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RAMSEY COUNTY Building Through the Crash St. Paul’s New Directions in the 1930s HıstoryA Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society James A. Stolpestad Fall 2015 Volume 50, Number 3 —Page 15 Finding A Way. Together. ALLY People Solutions: 50 Years of Service to Individuals and the Community —Eileen R. McCormack, page 3 Photo collage and images used from ALLY People Solutions 50th Anniversary Groovy Gala 1965–2015. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY RAMSEY COUNTY President Chad Roberts Founding Editor (1964–2006) Virginia Brainard Kunz Editor Hıstory John M. Lindley Volume 50, Number 3 Fall 2015 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE MISSION STATEMENT OF THE RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ON DECEMBER 20, 2007: William B. Frels The Ramsey County Historical Society inspires current and future generations Chair to learn from and value their history by engaging in a diverse program Cheryl Dickson First Vice Chair of presenting, publishing and preserving. Elizabeth M. Kiernat Second Vice Chair James Miller C O N T E N T S Secretary Kenneth H. Johnson Treasurer 3 Finding A Way. Together. Julie Brady, Anne Cowie, Jo Anne Driscoll, ALLY People Solutions: 50 Years of Service to Mari Oyanagi Eggum, Thomas Fabel, Individuals and the Community Martin Fallon, John Guthmann, Eileen R. McCormack Richard B. Heydinger, Jr., David Kristal, Carl Kuhrmeyer, Father Kevin M. McDonough, 16 Building through the Crash Nancy W. McKillips, Susan McNeely, Lisa Dickinson Michaux, Jonathan H. Morgan, St. Paul’s New Directions in the 1930s Robert Muschewske, James A. Stolpestad, James A. Stolpestad Ralph Thrane, Susan Vento, Jerry Woefel. EDITORIAL BOARD 26 Book Reviews Anne Cowie, chair, James B. Bell, Thomas H. Boyd, John Diers, Thomas Fabel, Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from William Frels, John Guthmann, Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie Jr. Douglas Heidenreich, James Miller, and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon John Milton, Laurie M. Murphy, Robert Muschewske, Paul D. Nelson, Richard H. Nicholson, Jay Pfaender, David Riehle, Chad Roberts, Steve Trimble, A Message from the Editorial Board Mary Lethert Wingerd. HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD n this issue, we are pleased to publish Eileen McCormack’s inspiring his- William Fallon, William Finney, George tory of ALLY People Solutions, a St. Paul organization that assists and Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Marvin J. Pertzik, I James Reagan. advocates for people with developmental challenges. It began with a dedi- RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS cated group of parents who sought an alternative to institutional care for Commissioner Jim McDonough, chair their children in the 1950s and has now grown into a comprehensive pro- Commissioner Toni Carter Commissioner Blake Huffman gram that partners with businesses, who hire participants for jobs in a com- Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire petitive workplace. We also share Jim Stolpestad’s fascinating history of Commissioner Rafael Ortega Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt St. Paul city planning and development in the late 1920s and throughout the Commissioner Janice Rettman 1930s. The spurt of development taking place then reflected the ideas of the Julie Kleinschmidt, manager, City Beautiful movement that originated with the Chicago World’s Colum- Ramsey County bian Exposition in 1893. St. Paul created a city planning board in 1918, and Ramsey County History is published quarterly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 despite the Great Depression, prior approval of bonding and new govern- Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, MN ment programs allowed construction of some of St. Paul’s iconic projects, 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copy- including the makeover of an outmoded Third Street into the spacious av- right © 2015, Ram sey County His torical So ciety. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. enue now known as Kellogg Boulevard. Finally, check out our new RCHS No part of this publication may be reprinted website. It is easier to read and navigate, with links to synopses of all of the or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The Society magazine articles since we began publishing in 1964. assumes no responsibility for state ments made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; e-mail address: Anne Cowie [email protected]; web site address: www.rchs.com Chair, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Finding A Way. Together. ALLY People Solutions: 50 Years of Service to Individuals and the Community Eileen R. McCormack orn of a parent’s heart. ALLY People Solutions is building on the won- derful legacy of its founders, never forgetting the mission to see each person as a unique individual worthy of respect and deserving opportu- B 1 nities to live life to the fullest. ALLY People Solutions has a fifty-year parents got together and really started form- history of supporting people with dis- ing organizations like ALLY. abilities. This nonprofit got its start in Our organization, [which] was one of the 1965 when a small group of parents first of this type in the state, started as a pilot opened a day activity center (DAC) in project. A group of moms organized and ul- St. Paul for their adult children with in- timately received some government dollars tellectual disabilities so that they might and these volunteer moms started offering have social interaction with their peers. what was then called a day activity center Over the next fifty years, that small ini- service. It was primarily recreational and tial effort has grown into today’s ALLY social based at first with a little bit of em- People Solutions and ALLY Business ployment training. From families through- Solutions. ALLY now serves 270 people out the state, many organizations like this State institution living conditions. Photo at their two University Avenue facilities started and that’s how a lot of services for from the archives of and used by permis- and branches on White Bear Avenue and people with disabilities became a reality.2 sion of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. in Vadnais Heights. Parents who chose to raise their chil- Today adults with intellectual, physi- dren at home rather than being confined cal, and mental health challenges partici- in a state hospital understood that as they —Providing opportunities for work in inclu- pate in life skills programs and employ- reached adulthood their children needed sive, community settings with a dynamic and ment training thanks to ALLY. The goal more than the education provided by flexible approach to services. for people who come to ALLY is to live schools. Although these parents began a —Linking people to volunteer or recrea- a productive, meaningful life. The goal day activity center primarily to fill a need tional options through innovative part- for staff at ALLY is to provide the ser- for recreation and sociability for their chil- nerships and natural supports in the vices and support that will enable people dren, these same parents recognized that community.3 to achieve their dreams. As Bob Brick, their sons and daughters were capable of CEO and President of ALLY notes, much more than society thought possible To better understand the achievements of both people with disabilities and the orga- Throughout our history state hospitals were for people with intellectual disabilities. really the primary place for people with in- An understanding emerged that sociability nizations such as ALLY, we need to under- tellectual disabilities to go. I’ve often chat- was important, but they saw this as only stand the history of what came before 1965 ted with parents who have told me that the the first step toward their children becom- and what has happened since. This brief advice their medical doctor gave them upon ing contributing members of their com- account will mainly focus on the situation the birth of their child with a disability was to munities. Today ALLY People Solutions in Minnesota and the impact that federal turn over custody to the state and forget about carries the work forward with its mission: legislation and national judicial decisions the child and that was, as you can imagine, a have had on our state’s programs. ALLY People Solutions advances the career very excruciating decision for parents. and life goals of people with disabilities. They wanted their children with dis- Institutional Treatment abilities to have the same rights and oppor- It uses these approaches to accomplish the Those who have been involved with the tunities as their children who didn’t have mission: very difficult work of reversing decades disabilities. So some parents ignored that —Assisting people in choosing and advocat- of how people with intellectual disabili- advice, but education services were often ing for their life and career path with indi- ties were viewed by others, and how they not very great and often quite segregated. So vidualized, person-centered services. viewed themselves, have traveled a long RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 3 and winding road. Looking at photo- training, and integration into their com- the civil rights movement was beginning graphs from the late 1940s (and sadly munities. The general public also needed to get noticed and it, and legal decisions much later) that show people in state to be educated to understand both the such as Brown v. Board of Education hospitals, whose purpose was to care for present conditions of institutional and (1954), set the stage for the increased those deemed unable to function in so- sheltered life for their children and how activism of the following decades. By ciety, one would think these images came to push for change. This is where media, 1960, more than a decade had passed from institutions that operated hundreds public officials, courts, and the medical since the Parent Movement got its start.

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