3 million towards its construction), the rounded, angular McNamara is intended to resemble a giant, granite-sheathed geode. Irregular windows and large slits of glass penetrate the exterior of the Great Lump of Oak St.

Inside McNamara is Memorial Hall, an 85-foot high behemoth of a room, with a processional arch from the previous property's tenant (Memorial Stadium, 1924) displayed inside.

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