Google Maps Street View now includes Northfield

Northfield-based blogger/teacher/author Ken Wedding alerted me that the Google Maps Street View feature now includes much of Northfield. Their rooftop camera-equipped car evidently made the rounds sometime this summer.

google street view map1 google street view map2 google street view map3

Left: All the streets outlined in blue have been photographed for 360-degree views.

Center: The intersection of 3rd and Washington, facing the library to the northwest

Right: Who are those babes walking in front of the First National Bank Northfield, now captured for all eternity? Click the thumbnails of the screenshots to enlarge.

FYI, Google Maps considers Division St. through downtown as Dennison Boulevard.

Update 12/15, 5:00pm: Gloria Krusemeyer attached a comment below alerting us that none other than Maggie Lee was captured, “crossing Union at 4th Street.” Shore ’nuff, here are some screen captures. Is that perfect or what? Thanks, Gloria!

Maggie Lee crossing UnionMaggie Lee crossing UnionMaggie Lee crossing UnionMaggie Lee crossing Union

9 Comments

  1. John Thomas said:

    It appears that this was taken sometime between the 20th of August and Labor Day weekend in my neighborhood, as my house was in the process of being painted.

    What is also spooky is that they caught my son, and the neighbor boy in the neighbor’s driveway riding bikes.

    This is fun, but kind of creepy as well.

    I was able to “drive” into a cul-de-sac, and determine that the car that did the imaging was a green or silver four door, with an odd red and white rig on top, held down by at least two orange straps. It has two big tubes going from the back of the rig, through a yellow diamond hole in the rear window.

    To do this, drive the picture into a cul-de-sac (dead end) then point the camera straight down into the ground. You will see the edges of the vehicle that took the images.

    What is also very odd is you can look up into the sky, and see airplanes.

    It is all very odd. I am off to “drive through” downtown. 😎

    December 14, 2007
  2. John Thomas said:

    Bank Clock at 4th & Division says 4:36.

    Driving by Just Food, must have been done in the morning, as there are no vehicles in the parking lot yet.

    I know I am going to be spending way too much time with this!

    December 14, 2007
  3. John Thomas said:

    Downtown was on a Saturday and a Sunday. Sunday because the door to our church is open…

    December 14, 2007
  4. Jerry Bilek said:

    Nice detective work John. I, too, found it creepy and cool.

    December 15, 2007
  5. Gloria Krusemeyer said:

    Maggie Lee is crossing Union at 4th Street.

    December 15, 2007
  6. John Thomas said:

    My hybrid wireless mouse (battery and mouse powered) is at about 60 virtual miles per charge… I am getting great virtual milage!

    If I find any other neat things, I will post them. I will have to figure out how to get the URL or location into a post. Maybe I will just put in the cross streets.

    I am sure the tax assessors are just drooling over this… Humm… where did that new deck come from? Thats not on the roles. 😎

    December 15, 2007
  7. Griff Wigley said:

    omigodinheaven, Maggie Lee captured captured on Google Maps Street View. Is that perfect or what? I’ve added 4 screenshots to the blog post above.

    Thanks a ton, Gloria!

    Now we have to identify the person accompanying her.

    December 15, 2007
  8. Fascinating! I see that they didn’t venture down my street (Sunset Drive), perhaps because Google Maps still doesn’t show its existence except in the satellite view. Touring downtown, though, it’s pretty incredible to see the level of detail…

    December 20, 2007
  9. Sean Fox said:

    Looks like the photos were taken on September 26th.

    Both the sidewalk sign for Sweet Peas’s and the new sign for the Cocoa Bean are visible, indicating the photos weren’t taken significantly before September 18:
    https://locallygrownnorthfield.org/archives/2349/

    The sign up on the Grand is announcing an event on September 2??. See:
    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=1012+Union+St,+Northfield,+MN+55057&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.847644,65.126953&ie=UTF8&ll=44.460036,-93.158376&spn=0.007443,0.0159&z=16&om=0&layer=c&cbll=44.45624,-93.158723&cbp=1,302.45124930396577,,1,-9.114900696812656

    That narrows down the date range considerably assuming the sign wasn’t left up on the Grand long after the advertised event.

    The time and temp up on the First National Bank Sign (62 at 4:35) is consistent with the 26th according to http://weather.carleton.edu assuming it’s a 62 and not a 52.

    The 25th is a possibility if you read the bank sign as saying 52 degrees, but that seems unlikely as there aren’t any trash cans at the curb in our area of town which would have been a pick-up day on the 25th and it’s rare that everyone gets their trash can back from the curb in a timely fashion).

    Anyone else see any more definitive clues?

    January 1, 2008

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