Abandoned Fighting - Lyke's Boxing Gym - Coon Rapids, MN

The first round of construction has now been completed on Foley Blvd., between Coon Rapids Blvd. and East River Road. Other than re-routing the road, there was only one building that needed to be removed (at this point).

I’m willing to bet there’s even a few long term residents of Coon Rapids that know nothing of this place. 

I sure didn’t...

June 13, 2018.

Laura and I had just moved back to Coon Rapids, after nearly 20 years away from my hometown. (20 in my case, she’d only been away for 6 years.) During our little period of reacquainting with a suburb that can best be described as "older suburby, trying to be new suburbier", I was driving around town taking pictures. Just as I’d done for years around Denver, Colorado.  

Driving southbound on Foley Blvd., I saw Lyke’s Gym on my right. 

Lyke's was still open then, operating out of an unassuming concrete structure. Nothing special about it that even made me think twice. There was a window full of trophies and two entrances. Although one of them appeared to be closed off. I didn’t even know it was a boxing gym until I looked closer at the pictures I’d taken, once I got home.

Foley wasn’t a road I travelled very often. I wasn’t in this part of town all that much, and this stretch was basically a short cut between East River Road and Coon Rapids Blvd. But it wasn’t anything overly important since those two roads merged about a mile northwest of here already. 

Basically, Foley Blvd. exists to access the Metropolitan Transit Council Park & Ride, which sits across the street from Lyke’s Boxing Gym. There’s a few other light-industrial buildings that access Foley in this area, but nothing I’ve ever had to concern myself with.

Sitting behind the MTC Park & Ride, is Highway 610. A limited freeway traveling between Maple Grove and Mounds View, in an east/west direction. In this part of Coon Rapids, 610 can take you across the Mississippi River, then to other freeways to Minneapolis, or out of Minnesota altogether!

There's 610! Crossing the railroad racks, just a few yards south of Foley Blvd.!

And just west of the track is the Foley Blvd / Highway 610 / East River Road interchange. Sorely in need of updating, which would start taking place over the next few years. One of the biggest hurdles was the railroad tracks I crossed over not too far back.

The BNSF Railroad tracks that run through Coon Rapids (and cross Foley Blvd. here), are the busiest rail-line in the state. Trains close Foley Blvd. multiple times every hour, every day of the week. Causing traffic delays that complicate traffic around the Park & Ride, in addition to the freeway and cross streets.

Obviously, traffic will never be less of an issue in this area, so a plan to deal with it needed to be reached. The plan that made the most sense would be to build a bridge over the railroad tracks, and re-route Foley to a different configuration. In order to do this, the land that Lyke's Boxing Gym stood on, would need to be reclaimed. 

According to nuggets from the Googles, Lyke's was still open in the summer of 2019.

So if you had the urge to box, and were local, Lyke's was likely the best place to go.

I don't know when Lyke's finally closed, but I noticed over the winter of 2020, that the trophies had been taken out of the front window, and the parking lot had not been cleared after any of the recent snowfalls. Meaning that I needed to take a closer look, pretty soon.

******

February 2, 2020. 

A nice sunny Sunday afternoon. Cold, but not too cold. Snow had even begun to melt on the pavement, with the sun beating down on it.

I stopped by the MTC Foley Park & Ride.

Parking my car and riding my walking feet across the street to see if I could get some boxing in.

While not making any calls at the missing pay phone.

And not getting any pictures of the building that had been previously removed from this section of Foley. There was a half-circular driveway left behind, with two access points on Foley, and a short white bricked retaining wall between them. You can only see the east access point in this picture. Whatever had been there, has been gone for a while.

The sidewalk had at least been shoveled, although I had to jump over this snowbank to reach it. You can see part of Lyke's behind the railroad warning sign, with the crossing in the distance, on the far left side of this picture. The western end of the half-circular driveway can be seen, just beyond the sign.

Northeast facing side of Lyke's Boxing Gym on February 2, 2020. Several doors and windows are easily accessible, none of which are boarded up. So I may be able to get some decent pictures of the insides.

Let's adjust that angle for a slightly different view...

Something tells me that in a few years, I'll do a search for Lyke's on the Googles, and find a similar picture.

Lyke this one! Thanks to my friends at Loop.net, I found two pictures of Lyke's from a real estate listing, several years earlier. (Unfortunately, these photos were not dated.) When this was taken, there was a small canopy over the door and trophy window. Although it looks to be a tad saggy, in this picture. That ACR Boxing Gym sign is also gone. Now, I don't know for sure, but I'm thinking that ACR stood for Anoka-Coon Rapids, as is noted on the black Lyke's sign on the side of the building.

But there is something else visible in that picture, that remained in place through the end of Lyke's...

This crumpled door poster, advertising an event from April 23, 2010, was poorly DUCT TAPED to the glass. 

Maybe they didn't want it to fall down?

Looking next to that permanent door poster, into what looked lyke an office area. Chairs and desk parts are stashed in this marvelously wood paneled room. Hmmm... There's some sort of hand-written note on the wall...

ENHANCE!!!

Lyke's likes it cold!

******

May 26, 2020.

The Foley Blvd. Re-Routing Construction plan was posted on the city's website. 

The released diagram had a graphic overlaying a satellite image of the area. Between 2021 and 2022, Foley Blvd. between East River Road and Coon Rapids Blvd., would see a pretty drastic reconstruction. Consisting of:

Creation of a new extension of existing roads that would reach Coon Rapids Blvd. to the north.

Add additional turning lanes to Foley, at all involved intersections.

Reconfigure the entrance to the MTC Park & Ride, and add additional parking over the old road.

Construct a bridge to cross the railroad tracks, moving Foley about 100 feet to the northwest.

And finally, close off the old Foley, just before the railroad tracks. 

So where does Lyke's Boxing Gym fit into all of this?

Lyke's has the misfortune of being chopped in half by the new retaining wall, with the new bridge taking a chunk out as well. The rest of the building will be covered by a big buncha dirt. Compressed and packed down to carry all of the traffic up to the new bridge.

******

February 18, 2022.

It started well before today, but here is some of all the needed dirt for the new Foley bridge, going in on the horizon.

Concrete for the ramp is already going up, with the largest part of the big dirt pile is right on top of where Lyke's used to be. Going by the placement of that round yellow Railroad crossing sign down the road.

******

April 30, 2022.

Rainy day bridge work, south of the tracks, from East River Road. Before there was a bridge ramp here, it was a small swamp. You can see the blue pump in the center of this picture, working overtime to dry out the land supporting all this new weight. 

This will be interesting to watch over the coming years.

Will the south end of this bridge sink to the point where costly repairs and upkeep are a regular occurrence? 

We'll see...

Taking a quick drive up Foley, to check progress on the new bridge.

Looking to the northwest. The Coon Rapids Blvd. bridge is on the horizon.

Lyke's would be buried here. Between the cell phone tower and cluster of trees.

Some of which are in this photo, from February 2, 2020.

Thanks to LoopNet, I even found a photo of Lyke's from roughly the same angle, without the cell phone tower! And a whole lot less trees!

All of these photos of a boxing gym reminded me of something I found in the basement of my parent's house, several decades ago...

Anoka Karate Academy!

With that TOTALLY professional logo! And the Xeroxed typewriter text that is reminding me way too much of Wasted Quarter issue #3. I had to check the Googles, and sadly, Anoka Karate Academy is no longer in business.

Hurry! Offer expires August 31st, 1984!

Lyke's front entrance.

Well, no wonder they're not open, I came here on a Sunday!

Looking inside the front entrance. Various gymnasium equipment things litter the room. There's a scale in the back, and that sweet row of freestanding stadium seats! I hope they were saved...

Doubt it...

A picture of Lyke's, posted on Facebook.

That row of stadium seats can be seen behind the lowered boxing ring.

******

May 21, 2022.

Work on Foley is speeding along...

******

June 16, 2022.

About a month later, the big dirt pile continues to take shape as the bridge ramp.

While the sadly neglected old Foley looks more and more ragged, next to it.

Bridge is looking much more bridgier…

As is the west end of the bridge.

******

February 2, 2020.

And here's the west end of Lyke's. I didn't walk out around this side of the building. For whatever short-sided reason, I didn't wear my boots today. My feet were already getting wet from walking through the snow. It wasn't more than an inch or two deep, still enough to seep into my shoes.

I had already gone around the east side of the building for pictures. Disappointed that rest of the windows were covered by a screen that made all of my interior pictures look like this. And this picture was the only one that even sort of turned out.

A Googles picture of a training Lyke's boxer guy, beating up a defenseless bag.

Yeah, well... Can you beat Mike Tyson?

I can't either...

Another of the Googles photos of Lyke's. I wish there had been more. Enough so I could have kind of pieced together the interior layout, from the pieces I found around the property. For example, there is a garage door behind the ring.

Which kind of fits this back door, on the north side of the building.

Complete with dumped treadmill and other workout equipment, partially buried in the snow.

So there you go. That's about all I've got for Lyke's Boxing Gym. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, because there wasn't a whole lot to see.

Without knowing it at the time, this was my last chance to see Lyke's.

******

August 12, 2020.

I don't know when Lyke's was demolished. Saw it a few times driving up Foley, then one day it was gone.

Pulled into the Park & Ride to snap a photo of the Lyke's vacant lot, on this day.

******

August 27, 2022.

Recently, I'd been tipped off that 2 lanes of Foley Blvd. had reopened, including the bridge across the railroad tracks. The other half of new Foley remained closed, but traffic was now moving along the new route. So I made my way to Coon Rapids Blvd., to turn onto the open right side of Foley.

Now with much cleaner intersections, to access businesses that I've never paid attention to. 

Including a new four way intersection, complete with traffic signals, to enter and exit the MTC Foley Park & Ride on the left. Norway street is on the right, and will take you back to more of the businesses I've never paid attention to. Now it will also take you to Coon Rapids Blvd. 

I'm sure there will be a sign telling drivers they can't cross both lanes to make the left turn lane for Coon Rapids Blvd. Extension, but I can already imagine the accidents caused by drivers who think "I can make it!"

Oh well, I rarely drive this part of Coon Rapids Blvd.

But I'll be on higher alert next time I do!

On August 27, 2022, I drove across the new Foley Blvd. railroad bridge for the very first time.

And it's already been tagged!

******

So that pretty much wraps up the re-routing of Foley Blvd. to the new bridge. 

Now what happens to the old Foley?

If you remember back, the earlier plans had Foley cutting off at the railroad tracks. With an access driveway to the homes still lining the north side of the road.

Well...

Someone finally figured out that when highway 610 was planned, some 40 years ago, they forgot to include most of the exits into Coon Rapids. Despite this town being the end point, when highway 610 first opened in the late summer of 1987.

Looks like East River Road will soon get all 4 directions of ramps off and on highway 610. Which will include a little loopy exit, for westbound traffic trying to access South Coon Rapids homes and businesses. Meaning that remaining row of duplex homes along old Foley are also on the endangered list. This segment of Foley Blvd. will be reduced to just the end of an exit ramp.

That has a loopy twist to it!

Before I called it quits on my August 27, 2022, Foley Blvd. exploration, I made probably my last trip up the soon to be closed stretch of road.

Those piles of dirt blocked off my desired photos of the endangered duplexes left on this street. 

So we have to go with this blurry photo from August 9, 2019, instead.

This mystery building will soon be gone as well.

New bridge.

This part of the road was only open so people could access the MTC Foley Park & Ride, until the new intersection opened. It offered no access to the new Foley anymore.

Ending abruptly at a temporary driveway into the Park & Ride. 

Looks like there's something stuck that arrow on the barricade...

Oh yeah! I'm sure drivers can read that!

MTC Foley Park & Ride.

(This is where the bodies are buried.)

And from the other side. Looking at the new Foley bridge on the right, and toward the doomed Foley railroad crossing, on the left. This lot will be extended out into where the street once was, after this stretch of Foley is closed for good.

******

Just like Lyke's!

I had a few leftover images to use. Like this one from the Googles. No date given, but the canopy has been removed from the front of the building. So that's a clue that it's a little newer than some others I found. Most of them in the middle of winter. Which is kind of strange. 

May be winter, may not be winter.

But this blurry interior photo appeared on Lyke's Facebook page, several years back.

And here's a Milton Bradley Karate Fighters advertisement.

Just because.

******

And here’s one last related piece to share before I end this to go write about something else.

My limited research brought up this April, 2019 piece on Audacy. The story is mostly promoting an upcoming (now over) event. But the lead-in has a little longer than a minute video tour of Lyke's Gym. Pretty cool to see it alive, even in it's minimalism compared to flashier gyms. (Not that I know ANYTHING about that.)

If you've stuck with this story this long, it's well worth your time to watch.

******

Oh, and it's still August 27, 2022 out here...

But I'm leaving the MTC Foley Park & Ride. 

I'm leaving the old Foley Blvd. Railroad Crossing.

I'm leaving East River Road.

I'm leaving the new Foley railroad bridge, this time going east across it.

I'm not leaving via the new Norway street, because it's not all the way open yet.

And I'm not going to Lyke's Gym.

Because I didn't know it was here, and now it's gone.

And now there's one less railroad crossing to take an occasional unplanned break from driving...

To look at the passing art gallery of rail car graffiti...

Gonna miss you, Dober.