Hennepin

Formed March 6, 1852 (9^th county)

Hennepin County (1,281,568), Minneapolis (429,985)

The Modern steel and masonry building replaced a classic 1886 courthouse in 1973.  The courthouse is on 6^th Street, 3^rd Avenue, 7^th Street, and 4^th Avenue.  Interstate Highway 35W is 10 blocks to the east of the location.  John Carl Warnecke & Associates and Peterson, Clark & Associates are the architects.  The county was formed on March 6, 1852 and is named for Father Louis Hennepin.  The county was taken from Dakota County as the 9^th county.  The county seat is a combination of the Native American word meaning “water” and the Greek word meaning “city.”  Minneapolis has always been the county seat and also had an 1857 courthouse.  Hennepin County was the birthplace of 5 Minnesota Governors, Floyd B. Olson, Luther W. Youngdahl, Orville L. Freeman, Jesse Ventura, and Mark B. Dayton. 

Hennepin County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, a treasurer, an auditor, an assessor and a clerk (executive).  It has 7 Commissioners (legislative.)  Sixty-two District Court Judges serve Hennepin County (judicial.) Hennepin County is in eastern Minnesota.  The Mississippi River forms most of its eastern border.  The county center is in Minneapolis 5.1 miles West of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Anoka, Ramsey, Dakota, Scott, Carver, and Wright counties. 

The area of the county is 556.6 square miles.  It is 60 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 1 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 2302.5 persons per square mile making it 2 out of 87 in the state.  Hennepin County has 99.9% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 35W goes north to south through the county from Ramsey County to Dakota County.  Interstate Highway 94 crosses east to west from Ramsey County to Wright County.  United States Highway 12 enters from Ramsey County, east, and exits to Wright County, west.  United States Highway 52 is joined with Interstate Highway 94 from the east, Ramsey County, to go to the west, Wright County.  United States Highway 169 travels north to south from Anoka County to Scott County.  The county is a bowl of ice cream with an added foot on the southeast.  Minneapolis is the eastern part of the county.  Minneapolis is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 33.6% of the county population.  The county is pronounced HEN-E-PIN.  This county is in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul-Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area.