MINNEAPOLIS - A staple in the Minneapolis music scene is closing its doors at the end of the year.
Treehouse Records - located at Lyndale Avenue South and 26th Street - will be the last record store on this corner after more than 40 years.
"I'm looking forward to doing something else with my life. I'm not moving on because business is bad. I own the buildings. I could keep doing this. But... after getting married I'm just kind of, it feels like it's time to move on," said owner Mark Trehus.
It all started in the early '70s when North Country Music opened. By 1973, Vern Sanden bought the business and named it after two albums he liked: Oar by Alexander Spence and Folkjokeopus by Roy Harper. Oar Folkjokeopus was renamed in 2001 to Treehouse Records when Trehus took over.
"From around '73 until around '84-'85, was pretty much the epicenter for the music scene here in Minneapolis and the only place you could really come, especially in the '70s, for a particular type of music—eventually punk rock and more adventurous sounds than you could find in other stores around town," Trehus recalled, who worked at the store starting in 1986.
"This place will forever be identified with Peter Jesperson who managed it and who went on to be a partner in Twin/Tone Records and discovered The Replacements legendarily in this store by a demo tape that they gave him," Trehus said.
Despite a fire in the early '80s, the record store lived on. But Trehus, who married his wife, Alice, in November 2015, is ready for a new adventure. Trehus owns the building and said he doesn't know yet what will replace the record store.
"That's my main reason for moving on... to spend time with this lady," said Trehus, while looking at a picture of his wife.
"I've done this for 31 years. It's going to be very difficult to not be able to walk into the store come January and see people who love music, and talk about music, and recommend music and have that atmosphere. I'm going to miss that. But there's 40-some other places to buy records in the Twin Cities," Trehus said. "The music lives on."
Treehouse Records will close Dec. 31. They will be open on New Year's Eve until midnight.