The Pillsbury Gates at the near end of Fourteenth Avenue SE have always been the University of Minnesota’s front door. Decades before Stadium Village, Washington Avenue, and the West Bank were born, professors, students, staff and guests arrived in Dinkytown on horse-drawn street cars, bicycles and trains. They walked through these gates and took up positions in the hallowed halls of the gopher state’s premier institution. The gates were given to the University by John S. Pillsbury’s daughter Sarah Belle “Sadie” Pillsbury Gale after his death in 1902.
