SUMMER 2006, Vol. XVII, No. 3 A newsletter on historic preservation from the State Historic Preservation Office of the Minnesota Historical Society CALENDAR MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS Sept. 27 - 29: Minnesota’s 27th Annual Photo by Don Patton Photo by Statewide Historic Preservation Conference, Red Wing. See page 4 for details. Oct. 24: State Review Board meeting, 7 p.m., Minnesota History Center, 345 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul. For agenda information call Michele Decker, 651-296-5434. Oct. 31 - Nov. 5: 59th National Preservation Conference, Pittsburgh, Pa. For more information go to www.nthpconference.org. CAPITAL GRANTS Long vacant, the buildings of Fort Snelling’s Upper Post are in various states of decay. The Minnesota Historical Society’s State Capital Projects Grants-in-Aid program will distribute approximately Fort Snelling’s historic Upper Post $900,000 in matching grants for the 2007-08 biennium to county and local jurisdictions for historic preservation named to Most Endangered Places list projects of a capital nature. Grant awards range in size from $10,000 to $150,000. n May the Upper Post of the Fort Construction of the Upper Post began All seekers of capital grants must Snelling Historic District received the in 1879 and continued into the early submit a preapplication. Priority is dubious honor of being named one of 1900s. During the first half of the 20th given to properties that are listed on I the National Register of Historic America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic century, it served as a major national Places or have been determined Places. It’s a designation given annually defense facility, a training site for eligible for listing. by the National Trust for Historic officers during World War I and later For eligibility requirements and Preservation to the nation’s foremost a rehabilitation center for wounded application materials, go to historic places facing the most dire of veterans. In time, the Upper Post earned www.mnhs.org/capitalgrants; write the MHS Grants Office, 345 Kellogg Blvd. threats. The announcement sends a call the moniker “Country Club of the Army” W., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906; call to action to save this significant place for the quality of its recreational and 651-296-5478; or fax 651-282-2374. before it is lost forever. housing facilities. Remodeled before July 28: Preapplication due by 4:30 p.m. The property, a once-active military World War II, the post became an Sept. 1: Grant application due by base, sits across a highway from the induction center for more than 300,000 4:30 p.m. Oct. 3: Grants Review Committee 1820s Historic Fort Snelling, operated meets. by the Minnesota Historical Society. Upper Post continued on page 3 SAVED Dakota County: William G. LeDuc House (1862-65), Hastings. Built for noted merchant, historian, promoter and Civil War veteran William LeDuc, this Gothic Villa estate has been restored as a museum. Project partners include the City of Hastings, Dakota County Historical Society, LeDuc - Simmons Foundation, MacDonald and Mack Architects, Scenic Byways Program, State of Minnesota and Minnesota Historical Society. The LeDuc House before (left) and after restoration as the LeDuc Historic Estate, administered by the Dakota County Historical Society. Otter Tail County: Hotel Kaddatz (1914 -15), Fergus Falls. The Renaissance Revival Hotel Kaddatz was designed by George Hancock for merchant Charles Kaddatz to house U.S. District Court officials.Vacant since 1975, it was rehabilitated for mixed use by Artspace using federal preservation tax incentives.Work included cleaning and repointing brick, repairing windows and floors, and installing new mechanical systems and water service. Hotel Kaddatz before (left) and after rehabilitation for mixed use. REGISTRATION Recent additions to the National Register of Historic Places Hennepin County: Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Grade Separation (1912-16), Corridor parallel to 29th St. between Humboldt Ave. S. and 20th Ave. S., Minneapolis. Prepared by Andrea Vermeer and Will Stark. Lake of the Woods County: Canadian National Railways Depot Defining features of the 2.8-mile-long CM & The Watkins Medical Company, pictured (1923), 420 N. Main Ave., Baudette. SP transportation historic district include a here in 1930, produced home remedies, Prepared by Carmen Tschofen. trench through which the railroad passed, spices and flavorings, cosmetics and street bridges that span the trench and perfumes, household cleaners and other adjacent buildings that form its walls. products sold throughout the country by Winona County: J. R. Watkins The railway tracks have been replaced by “Watkins Men.” The complex’s seven Medical Company Complex (1900- a bituminous bicycle-and-pedestrian trail buildings include manufacturing and 14), 150 Liberty St., Winona. known as the Midtown Greenway. warehousing facilities and a 1911 administrative headquarters designed by Prepared by Robert M. Frame III. Prairie School architect George Maher. 2 Preservation Planner/Summer 2006 Wanted: Multimillion-dollar citizen advice ere is your chance to advise the 2007, the Environment and Natural LCMR is seeking citizen input on Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources Trust Fund will generate ways to spend the money. Just ResourcesH (LCMR) about future funding approximately $22 million a year for log on to the LCMR web site at priorities for Minnesota’s environment two years for special projects, which www.lcmr.leg.mn/lcmr.htm and and natural resources. Beginning July 1, can include historic resources. The click on the Citizen Input Form. Upper Post continued from page 1 Minnesotans called to serve in the war. River and Recreation After the war, the Army gradually Area, has been meeting abandoned the buildings of the Upper to discuss the site’s Post. Today, the 28 buildings remaining future. Hennepin County on the 141-acre site are vacant and has successfully deteriorating. These structures and the leveraged resources site they occupy, with its proximity to and is working with the airport and light-rail transportation, the DNR to begin are ripe for preservation, development stabilization of some and reuse. of the buildings. The There is reason for hope: efforts are addition of the property already underway to save and reuse Fort to the 11 Most Snelling’s Upper Post. For more than a Endangered Places list year, a diverse group of agency partners, promises to galvanize Nina M. Archabal (right), Minnesota’s state convened by the Department of Natural these efforts and bring more voices and historic preservation officer, signs the Stillwater Bridge memorandum of Resources and the Mississippi National resources to the table. agreement with Cheryl Martin, cultural The Upper Post is the third resources specialist for the Federal property in Minnesota to be named to Highway Administration. the National Trust’s list of endangered Introducing... historic places. The 1997 list included • May 7 was closing night for “Hamlet,” the Stillwater Bridge over the St. Croix the final production at the Guthrie David River, and in 2002 Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater building designed by Ralph Mather has Theater, built in 1963, was deemed Rapson. The theater company moved joined the endangered. Coincidentally, there were staff of to its new home overlooking the the State significant developments related to both Mississippi River in June. Despite local Historic of those properties in the same week efforts to save the Rapson building, Preservation that the 2006 list of 11 Most the Walker Art Center, which owns Office as National Endangered Places was announced: the site, plans to demolish the Register • After years of negotiations about the building this summer. archaeologist. A Ph.D. candidate fate of the Stillwater Bridge among Preservationists at the Minnesota in interdisciplinary archaeological SHPO and elsewhere are hopeful that studies at the University of a myriad of stakeholders, the Minnesota, Mather holds a master’s memorandum of agreement designation of the Fort Snelling Upper degree in environmental archaeology addressing all the historic resource Post as endangered will bring renewed from Sheffield University in England. energy and commitment to efforts to Founder of his own archaeological issues related to the new St. Croix research company, he served as River crossing was finally signed. secure a future for this imperiled consulting archaeologist for the Mille When the new bridge opens, National Historic Landmark. As those Lacs Tribal Historic Preservation the historic lift bridge will be efforts continue to unfold, we will keep Office. Mather’s research interests you informed of our progress. include zooarchaeology – the rehabilitated and incorporated archaeology of animal bones. into a new recreational loop trail – Britta L. Bloomberg, Deputy spanning the river. State Historic Preservation Officer Preservation Planner/Summer 2006 3 Minnesota Preservation Planner Red Wing to host preservation conference is published four times a year by the State Historic Preservation Office of the Minnesota Historical Society, 345 he 27th Annual Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul, MN 55102- Statewide Historic 1906. Material from this issue may be Preservation Conference will reprinted with the following credit line: T Reprinted with permission from be held Sept. 27 - 29 at the Minnesota Preservation Planner, St. James Hotel in Red Wing. published by the Minnesota Historical Among activities planned: Society, Vol. XVII, No. 3, Summer 2006. • Keynote address by Charles Upon request, this