Lawrence A. Martin
Specific Structures or Points of Interest Along the Hike.
The following is the specific information assembled about the structures along the hike route:
445 Summit Avenue: Shipman/Greve House, Built between 1882 and 1883; English Queen Anne/Revival/Richardsonian Romanesque/Casual in style; Leroy Buffington, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
442 Summit Avenue: Summit Court Apartments, Built in 1898; Colonial Revival in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
435 Summit Avenue: Chester Berry House; Built 1954 (1955 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Modern brick rambler/Contemporary in style; Charles J. Beggs, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
432 Summit Avenue: James C. Burbank House, Built in 1862-1863; Italian Villa/Italianate villa/Tuscan/American Bracketed in style; Otis L. Wheelock, original architect, Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., alteration (1884 according to Sandeen; 1895 according to Larson) architect, A. H. Stem, alteration (1920's) architect, and Edwin Lundie, restoration (1922-1944) architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
426 Summit Avenue: Built in 1865. The building is a 1 3/4 story, 1138 square foot, two bedroom, one bathroom, stone house. The current owner of record of the property is 426 LLC, located at 340 Cedar Street.
421 Summit Avenue: Edward T. Buxton House, Built in 1912 (1913 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) NeoClassical/Beaux Arts/Italianate/Renaissance Revival in style; Benjamin H. Marshall and Charles E. Fox (Chicago, Illinois,) architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
420 Summit Avenue: University Club, Built between 1912 and 1913; Tudor Revival in style; Reed and Stem, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
418 Summit Avenue: The property is a tax exempt vacant lot that is owned by the City of St. Paul.
415 Summit Avenue: Marshall/Winter/Dean House; Built in 1880 (1889 according to Ramsey County property tax records.) [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
Corner of Summit and Portland Avenues: Statue of Nathan Hale, Built in 1907; Beaux Arts in style; William Partridge, sculptor. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
400 Summit Avenue: Auerbach House, Built in 1882 (1900 according to Ramsey County property tax records) and remodeled extensively in the 1920's; originally Queen Anne/Altered Victorian in style; George Wirth, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
79 Western Avenue North: The Commodore; Built in 1920; Art Deco in style. Before 1978, the Commodore was a residential hotel and home to such notables as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis. It has become a condominium building. Unit A is a 8500 square foot condominium office unit and is currently owned by Commonwealth Properties. Unit B is a 1100 square foot condominium office unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1994 at a sale price of $27,000, and is currently owned by Mary Jo Elliott. Unit C is a 1300 square foot condominium office unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1997 at a sale price of $86,300, and is currently owned by John W. Byers and Susan L. Byers. Unit #1/2 is a 15852 square foot lodge hall and is currently owned by Commodore Condominium Cord, located at 480 Grand Hill. Unit 100 is a 900 square foot, three room, one bedroom, one bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1993 at a sale price of $43,000, and is currently owned by Cynthia Wherry Merrill and Richard O. Power. Unit 101 is a 900 square foot, three room, one bedroom, one bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1995 at a sale price of $50,000, and is currently owned by Penny J. Heibel. Unit 102 is a 646 square foot, three room, one bedroom, one bathroom, one half-bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1993 at a sale price of $32,000, and is currently owned by Amy M. Bohaty. Unit 103 is a 646 square foot, three room, one bedroom, one bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2000 at a sale price of $85,000, and is currently owned by Shelly R. Losee. Unit 110 is a 2058 square foot, seven room, three bedroom, two bathroom, one half-bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Marion G. Winzen. Unit 200 is a 2516 square foot, seven room, three bedroom, two bathroom, one half-bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1987 at a sale price of $24,000, and is currently owned by Elaine M. Elnes and Charles T. Silverson, Jr. Unit 201 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1996 at a sale price of $83,500, and is currently owned by Mary E. Lange. Unit 203 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1992 at a sale price of $64,000, and is currently owned by Richard L. Mensing. Unit 205 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1999 at a sale price of $114,885, and is currently owned by Vera Alenov. Unit 206 is a 1170 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2002 at a sale price of $207,000, and is currently owned by Sara M. Ziegler. Unit 207 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Meredith B. Alden, who resides in West St. Paul, Minnesota. Unit 208 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1996 at a sale price of $79,000, and is currently owned by Sanna N. Towns. Unit 300 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Monica M. Manning. Unit 301 is a 1250 square foot, three room, two bedroom, one bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Hollis M. Ylinen. Unit 302 is a 1170 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2003 at a sale price of $190,000, and is currently owned by Phyllis J. Beaudet. Unit 303 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Beth G. Sullivan and Timothy A. Sullivan, who reside at 1068 Lombard Avenue. Unit 304 is a 1632 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, one half-bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2003 at a sale price of $195,000, and is currently owned by Catherine B. Hartnett and John D. Monto. Unit 305 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1997 at a sale price of $53,500, and is currently owned by Maureen C. O'Brien. Unit 306 is a 1170 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Ruth G. Armstrong. Unit 307 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2004 at a sale price of $238,500, and is currently owned by John E. Evans and Wilma G. Evans. Unit 308 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1995 at a sale price of $76,000, and is currently owned by Stephanie P. McDonough. Unit 400 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2004 at a sale price of $210,000, and is currently owned by Patricia M. Hampl and Terrence J. Williams. Unit 401 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Robert Cohanim. Unit 402 is a 1170 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2004 at a sale price of $178,000, and is currently owned by Michael S. Wilson, who resides at 1882 Idaho Avenue East. Unit 403 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1997 at a sale price of $89,900, and is currently owned by Richard L. Duncan. Unit 405 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Robert R. Nardi. Unit 406 is a 1170 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Diana Brainard. Unit 407 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1997 at a sale price of $88,000, and is currently owned by Lorraine D. Koenen and William B. Koenen. Unit 408 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2000 at a sale price of $142,000, and is currently owned by the trustee for Linda B. Harris, residing in Cambridge, Massacusetts. Unit 500 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1993 at a sale price of $77,500, and is currently owned by Jane Lawrenz. Unit 501 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Gretchen L. Durkot and Thomas H. Selwold. Unit 502 is a 1170 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1997 at a sale price of $85,000, and is currently owned by Adriana L. Trevino. Unit 503 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Gretchen L. Durkot, who resides at Unit 501. Unit 504 is a 1632 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2001 at a sale price of $179,900, and is currently owned by Timothy P. Long. Unit 505 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2000 at a sale price of $140,000, and is currently owned by Louis S. Hill. Unit 506 is a 1170 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1993 at a sale price of $52,000, and is currently owned by Carl Brandt. Unit 507 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Sharon M. Hogenson. Unit 508 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1994 at a sale price of $71,900, and is currently owned by Matthew J. Brophy. Unit 600 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2002 at a sale price of $202,100, and is currently owned by Susan Schloff. Unit 601 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Kent C. Guptil. Unit 602 is a 1170 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 2004 at a sale price of $177,000, and is currently owned by Laurence D. Haggerty and Nancy T. Haggerty. Unit 603 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Dee Elwood. Unit 604 is a 816 square foot, three room, one bedroom, one bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1998 at a sale price of $69,500, and is currently owned by Julia P. Mairs and Robert P. Mairs. Unit 605 is a 990 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1991 at a sale price of $69,900, and is currently owned by Mary A. Rayan and Rajen Rayan. Unit 606 is a 1170 square foot, five room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1999 at a sale price of $110,000, and is currently owned by Charlotte J. Johnson. Unit 607 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit, with the last sale of the unit occurring in 1987 at a sale price of $24,000, and is currently owned by Eudene G. Lupino. Unit 608 is a 1250 square foot, four room, two bedroom, two bathroom, condominium unit and is currently owned by Geovanna M. Perrino. Public areas of the Commodore include the Lobby, the Bar, the Dining Room, and the Upper Lounge. The lobby was originally for Commodore Hotel residents and guests and is appointed with traditional furnishings arranged in intimate conversational groups and has a Mahogany bar. The Art Deco Bar was designed to be reminiscent of an ocean liner's cocktail lounge and was spared in the great Commodore Hotel explosion and fire in 1978, with all of the original elements intact, including the two gold leaf ceiling domes, mirrored side walls and louvered glass back wall. Sinclair Lewis is reputed to have spent a lot of time in the Commodore Bar. The Dining Room boasts a decorative plaster ceiling, has an elevated dance floor in traditional black and white tile, and is decorated with a dramatic carpet. The Upper Lounge is elevated and is decorated to complement the Lobby. The 1920 city directory indicates that Thomas F. Chapman, manager of the Commodore Hotel, resided at this address. In 1939, the Spring Festival of the Northwest Puppet Guild was held at the Commodore Hotel. The 1950 St. Paul Academy Alumni Directory indicates that Franklin T. Floete, Jr., who attended the school from 1913 until 1918 and who served in the U. S. Navy in the Carribean during World War II, resided at this address. Charles P. McCarty, Mayor of Saint Paul in 1970, moved his office from downtown St. Paul to the Commodore. In 1978, a gas main exploded in the building, which had been evacuated shortly before the accident because of the prompt action of architect Thomas Blanck, who then officed in the building. The Nova Group is located at Suite 300 of this building. Title Infotech Inc. and Title Provisions Inc. are located at this address. The Commodore Squash & Fitness Club is also located at this address. Char Nycklemoe, a lobbyist and real estate agent and a member of the board of NAMI-MN (The Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Minnesota), resides at this address. The Minnesota Facilitators Network is located at Suite 201. The Commodore is now owned and operated by the University Club of St. Paul. The Lawrence University (Wisconsin) Alumni Association of Minneapolis-St. Paul sometimes meets at the Commodore. Patricia Hampl also is recorded as residing at 286 Laurel Avenue and is a Regents Professor in the Department of English at the University of Minnesota, has a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and a M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, was Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of Literature at Carleton College in 1987, Emens Distinguished Professor at Ball State University in 1989, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Writing at the University of Iowa in 1994, resident fellow at the Bellagio Study Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, in 1991, and is the author of The Silken Chamber, Beacon Press, 2002, I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory, W.W. Norton and Co., 1999, Virgin Time, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1992, Spillville, Milkweed Editions, 1987, Resort and Other Poems, New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1983, A Romantic Education, New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1981, and Woman Before an Aquarium, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978. Patricia Hampl and Terrence Williams own a 1940 Chris Craft 33’ Sedan Cruiser which won the Best Antique Cruiser in 2003 award from the Bob Speltz-Land O' Lakes Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society, Inc.
378 Summit Avenue: Built in 1986. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
376 Summit Avenue: Summit Bluff Townhomes; Built in 1982; Bream Built Inc., builder. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
375 Summit Avenue: The structure is a tax exempt building that is owned by the City of St. Paul.
372 Summit Avenue: Built in 1915. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
370 Summit Avenue: John R. Mitchell House, Built in 1909 (Sandeen; 1910 according to Ramsey County property tax records; 1909-1910 according to Larson;) Federal/Georgian/Colonial Revival in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
369 Summit Avenue: Cochran Park Built in 1923; Period Revival in style; Paul Manship, sculptor. [For information on the park, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
366 Summit Avenue: Egil Boeckmann and Rachel Hill Boeckmann House; Built in 1928 (1929 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Georgian Revival in style; David Adler and Robert Work, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
365 Summit Avenue: Bass/Griggs House; Built in 1885 (1894 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Colonial Revival in style; James Knox Taylor, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
362-364 Summit Avenue: Built in 1977; Contemporary condominium in style; Design Consultants, builder and architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
361 Summit Avenue: Donald S. Culver House; Built in 1912 (1911 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Tudor Revival in style; Peter J. Linhoff, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
360 Summit Avenue: Former Cutler House Carriage Barn; Built in 1915 according to the Ramsey County property tax records; 1969 conversion by Walter Fricke of an 1875 carriage barn; Joseph Michaels, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
353 Summit Avenue: William B. Dean and Mary Dean House; Built in 1882; Altered Queen Anne in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
345 Summit Avenue: Albert W. Lindeke House; Built in 1909 (Sandeen and Larson;) Tudor Villa in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., original architect, garage architect, and addition architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
344 Summit Avenue: Watson P. Davidson and Sarah Davidson House; Built in 1915; Beaux Arts/Tudor Revival in style; Thomas Holyoke, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
340 Summit Avenue: Thomas B. Scott and Clare Scott/George Thompson House, Built in 1894; Beaux Arts/Italianate/Renaissance Revival in style; Reed and Stem, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
339 Summit Avenue: Crawford Livingston House; Built in 1898 (1897 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Italianate/Gothic in style; Cass Gilbert, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
335 Summit Avenue: John H. Allen House; Built in 1892 (1891 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Queen Anne in style; J. Walter Stevens, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
332 Summit Avenue: Edgar C. Long/Archibald Guthrie House; Cass Gilbert and John Knox Taylor, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
329 Summit Avenue: Charles A. Wheaton House, Built in 1895 (1893 according to Ramsey County property tax records); Queen Anne Rectilinear/Victorian Romanesque in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
323 Summit Avenue: Edward Nelson Saunders House, Built in 1892 (1893 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Victorian Romanesque/Renaissance Revival in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
322-324 Summit Avenue: Lightner-Young House; Built in 1886; Richardsonian Romanesque/Classical Revival in style; Cass Gilbert and John Knox Taylor, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
318 Summit Avenue: William H. Lightner House; Built in 1893 (1892 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Richardsonian Romanesque in style; Cass Gilbert, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
312 Summit Avenue: David Stuart and Mary Stuart House; Built in 1858 (1856 according to Peggy Korsmo Kennon and Robert B. Drake; 1874 according to Ramsey County property tax records,) with a three story addition constructed in 1918; Italianate/Italian Villa style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
302 Summit Avenue: Joseph L. Forepaugh House, Built in 1889 (1900 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Victorian in style; Mould and McNicol, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
301 Summit Avenue: George W. Gardner House; Built in 1905 (1900 and 1904 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Georgian Revival in style; Thomas G. Holyoke, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
295 Summit Avenue: Albert H. Lindeke and Louise Lindeke House, Built in 1885 (1890 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Queen Anne in style; Augustus F. Gauger, original architect; Reed and Stem, architects for the 1903 stone porch addition; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., for the garage addition. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
294 Summit Avenue: George F. Lindsay House, Built in 1919; Colonial Revival in style; Parker, Thomas & Rice (Boston, Massachusetts,) architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
285 Summit Avenue: Fredric A. Fogg House, Built in 1899 (1882 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Georgian/Colonial Revival in style; A. H. Stem, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
280 Summit Avenue: Built in 1996. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
275 Summit Avenue: Charles A. Schuneman House/Summit Manor, Built in 1901 (Sandeen and Larson; 1912 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Late Gothic and Medieval Revival in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
271 Summit Avenue: Joshua H. Sanders House, Built in 1882 (1879 according tho Ramsey County property tax records;)Victorian in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
269 Summit Avenue: Built in 1879. The building is a two story, 3828 square foot, three bedroom, two bathroom, frame house. The last sale of the property was in 1999 and the property sold for $220,000. The current owner of record of the property is Christopher R. Hansen.
266 Summit Avenue: Driscoll/Weyerhaeuser House, Built between 1884 and 1885; Queen Anne/Richardsonian Romanesque in style; William H. Willcox (1832-1929,) architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
265 Summit Avenue: John S. Robertson House, Built in 1885 (1881 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Queen Anne in style; C. W. Mould, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
262 Summit Avenue: Built in 1884. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
261 Summit Avenue: James H. Weed House, Built in 1891 (1890 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Victorian /Neo-gothic/Gothic Revival in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
260 Summit Avenue: Louis Warren Hill and Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill House; Built in 1903 (according to Sandeen and Ramsey County property tax records; 1902-1903 according to Larson,) with a major addition, the front half and portico, in 1913; Beaux Art/Georgian Revival in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., original architect and contractor; Louis Millet and John LaFarge, stained glass designers; William Yungbauer, woodcarver; Charles Frost, addition architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
259 Summit Avenue: Built in 1900. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
255-257 Summit Avenue: W. E. Howard House; Built in 1884 (1900 according to Ramsey County property tax records) with alterations in 1899 (Larson;) Altered Queen Anne in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., alteration architect; Carl Thomas Gray, restoration architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
251 Summit Avenue: Horace P. Rugg House; Built in 1887 (1886 according to Eileen R. McCormack;) Renaissance Revival/Victorian Romanesque in style; Edgar J. Hodgson and Alan Stem, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
245 Summit Avenue: Charles Paul House; Built in 1882 (1883 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Altered mildy Italianate in style; Abraham M. Radcliffe, architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
240 Summit Avenue: James J. Hill House; Built between 1888-1891; Richardsonian Romanesque in style; Peabody, Stearns & Furber, original architects; and Irving and Casson, replacement architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
239 Summit Avenue: Colonel William B. Bend House, Built in 1882 (1900 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Victorian/Altered Tudor Revival in style; George Wirth, original architect. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
236 Summit Avenue: Archbishop's Residence; Built in 1963; Contemporary in style; Cerny Associates, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
235 Summit Avenue: Charles Phelps Noyes/Joseph McKey House, Built in 1878 (1879 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Combination of the Vernacular, Italianate, and the French Second Empire in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
226 Summit Avenue: Chancery, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Built in 1963; Contemporary in style; Cerny Associates, architects. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
225 Summit Avenue: Cathedral of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; Built between 1906 and 1915; Renaissance/Italian Mannerist/Baroque in style; Emmanuel Masqueray, original architect; Whitney Warren, construction supervision architect; Louis Millet, original stained glass designer, Charles Connick, subsequent stained glass window designer; Mark Balma, fresco painter; W. J. Hoy, original general contractor; Thomas Finn Company, original roofing contractor. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
201 Summit Avenue: School Patrol Flagpole. Erected in 1973. [For information on the monument, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
194 Summit Avenue: Park Court Apartments. Built in 1920 (1922 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) 1920's Apartment building in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
187 Summit Avenue (Across from 186 Summit Avenue:) Civil War Commemorative Statue/Josias R. King Statue; Constructed 1903; cast iron statue on stone column; John Karl Daniels, sculptor. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
186 Summit Avenue: Dr. Arthur Eastman House. Built in 1885 (1884 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Queen Anne/Victorian in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
184 Summit Avenue: C. D. Kerr House. Built in 1889 (1884 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) Queen Anne/Victorian in style; George Gerlach, architect and builder. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
178 Summit Avenue: The Elm Apartments. Built in 1910 (1919 according to Ramsey County property tax records;) 1910 Apartment House in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
170 Summit Avenue: Knickerbocker Apartments/Ambassador Apartments. Built in 1910; 1910 Apartment House in style. [For information on the building, see Thursday Night Hikes: Summit Avenue East Hike 1 Architecture Notes.]
160 John Ireland Boulevard: Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) History Center; Built 1990-1992; Hammel, Green & Abrahamson, architects; BOR-SON/Knutson, general contractor. The 427,000 square foot building was constructed using 160,000 pieces of Rockville, Minnesota, granite and 29,000 cubic feet of Winona, Minnesota, travertine (limestone.) The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution established by the Minnesota territorial government in 1849 to preserve and share Minnesota history. The Society collects, preserves and recounts the story of Minnesota's past through interactive and museum exhibits, extensive libraries and collections, 24 historic sites, educational programs and book publishing. The work of the Society was carried out by volunteers until, in 1869, part-time volunteer J./John Fletcher Williams (1834-1895) became the first and only paid employee of the Society. Collections of the Society include nearly 550,000 books, 37,000 maps, 250,000 photographs,165,000 historical artifacts, nearly 800,000 archaeological items, 38,000 cubic feet of manuscripts, 45,000 cubic feet of government records, and 5,500 paintings, prints and drawings, with most of the collections are stored in the History Center. In the Society's earliest years, the collections were stored in spare rooms in the State Capitol, a building that burned in 1881. The $76.4 million History Center took ten years of planning and two and a half years of construction. David A. Koch is the President of the Board of the Minnesota Historical Society and Nina M. Archabal is its Director. David A. Koch, of Plymouth, Minnesota, is the Chairman and CEO of Graco Incorporated, serves on the Board of Directors at the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility, and was a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Nina M. Archabal of St. Paul was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 1997 and serves on the boards of Harvard University and of the American Association of Museums. John Fletcher Williams was educated at Woodward College and at Ohio Wesleyan University, came to St. Paul in 1855, worked as a newspaper reporter, was the personal secretary of Governor Miller, was a member of the St. Paul Board of Education from 1864 until 1871, was a member of the U. S. Centennial Commission from Minnesota from 1871 until 1876, and was elected the Secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society in 1867.
395 John Ireland Boulevard: Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Building; Dedicated in 1958. MnDOT is the successor to the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, which was created in 1871, to the State Highway Commission, which was created in 1905, and to the Minnesota Aeronautics Commission, which was created in 1933. Abolishing the Highway Commission in 1917, the Legislature created a Department of Highways. A constitutional amendment adopted in 1920 allowed for the creation of a system of 70 trunk highways. The state constitution was amended in the 1920's to use taxes on gasoline solely to build and maintain roads. There were 920 motor vehicles registered in Minnesota in 1903 and 324,166 in 1920. A 1944 amendment to the Minnesota constitution permitted the State to construct airports, issue bonds, levy excise taxes and tax aircraft. In 1956, the U. S. Congress enacted laws that set up funding for the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. The Department of Public Service was created in 1967 and the functions of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission were transferred to it. In 1969, the Legislature established the Department of Public Safety and the Highway Patrol and Drivers License Bureau, both formerly a part of the Highway Department, were transferred to this new Department. MnDOT was created in 1976 to assume the activities of the former Department of Aeronautics and the former Department of Highways and the transportation-related sections of the State Planning Agency and of the Public Service Department.
Destroyer U.S.S. Ward Deck Gun: Erected in 1958. The U.S.S. Ward, a 1247-ton Wickes class destroyer, was built in 1918 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, and was decommissioned at San Diego, California, in July 1921. The U.S.S. Ward was named in honor of James Harmon Ward (1806- ), who was born in Hartford, Connecticut, was appointed a midshipman in the U. S. Navy in 1823, while still enrolled at the Military Academy in Norwich, Vermont, served aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, was a Civil War hero, and had a colorful 40 year career in the Navy. The destroyer was sponsored by Miss Dorothy Hall Ward, was commissioned in July, 1918, was decommissioned in July, 1921, was recommissioned in January, 1941, and was sent to Pearl Harbor shortly thereafter, where the destroyer operated on local patrol duties in Hawaiian waters over the next year. On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Ward was conducting a precautionary patrol off the entrance to Pearl Harbor when the ship encountered a Japanese midget submarine, one of five Japanese midget submarines that were attempting to enter Pearl Harbor to participate in the attack, attacked it, and sank it, thus firing the first shots of the World War II in the Pacific. The minesweeper Condor had reported spotting a submarine periscope and later, a PBY patrol plane also sighted a periscope and marked the spot with a smoke pot. The Ward came over, fired its guns at the sub, and dropped depth charges. This naval deck gun was manned by reservists from St. Paul and fired the shots that sunk the 46 ton, 78 foot, two man, Japanese submarine, one of five midget submarines released by larger parent Japanese submarines, which was armed with two torpedoes and was believed to have been manned by Ens. Akira Hiroo and PO1c Yoshio Katayama. The Ward incident, more than an hour before the Japanese attack planes arrived at Pearl Harbor, did not occasion a general alarm. Shortly after sinking the midget submarine, two Japanese fighter-bombers spotted the Ward during the attack on Pearl Harbor and unsuccessfully attempted to drop bombs on the ship. In 1942, the Ward was sent to the West Coast for conversion to a high speed transport. During the conversion, the ship's forward funnels were removed, the forward boiler and fire rooms were converted to accommodate troops, antiaircraft guns 3-inch/50s and 20-millimeter Oerlikons replaced the antiquated "iron-sighted" single-purpose 4-inch guns and the prior .50-caliber machine guns, and four sets of davits and four 36-foot landing craft to put her embarked troops ashore were added, and was redesignated APD-16. The ship earned eleven battle stars in engagements in the Pacific, but never lost a man in a fight and only one man in an accident. In early December, 1944, the Ward transported Army personnel during the landings at Ormoc Bay, Leyte, Phillipines, and on December 7, 1944, while on anti-submarine patrol, the ship came under attack by Japanese aircraft by three Betty twin engine bombers. The Ward's guns shot down two of the Japanese planes, but the third one, on a kamikaze dive, crashed into her empty troop compartment, amidships, setting the Ward on fire and bringing the ship to a stop. When the resulting fires could not be controlled, the Ward’s crew was ordered to abandon ship and the ship was sunk by gunfire from the U.S.S. O'Brien. The commanding officer of the U.S.S. O'Brien, William W. Outerbridge, had been in command of the U.S.S. Ward during the ship's action off Pearl Harbor three years before. The crew members who manned the gun were Russell H. Knapp, BM2c, Gun Captain (R.H. Knapp-BM2c-Gun Captain, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) Clarence W. "Scotty" Fenton, Sea1c, Pointer (C. W. Fenton-Sea1c-Pointer, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) Raymond B. Nolde, Sea1c, Trainer (R. B. Nolde-Sea1c-Trainer, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) Ambrose A. Domagall, Sea1c, No. 1 Loader (A. A. De Demagall-Sea1c-No. 1 Loader, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) Don W. Gruening, Sea1c, No. 2 Loader (D. W. Gruening-Sea1c-No. 2 Loader, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) John A. Pieck/Peick/Paick, Sea1c, No. 3 Loader (J. A. Paick - Sea1c-No. 3 Loader, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) Harold Pat Flanagan, Sea1c, No. 4 Loader (H. P. Flanagan-Sea1c-No. 4 Loader, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) Edward J. Bukrey, GM3c, Gunners Mate (E.J. Bakret-GM3c-Gunners Mate, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption;) and Karl C. J. Lasch, Cox, Sightsetter (K.C.J. Lasch-Cox-Sightsetter, from the original 1942-vintage photo caption.) The gun was a 4"/50 type, and was mounted atop the ship's midships deckhouse, on the starboard side. In 2002, two University of Hawai'i deep diving submersibles confirmed the 1941 submarine sinking by the U.S.S. Ward, finding the 78-foot, two crew member, Japanese submarine, upright in 1,200 feet of water, camouflaged in a "military junkyard" of debris tossed overboard by the Navy, with a 4-inch shell hole through both sides of the sub's conning tower.
Monument to the Living:Erected in 1982; Hammered and welded steel; Roger Brodin, sculptor. The 12 foot high, 1,500 piece, statue was paid for by the veterans of Minnesota. It represents the living Minnesota veterans who returned from war. Roger Brodin is a 1958 Minneapolis Patrick Henry High School graduate, a Vietnam war veteran (U. S. Marines,) and a Minnesota artist. He also sculpted a sculpture of a solitary female figure, entitled "The Nurse," as a proposal for a monument honoring female Vietnam War veterans, "The Batavia Protector," a two-thirds life-size 1997 bronze sculpture depicting a Batavia, Illinois, Police officer holding the hand of a young boy, and the Hubert Humphrey sculpture located between the Minneapolis City Hall and the Hennepin County Government Center.
Minnesota Vietnam Memorial: Erected in 1992; Granite and inlaid green stones. "Lakefront DMZ" was created by artists and architects Nina Ackerberg, Stanton Sears, Jake Castillo, and Rich Laffin, winners of a national design competition that garnered 218 entries, and was built by the James Steele Construction Company. The memorial honors the Minnesotans who died or who are missing in action from the Vietnam War. The stones inlaid in the map of Minnesota marks the hometowns of the deceased and missing veterans. The facade of a house and the representation of the shore of Lake Superior are suggestive of a coming home theme. The monument was funded through the Minnesota Percent for the Arts in Public Places program. Stanton Gray Sears is a sculptor and Associate Professor in the Department of Art at Macalester College, St. Paul who holds degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and from Penn State University. Nina Ackerberg and Jake Castillo were students of Professor Sears at Macalester College. Richard Laffin, AIA, is an architect formerly with TEA2 Architects and currently with Richard Laffin Architects, Inc., who won a 2003 Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Award for Architrave Design and Remodeling of Saint Clements Episcopal Church, located at 901 Portland Avenue.
"Spiral for Justice"/Roy Wilkins Memorial/Civil Rights Monument: Erected in 1985; Curtis Patterson, artist and designer. The monument features 46 obelisks of ascending height, symbolizing the 46 years of civil rights leadership by Roy Wilkins. Roy Wilkins (1901-1981) was a civil rights pioneer who played a significant role in the passage of key Civil Rights legislation in the 1950's and 1960's, earning him the honorific "Father of Civil Rights." Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri, was a resident of Minnesota for most of his lifetime, was raised in St. Paul by an aunt after his mother died when Wilkins was only four years old, attended Whittier Grade School, and graduated from the former St. Paul Mechanic Arts High School. He furthered his education at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, graduating with a degree in sociology in 1923, and served as editor of the University newspaper, the Minnesota Daily. He also edited a black weekly, the St. Paul Appeal, as an undergraduate. Wilkins also worked as a redcap, a Pullman car waiter, and a stockyard worker. Wilkins started his professional career in Kansas City, where he served as managing editor of the Kansas City Call, an African-American newspaper, and waged a campaign to defeat racist Senator Henry J. Allen, which caught the attention of Walter White. In 1929, Wilkins married social worker Aminda "Minnie" Badeau, but the couple had no children. Wilkins joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1931. Wilkins became the assistant executive secretary of the national NAACP under Walter White, and soon succeeded W. E. B. Du Bois as editor of Crisis, the major organization publication. Wilkins went on assignment to investigate lynchings and working conditions for African-Americans in the South and his 1932 report, "Mississippi Slave Labor," is credited with bringing Congressional action to improve the working conditions for blacks in levee labor camps. He was a consultant to the federal War Department during the Second World War and served with Du Bois and White as advisers at the 1945 San Francisco conference that founded the United Nations. He continued to lecture and write, and upon the death of Walter White (1893-1955,) he was appointed executive secretary of the organization. During Wilkins' service to the NAACP, it grew to 1300 branches and chapters and a quarter-million members, but Wilkins was criticized by more militant black groups who sought racial separatism. President Lyndon Johnson presented Wilkins with the country's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, in 1967. The Minnesota State Legislature officially recognized Roy Wilkins' lifetime of accomplishments by authorizing and funding the construction of the Roy Wilkins Memorial. The walls of the monument signify the obstacles and barriers created by racial segregation, while the spiral shape of the sculpture represents the cycle of Wilkins' achievements in the form of advancements for minority rights. This spiral extends above and through the walls of the monument to illustrate how racial equality can be met by means of effective legislative actions. Finally, the Memorial's obelisk, decorated with African relics, is a moving tribute to the ancestors of modern-day African Americans. The City of St. Paul/River Centre Authority honored Roy Wilkins in 1984 by naming the former St. Paul Auditorium, adjoining the Excel Auditorium, for him. The Roy Wilkins Auditorium, built in 1932 and refurbished in 1986, includes the 30,000 square foot Roy Wilkins Exhibit Hall, the 44,800 square foot 5678 seat Roy Wilkins Auditorium, and three 3240 square foot ballrooms. The Roy Wilkins Centre for Human Relations and Human Justice was established in the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in 1992. Curtis Patterson, a former high school art teacher and now a teacher at the Atlanta College of Art, is an Atlanta sculptor who designed the work. Patterson also has designed art work for the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport.
Charles Lindbergh Memorial/The Boy and the Man: Erected in 1985 and restored in 1999; Paul Granlund, sculptor. The monument features sculpted representations of Charles A. Lindbergh, both as a man who dreamt of flying and as the man who accomplished the dream by making the first solo trans-Atlantic airplane flight in 1927. Lindbergh's own words are engraved in the granite walkway. Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up on a farm near Little Falls, Minnesota, the son of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Sr. (1859-1924,) a lawyer, and his second wife, Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh (1876-1954.) Lindbergh's father served as a U. S. Congressman from Minnesota from 1907 to 1917 and ran unsuccessfully for United States Senate in 1916, Governor of Minnesota in 1918, member of Congress in 1920, United States Senate in 1923, and Governor of Minnesota in 1924, largely a result of public reaction to his opposition to U. S. entry into World War I. In childhood, growing up in Little Falls, Minnesota, Lindbergh showed exceptional mechanical ability. At 18, after graduating from the Little Falls, Minnesota, High School, he entered the University of Wisconsin to study engineering, but Lindbergh was more interested in the field of aviation than he was in school, and after two years, he left school to become a barnstormer. In 1924, Lindbergh enlisted in the United States Army and was trained as an Army Air Service Reserve pilot. In 1925, he graduated from the Army's flight-training school at Brooks and Kelly fields, near San Antonio, Texas, as the best pilot in his class. After Lindbergh completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis hired him to fly the mail between St. Louis and Chicago. Charles Lindbergh became an American hero when he was 25 years old after he made the first nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927, in a tiny silver monoplane called the "Spirit of St. Louis," winning the Orteig prize, offered in 1919 by a New York City hotel owner, Raymond Orteig, with $25,000 to be given to the first aviator who flew nonstop from New York to Paris. On his goodwill tour to Mexico late in 1927, he met the daughter of a J.P. Morgan & Co. partner who was ambassador to Mexico, Anne Spencer Morrow (1907-2001,) and married her in 1929. They traveled all over the world as pioneer aviator-explorers, mapping air routes for the fledgling airline industry. The Lindbergh's sought seclusion after the kidnapping and death of their first son, Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr. (1930-1932.) Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh's other children were sons Jon Lindbergh (1932- ,) Land M. Lindbergh (1937-,) and Scott Lindbergh (1942- ,) and daughters Anne Spencer Lindbergh (1940-1993,) and Reeve Lindbergh (1945- .) The Lindberghs withdrew to Europe in 1932 and returned to the U.S. just before World War II. Charles Lindbergh then joined the isolationist America First movement, becoming a leader in the effort to keep the U.S. from entering a European war. He traveled to Germany to review German air power at the request of the American military attache in Berlin and was given a medal by his Nazi hosts. Before 1941, based on a public speech in Iowa, he was considered anti-Semitic. Lindbergh was denied an Army commission during World War II, but found work as an adviser to Henry Ford, also considered to be anti-Semitic, building warplanes at Willow Run, located near Ypsilanti, Michigan, and was a civilian consultant to fighter pilots in the Pacific and flew 50 combat missions. After the war, living mostly in Connecticut, he avoided publicity until the late 1960's, when he spoke out for the conservation of natural resources. Lindbergh won the Pulitzer Prize for The Spirit of St. Louis and recieved the Guggenheim Medal in 1954. Lindbergh also championed the early rocket research of Robert Goddard, securing support for his experiments from the Guggenheim family, and chaired the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Lindbergh began an affair with Brigitte Hesshaimer (1927-2001,) a Munich hatmaker and a single parent, under the name "Careau Kent," in Germany in 1957, where Lindbergh was discussing a deal to translate one of his books into German with one of Hesshaimer's friends, and DNA evidence appears to have confirmed that he fathered three illegitimate children with her, Dyrk Hesshaimer (1958- ,) David Hesshaimer (1967- ,) and Astrid Bouteuil (1960- .) Charles Lindbergh died in Hawaii of lymphatic cancer. The name "Lindbergh" is Swedish for linden tree and mountain. The Lindbergh childhood home in Little Falls, Minnesota, is preserved and operated by the Minnesota Historical Society, adjoining a state park named for the aviator. In the early 1960's, Jon Lindbergh founded Domsea Farms, in Chile, which spearheaded the marketing of pan size farmed coho salmon. Jon Lindbergh and Land Lindbergh operated the Lindbergh Ranch on the Blackfoot River in Montana from 1965 to 1986, now known as the Resort at Paws Up. Scott Lindbergh is an animal behaviorist who lives in Brazil. Reeve Lindbergh was educated in Connecticut and at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, married Nathaniel Tripp, and is an author of two family memoirs, No More Words and Under a Wing and two novels, Moving To The Country and The Names Of The Mountains. Erik Lindbergh, a commercial pilot and certified flight instructor, the grandson of Charles and Anne Lindbergh and son of Jon Lindbergh and Barbara Robbins, is a graduate of Emery Aviation College with an Aeronautical Science degree, is a Trustee and Vice President of the X PRIZE Foundation, and retraced his grandfather's flight for its 75th anniversary, despite suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Paul Theodore Granlund (1925-2003) was born in Minneapolis, the one boy among several girls in the family. He graduated from high school in 1943 and served in the U. S. Army Air Corps in the Phillipines, Okinawa, and Korea. When the war was over, Granlund attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter and completed his degree in 1952, and continued on to do graduate work at the University of Minnesota. He received a scholarship to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he completed his M.F.A. degree in 1954, and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study sculpture in Italy, where he studied in Florence. There are 30 Granlund sculptures on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College.
War Memorial Plaques/Court of Honor: Cass Gilbert, designer. Near the rose garden and near the large granite map of the State is a curved wall that contains bronze plaques which honor Minnesota's participation in the nation's wars, from the Civil War to Vietnam. The early capitol mall plans developed by Cass Gilbert contained a war memorial at this location.
Minnesota World War II Memorial: The memorial honors the more than 300,000 Minnesotans who served in World War II. It features 12 glass panels anchored in Cold Spring, Minnesota, granite, with etchings depicting various scenes from the war. The memorial cost about $1.2 million, with service organizations having raised about $500,000 and the Legislature having approved $670,000 in bonding money. The dedication of the Minnesota World War II Memorial will take place on June 9, 2007. Charles Lingberg, the sole surviving Marine from the first Iwo Jima flag raising, and members of the "First Shot" club that fired the first shot of WWII from the USS Ward are expected to attend the dedication.
20 West 12th Street: Veterans Service Building; The building houses the Department of Veterans Affairs, which exists to assist Minnesota's 430,000 veterans and their dependents to obtain the benefits and services provided by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The department includes the Veterans Benefits Division, the War Orphans Education Program, the Veterans Educational Assistance Program, the Military Records Division, the Environmental Hazards Information Division, the Veterans Preference in Employment/Dismissal Program, the Claims Division, the Guardianship Division, and the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery. The 1945 Legislature created the State Veterans Service Building Commission and charged it with selecting a plan for a state veterans service building and "the enlargement and beautification of the State Capitol grounds." In 1945, the State Veterans Service Building Commission contracted with the landscape architecture firm of Morrell & Nichols to prepare a Capitol grounds plan, including a Veterans Service Building, which was implemented.
"The Promise of Youth" Fountain: Designed in 1952 and erected in 1958; Restored in 2000; Alonzo Hauser, sculptor. The fountain symbolizes the youth of the country who are looking for the promise of peace and features a bronze nude woman sitting in the middle of tulip petals that initially opened and closed. The statue is commonly referred to as "Millie," named for the model who posed for the piece. Hauser was selected to design the fountain and sculpture by Brooks Cavin, the architect for the adjoining Veterans Services Building. When Hauser provided a small model of the fountain design to the 11 member of the Veterans Service Building Commission in 1952, as part of the overall design of the planned Veterans Service Building, there was no objection to the fountain design, but in 1954, when Hauser had completed the sculpture, the Veterans Service Building Commission rejected the design based on concerns that the nude statute would be inappropriate under community norms. In 1957, after press coverage of the ongoing controversey, public support for the sculpture built and the Veterans Service Building Commission members were criticized for their role as amateur art critics, and, in 1958, the sculpture was added to the center of the pool. In 1963, local children were using the pool as a alternative swimming pool, legislators were objecting to the risque nature of the statue, and vandals had jammed the petal mechanism, leaving the petals permanenntly in the upright position. When the pool was left empty because of leaks in the early 1990's, it became a skateboarding venue. In 1998, the Legislature appropriated $262,000 to repair the fountain pool and statue, with the petals left partially open to reveal the statue but to be inaccessible for any climbing children. Alonzo Hauser (1909-1988) was born in Wisconsin, and studied at the University of Wisconsin, the Layton Art School in Milwaukee, and the Art Student's League in New York, apprenticed with as a stone-carver with Amaden Merli, studied sculpture with William Zorach, went to France in 1931 to work, and later returned to New York, setting up his own studio in 1939 and presenting his first one-man show at the American Contemporary Art Gallery. He founded the art department at Macalester College, taught drawing and sculpture at Carleton College, and was a visiting critic in the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota. Hauser married modern dance choreographer Nancy McKnight Hauser. Park Rapids, Minnesota, has three wood reliefs from 1941, the "Park Service Symbol," the "Indian," and the "Lumberjack in Setting." The Greendale, Wisconsin, School District has an Alonzo Hauser sculpture. "The Source," a 1965 sculpture by Alonzo Hauser, is located in Rice Park in St. Paul. Hauser sculptures also are in several Twin City churches.
Liberty Bell Replica: Cast in 1950. The replica traveled the State as part of a U. S. Savings Bond drive in the early 1950's. The replica symbolizes the Liberty Bell, a 1751 bell at Independence Hall purchased by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges, that rang out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning citizens to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and that became unringable due to an expanding crack on Washington's Birthday in 1846.
Statue "Earthbound:" Erected in 1956; Marble; John K. Daniels, sculptor. The sculpture honors those who served the country in war. John Karl Daniels was born in Norway in 1874 and moved with his family to St. Paul in 1884. He attended the Mechanics Arts High School, where he first received formal training for his craft as a sculptor. His Capitol sculptures include Knute Nelson and Leif Erickson on the grounds as well as General Sanborn and Colonel Wilkins in the rotunda. "Earthbound" was sculpted when Daniels was 80 years old. His studio was in a former icehouse located behind the old stone Van Dusen mansion at 1900 LaSalle Avenue in Minneapolis. [See note on John K. Daniels for 187 Summit Avenue, across from 186 Summit Avenue.] [See note for the Van Dusen Center for 1900 LaSalle Avenue.]
Korean War Veterans Memorial: The monument was erected in 1998; Art Norby, sculptor, and Bob Kost and Dean Olson, landscape architects. The monument includes a curved 18 foot high bronze column with two 15 foot bas reliefs and is combined with an eight foot tall cast bronze infantry man. The larger-than-life soldier is searching for his lost unit and comrades and is intended to represent the missing in action from the Korean War, officially a United Nations police action. Engraved accompanying paving stones provide a chronological account of the war and small columns list the names of the 700 Minnesotans who died during the war. Art Norby, a resident of Afton, Minnesota, became a sculptor at age 38 after trying a wide variety of occupations. His home and studio in Afton, Minnesota, a former Swedish Methodist Church, built in 1886, burned in 1998, but firefighters were able to save a few pieces of art, including some bronze sculptures which were not melted by the heat of the fire. His commissioned sculptures include "Ironworker," located at St. Paul; "Look -- Grandpa!," located at Glendale, Arizona; "News Break," located at Glendale, Arizona; "Senator Ernest McFarland," located at Mesa, Arizona; "Citrus Grower," located at Mesa, Arizona; "Farmer," located at Mesa, Arizona; "Builder," located at Mesa, Arizona; "The Rescuers," located at Peoria, Arizona; "Leap Frog," located at Minneapolis; Sculpture Garden, located at Sun City West, Arizona; "Summer Delight," located at Paradise Valley, Arizona; "First Pitch," located at Paradise Valley, Arizona; "Darcy," located at Paradise Valley, Arizona; "Candice," located at Hudson, Wisconsin; "Reach For A Star," located at Sun City, Arizona; "Sharon and Tyler," located at Sun City, Arizona; "Lana," located at Benson, Minnesota; "Tyler and Jessica," located at Mound, Minnesota; "Flying," located at North Oaks, Minnesota; "Forte," located at Woodbury, Minnesota; "Catherine Ford Monument," located at Trenton, New Jersey; "Larry Buehler Memorial Monument," located at Windom, Minnesota; "Milt Lindbach," located at Granite Falls, Minnesota; "Amy," located at Benson, Minnesota; "Elizabeth," located at Benson, Minnesota; "Bronze Swan," located at Seattle, Washington; "The Wedding," located at Bainbridge Island, Washington; "Bud," located at Issaquah, Washington; "Chiron," located at Edmonds, Washington; "Golden Swan," located at Minneapolis; "Ingrid II," located at Minneapolis; "The Trophy Hunter," located at Spicer, Minnesota; "Portrait of Walter Mondale," located at Willmar, Minnesota; "Swan," located at Burnsville, Minnesota; "Ringneck," located at Wilier, Minnesota; "Big River Dago," located at St. Cloud, Minnesota; "Big River Ruffy," located at St. Cloud, Minnesota; "Lady," located at St. Cloud, Minnesota; "Rocs," located at St. Cloud, Minnesota; "Rita," located at Minneapolis; "Nancy," located at Minneapolis; "Memories," located at Fergus Falls, Minnesota; and "Up From the Prairie," located at New London, Minnesota.
The Peace Officers Memorial: The monument was erected in 1995; Fred Richter, designer. The memorial is dedicated to police officers who were killed in the line of duty. The monument was originally at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and was moved to this site.
The Woman's Suffrage Memorial Garden/"Garden of Time: Landscape of Change:" The monument was erected in 1999; designed by Berkeley, California-based architects of Loom Studio (Ralph Nelson, Raveevarn Choksombatchai, and Martha McQuade.) Sage and wildflowers grace the rolling landscape of the monument, which is shaped to resemble the lay of the land in Minnesota after the recession of the last major glacier. In 1920, the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote. The memorial is the only tribute on the Capitol's grounds that honors any woman and consists of a garden with cast-aluminum signs that look like metallic newspaper pages, with each one relating to events on certain key national and local dates in the 72-year march to women's suffrage, and a trellis with the names of 25 Minnesota women who led the movement here during the 75 year campaign: Harriet Bishop (St. Paul's first school teacher,) Fanny Fligelman Brin, Myrtle Cain, Mary Jackman Colburn, Sarah Tarleton Colvin, Gratia Countryman, Nellie Griswold Francis, Elizabeth Hunt Harrison, Ethel Edgerton Hurd, Nanny Mattson Jaeger, Bertha Berglin Moller, Julia Bullard Nelson, Emily Gilman Noyes, Anna Dickie Olesen, Mabeth Hurd Paige, Martha Rogers Ripley, Maria Sanford, Josephine Schain, Josephine Sarles Simpson, Sarah Burger Stearns, Maud Conkey Stockwell, Jane Grey Swisshelm (newspaper editor from St. Cloud, Minnesota, and the reputed "mother" of the Republican Party in Minnesota,) Clara Hampson Ueland (the last president of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association and the first president the state's League of Women Voters,) Marguerite Wells, and Alice Ames Winter. Because it has come to represent political and economic power in American, the designers of the monument intentionally avoided classicism. The monument suggests timelessness and a resistance to change. The memorial consists of three parts, a shaded landscape of eastern woodland plants under an existing area of trees, a sunny landscape of prairie grasses in amoeba-shaped beds stretching across an undulated lawn, and an open-woven, stainless-steel trellis and walkway between the two fields. Each vertical post represents a year in the movement and each horizontal bar represents the lifetime of one of 25 women. The trellis climbs toward the capital building and the time of the past directly merges with the time of the present. Ravee/Raveevarn Choksombatchai was born in Bangkok, Thailand, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of California-Berkeley, after having received a B.Arch. from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, a M.L.Arch. from Harvard University, and a M.Arch. from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, was a Cass Gilbert Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota in 1993, and is an advisor for Public Art Review journal. Ralph Kirk Nelson holds a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University, has been a visiting design critic at University of California-Berkeley, Harvard University, Cranbrook Academy of Arts, UCLA, California College of Arts and Crafts, Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Kentucky at Lexington, and was a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky at Lexington in 1999, a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati in 1998, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota from 1993-1997.
Christopher Columbus Memorial: Statue erected in 1931; Carlo/Charles Brioschi, sculptor. The statue was commissioned by an association of Minnesota Italian Americans. The Christopher Columbus monument was done in collaboration with St. Paul architect Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., and the Cold Spring Granite Company of Cold Spring, Minnesota. Carlo Brioschi (1879-1941,) Amerigo Brioschi, and L. R. Kirchner were associated with the St. Paul firm of Brioschi-Minuti. Carlo Brioschi (1879-1941) was one of the Twin Cities' most important early sculptors. Carlo/Carl/Charles Brioschi was born in Italy and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, Milan, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1899 with Adolph Minuti. The two sculptors formed an architectural sculpture business in New York, where they worked on projects such as Grand Central Station, then moved to St. Paul in 1909 and established the Brioschi-Minuti Company, an architectural sculpture and ornamental plaster company that was one of the first companies of its type to locate in the Twin Cities. Amerigo Brioschi eventually joined his father in the firm. The Brioschi-Minuti Company specialized in sculptures, stone carving, terra cotta, and other ornamentation for building interiors and exteriors. They provided much of the early architectural ornamentation for leading Twin Cities buildings, and worked with the region's foremost architects and worked nationwide. It designed and executed ornamental work for many churches including the St. Paul Cathedral, often working with the cathedral's architect, Emmanuel Masqueray. Brioschi-Minuti worked with Cass Gilbert and for the notable New York firm of Stanford White, for whom Brioschi-Minuti remodeled interior architectural sculptures in the White House during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt. Brioschi-Minuti's work in Minnesota includes buildings at the University of Minnesota such as Northrop Auditorium and the Law Building, the Foshay Tower, the State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis, the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, the St. Paul Auditorium, the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Hamline University in St. Paul, the St. Paul Athletic Club, the Hotel St. Paul, and St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester. The Olson Memorial Statue on Trunk Highway 55 in Minneapolis, erected in 1940, was Carlo Brioschi's last major commission. The statue of Christopher Columbus by Carlo Brioschi was one of two Brioschi statues commissioned for the State Capitol grounds and was dedicated on Columbus Day in 1931. It had been commissioned by Minnesota Italian-Americans and its dedication was witnessed by over 25,000 people. The Brioschi-Minuti Company was also responsible for the interiors of the Basilica of St. Mary and the State Theater, Dowling Hall at the Gilette Children's Hospital, and other important artistic decoration in the Midwest during the 1910's-1940's, including decorative pieces for St. Thomas College and Hamline University, St. Paul, and the St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota. The Brioschi-Minuti Company of St. Paul modeled the twelve large medallions mounted on the piers of the Robert Street Bridge, built in 1926. Architect Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., utilized the Brioschi-Minuti Company at various times between 1920 and 1935 and even designed the Brioschi mausoleum. Charles Brioschi was the sculptor for the Columbus Monument in Grant Park in Chicago, completed in 1932 and designed by C. H. Johnston, architect. The Brioschi-Minuti Company also was retained in 1913 to create statuary for St. Benedict's Academy in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The Brioschi-Minuti Company, an architectural sculpture and ornamental plaster studio, was located at 908-910 University Avenue in St. Paul immediately after World War I. The successor to the Brioschi-Minuti Company is Minuti-Ogle Company, Inc., of Oakdale, Minnesota. Amerigo J. Brioschi (1908-1977) operated the Brioschi Studio after his father's death in 1941. Amerigo J. Brioschi had apprenticed with his father and later studied terra cotta, sculpture, and ornamental design with Angelo Ricci in New York. In 1959, Brioschi Studios merged with two other architectural sculpture firms, the St. Paul Statuary Company, founded in 1905, and Carlquist & Son, founded in 1902, and the new company was known as the St. Paul Statuary Company, with Amerigo Brioschi serving as its first president and remainig president when the firm rehabilitated the interior of the Cathedral of St. Paul in 1977. In addition to the statue at the Minnesota Capitol, there are 160 monuments to Chritopher Columbus in the United States: a monument at Baltimore, Maryland, in Herring Run Park, built in 1792; a bust at Washington, D.C., in the White House, by Giuseppe Ceracchi, completed in 1817; a relief at Washington, D.C., in the Capitol Rotunda, by Antonio Capellano & Enrico Causici, completed in 1825-1827; a statue at Washington, D.C., in Capitol storage, by Luigi Persico, by 1836; a statue at Boston, Massachusetts, in Louisburg Square, completed in 1849; a bust at Saint Louis, Missouri, in the Mercantile Library, by J. Gott, completed about 1855; a sculpture at Washington, D.C., on the Capitol Doors, by Randolph Rogers, completed in 1860; a statue at New York, N.Y., in the borough of Brooklyn, by Emma Stebbins, completed in 1867; a statue at Boston, Massachusetts, at a Museum, by Giulio Monteverde, completed in 1870; a statue at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Marconi Square, by the Vitti brothers, completed in 1876; a Stained Glass Window at Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Henry George Holiday, completed in 1880; a statue at Sacramento, California, by Larkin Goldsmith Mead, completed in 1883; a statue at Saint Louis, Missouri, by Ferdinand von Müller, completed in 1886; a statue at Baltimore, Maryland, in Druid Hill Park, by Albert Weinert after Achille Canessa, completed in 1892; a statue at Chicago, Illinois, at the Lakefront, by Howard Kretschmar, completed in 1892; a statue at Chicago, Illinois, at the Drake Drinking Fountain, by R. H. Park, completed in 1892; a statue at New Haven, Connecticut, in Wooster Square, completed in 1892; a statue at New York, N.Y., in Columbus Circle, by Gaetano Russo, completed in 1892; a statue at Phillipsburg, New Jersey, by Alphons Pelzer, completed in 1892; a statue at Revere, Massachusetts, by Alois G. Buyens, completed in 1892; a statue at Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alberto Cottini, completed in 1892; a statue at Willimantic, Connecticut, completed in 1892; a monument at Columbus, Ohio, in the State House, by Alphons Pelzer, completed between 1892 and 1932; a statue at Newport News, Virginia, by Achille Canessa, completed about 1892; a statue at Chicago, Illinois, at Fire Station 51, completed in 1893; a statue at Chicago, Illinois, at Columbus Plaza, by Moses Ezekiel, completed in 1893 and restored by Stephen Roman in 1966; a statue at Providence, Rhode Island, by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, completed in 1893; a statue at New York, N. Y., in Central Park, by Jeronimo Suñol, completed in 1894; a statue at Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress, by Paul Wayland Bartlett, completed in 1897; a statue at Peoria, Illinois, by Alphons Pelzer, completed in 1902; a bust at Pueblo, Colorado, by Pietro Piai, completed in 1905; a statue at New York, N. Y., at the Customs House, by Augustus Lukeman, completed in 1907; a statue at Great Falls, Montana, completed in 1908; a statue at Buffalo, N. Y., completed about 1908; a bust at Detroit, Michigan, by Augusto Rivalta, completed in 1910; a statue at New York, N. Y., at the Christopher Columbus High School, by Giulio Monteverde, completed about 1910; a statue at Walla Walla, Washington, by Roberts Monument Co. of Walla Walla, completed in 1911; a building in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, by Theodore Davis Boal, completed in 1912; a statue at Washington, D.C., at Union Station, by Lorado Z. Taft (statue) and Daniel Burnham (fountain), completed in 1912; a bust at Yonkers, N. Y., completed in 1913; a statue at White Plains, N.Y., completed in 1915; a statue at Columbia, Louisiana, by John Schepis, completed in 1916; a bust at Indianapolis, Indiana, by Enrico Vittori, completed in 1920; a statue at Dickeyville, Wisconsin, by Father Mathias Wernerus, completed between 1920 and 1930; a bust at New York, N. Y., at the borough of Bronx, by Attilio Piccirilli, completed in 1925; a statue at Reading, Pennsylvania, by Vincenzo Miserendino, completed in 1925; a statue at Hartford, Connecticut, by Vincenzo Miserendino, completed in 1926; a statue at Richmond, Virginia, by Ferruccio Legnaioli, completed in 1927; a statue at New London, Connecticut, completed in 1928; a statue at Easton, Pennsylvania, by Giuseppe Donato, completed in 1930; a statue at Syracuse, N. Y., by Lorenzo V. Baldi, completed in 1932; a statue at Chicago, Illinois, at Grant Park, by Carlo Brioschi, completed in 1933; a statue at New York, N. Y., in the borough of Queens, by A. Racioppi, completed in 1936; a statue at Hoboken, New Jersey, by M. Giacomantonio, completed in 1937; a bust at Akron, Ohio, by Biagio Iuliano, completed in 1938; a bust at Des Moines, Iowa, completed in 1938; a bust at Lackawanna, New York, by O'Donnell, completed in 1940; a monument at Watertown, Massachusetts, completed in 1940; a statue at Pittston City, Pennsylvania, completed about 1948; a statue at Westerly, Rhode Island, by Charles H. Pizzano, completed in 1949; a statue at Harrison, New York, completed in 1949 and revised in 1992; a statue at Jersey City, New Jersey, in Journal Square, completed in 1950; a statue at Port Chester, New York, completed in 1950; a statue at Columbus, Ohio, at Columbus State University, by Alfred Solani, completed in 1950 and revise in 1986; a relief at Washington, D.C., at the National Shrine, completed in 1950's; a bust at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, by Giuseppe Donato, completed in 1952; a statue at Buffalo, New York, at Columbus Park, completed in 1952; a statue at Marshfield, Wisconsin, completed in 1952; a statue at Miami, Florida, by Vittorio de Colbertaldo, completed in 1952 and revised in 1992; a statue at Santa Barbara, California, at Junipero Serra Hall, completed about 1952; a statue at Newport, Rhode Island, completed in 1953; a bust at Paterson, Newq Jersey, by Gaetano Federici, completed in 1953; a statue at Chester, Pennsylvania, by Antonio Venditti, completed in 1955; a monument at Columbus, Ohio, at the City Hall, by Eduardo Alfieri, completed in 1955; a statue at San Francisco, California, by Vittorio Colbertaldo, completed in 1957; a statue at Wilmington, Delaware, by E. Giaroli, completed in 1957; a statue at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by Frank Vittor, completed in 1958; a statue at San Jose, California, by Delfo Guidi, completed in 1958; a statue at Key West, Florida, completed in 1960; a statue at Stamford, Connecticut, completed in 1964; a statue at Bridgeport, Connecticut, by Clemente Spampinato, completed in 1965; a statue including Queen Isabella at Washington, D.C., in the Organization of American States building, by José Luis Sanchez, completed in 1966; a bas relief at Garfield, New Jersey, in Columbus Park, completed in 1967; a bust at Kearny, New Jersey, by M. Salvemini, completed in 1967; a sculpture at Denver, Colorado, by William F. Joseph, completed in 1970; a bust at Lyndhurst, New Jersey, by August Kurek, completed in 1970; a statue at Huntington, New York, by Clemente Spampinato, completed in 1970, reworked in 1986, and reworked in 1995; a statue at Newark, New Jersey, on Bloomfield Avenue, by Giuliano Cecchinelli and Buttura & Sons of Barre, Vermont, completed in 1972; at Los Angeles, California, by Francesco Pedrotti, completed in 1973; a bust at Hackensack, completed in 1976; a plaza at New Orleans, Louisiana, completed in 1976 and reworked in 2001; a statue at Seattle, Washington, by Douglas Bennet, completed in 1978; a statue at Worcester, Massacusetts, by Aldo W. Gatti, completed in 1978; a statue at Boston, Massacusetts, in Christopher Columbus Park, by Andrew L. Mazzola, completed in 1979; a bust at Union City, New Jersey, by Archimedes Giacomantonio, completed in 1979; a relief at Torrington, Connecticut, completed in 1980; a statue at Lodi, New Jersey, completed in 1982; a statue at Baltimore, Maryland, at the Inner Harbor, completed in 1984; a statue at Waterbury, Connecticut, by Stanislaw Lutostanski, completed in 1984; a plaque at Ocean City, Maryland, completed in 1985; a statue at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by Enzo Gallo, completed in 1987; a statue at Cleveland, Ohio, by Louis Regalbuto, completed in 1988; a statue at Pennsauken, New Jersey, by Frank F. Stella, completed in 1988; a bust at York, Pennsylvania, by Jerry T. Williams, completed around 1990; a statue at Corpus Christi, Texas, by Robert Garcia, Jr., completed in 1991; a monument at Lindenhurst, New York, completed in 1991; a monument at Saginaw, Michigan, completed in 1991; a statue at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Franco Alessandrini, completed in 1992; a monument at Boonton, New Jersey, completed in 1992; a bust at Bristol, Pennsylvania, by Joseph E. Pavone and Angelo Di Renzo, completed in 1992; a sculpture at Bristol, Rhode Island, by Leonard Shartle, completed in 1992; a monument at Cary, North Carolina, completed in 1992; an opening plaque at a park at Columbus, Georgia, at the Riverwalk, by Linda & Larry Cannon, completed in 1992; a monument at Columbus, Nebraska, by Craig Dunham, completed in 1992; a statue at Columbus, Wisconsin, completed in 1992; a tree and a plaque at Ewing Township, New Jersey, completed in 1992; a bust at Hammonton, New Jersey, by Ken Drake, completed in 1992; a monument at Haverhill, Massachusetts, completed in 1992; a plaque at Hillside, New Jersey, completed in 1992; a statue at Houston, Texas, completed in 1992; a mural at Indianapolis, Indiana, completed in 1992; a statue at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, completed in 1992; a statue at Malibu, California, by Ronald Bracci, completed in 1992; a relief at Meriden, Connecticut, completed in 1992; a monument at Monmouth City, New Jersey, by Franco Minervini, completed in 1992; a flagpole at Moorhead, Minnesota, completed in 1992; a statue at Mount Kisco, New York, completed in 1992; a statue at Newburgh, New York, completed in 1992; a monument at Norristown, Pennsylvania, completed in 1992; a bust at North Arlington, New Jersey, by André Iwanczyk, completed in 1992; a monument at Norwich, Connecticut, completed in 1992; a plaque at Nutley, New Jersey, Columbus Day Monument, completed in 1992; a monument at Passaic, New Jersey, completed in 1992; a sculpture at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at Penn's Landing, by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., completed in 1992; a monument at Phoenix, Arizona, by George-Ann Tognoni, completed in 1992; a monument at Racine, Wisconsin, completed in 1992; an obelisk at Stamford, Connecticut, completed in 1992; a base at Tucson, Arizona, completed in 1992; a building at University Park, Illinois, by Virginio L. Piucci, designer, and Wade Abels, architect, completed in 1992; a relief at Valley Stream, New York, by the North Barre Granite Company, completed in 1992; a monument at Waltham, Massachusetts, by Angelo Urso, completed in 1992; a statue at Washington, D.C., in Holy Rosary Church, by Carlo Nicoli, completed in 1992; a monument at West Orange, New Jersey, completed in 1992; a statue at Sarasota, Florida, completed in 1992; a statue at Garfield, New Jersey, at Dahnert Lake, by Gianni Aricò, completed in 1992 and renovated in 1998; a statue at Birmingham, Alabama, completed in 1992; a bust at Pensacola, Florida, completed in 1992; a statue at Columbus, Georgia, by Richard Beyer and Mark Reavis, completed in 1993; a bust at Milford, Connecticut, completed in 1993; a bust at Port Charlotte, Florida, completed in 1993; a monument at Rockford, Illinois, completed in 1994; a statue at Mayfield Heights, Ohio, by Louis Regalbuto, completed in 1996; a statue at Middletown, Connecticut, by Jerry T. Williams, completed in 1996; a sculpture at Jersey City, New Jersey, in Liberty State Park, by Gino Giannetti, completed in 1998; a sculpture at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, by Lenox Brown, designer, and Gheorghi Filin, sculptor, completed in 1998; a statue at Montville, New Jersey, completed in 1999; a mural at Niagara Falls, New York, completed in 2000; a bust at Nutley, New Jersey, in the Columbus Monument, by André Iwanczyk, completed in 2000; a statue at New Haven, Connecticut, in the Knights of Columbus Museum, by Stanley Bleifeld of Weston, Connecticut, completed in 2001; and a statue at New Rochelle, New York, completed in 2001.
25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard/Minnesota Judicial Center/Judicial Plaza: Original building constructed in 1917; addition erected in 1995; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., original architect; F. Michael Wong, renovation architect. F. Michael Wong, president and CEO of Space Management Consultants, Inc., president of the F. Michael Wong Foundation, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA,) planned and designed the Minnesota Judicial Building as a result of an architectural competition. Wong also designed the Alabama Judicial Building and the Pinellas, Florida, County Criminal Courts Complex. The judicial building incorporated the prior Minnesota Historical Society building into the ultimate structure. The Judicial Center houses the State Appellate and Supreme Court courtrooms, judges’ offices, the offices of the State Court Administration and Judicial Boards, and the Workers Compensation and Tax Court hearing rooms. Public spaces are located in the older building and private spaces in the new addition. The Minnesota Historical Society moved to the Minnesota History Center, located at 160 John Ireland Boulevard.
Cass Gilbert Memorial Overlook: The Cass Gilbert Park is preserved as open space, as an overlook of the downtown area, and as a visual terminus to Robert Street. [See note on Gilbert for 318 Summit Avenue.]
Knute Nelson Memorial: Erected in 1928; Restored in 1999; John K. Daniels, sculptor. The pedestal for the statue includes a representation of Knute Nelson as a child with his mother and as a Civil War soldier. Knute Nelson (1843-1923) was born in Evanger, Voss/Vosse Elven, Norway, immigrated to the United States in 1849 with his mother, settled in Chicago, and then moved to Wisconsin. Nelson attended Albion College, with a stint in between his studies for service in the Civil War as a private and noncommissioned officer with the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry/Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry, and was wounded and taken prisoner at Port Hudson, Louisiana, in 1863. Nelson was admitted to the bar in 1867, commenced the practice of law in Cambridge, Wisconsin, and married Nicolina/Nicoline Jacobson. Nelson became a member of the Wisconsin legislative assembly, serving from 1868 to 1869, then moved to Alexandria, Douglas County, Minnesota, in 1871 and was county attorney from 1872 to 1874. Nelson's legal activities related to land, including homestead entries, pre-emption rights, mortgage foreclosures, claim jumping, and conflicts between settlers and railroad companies. Nelson also was a collection agent for farm equipment firms. Nelson then became a member of the Minnesota State Senate from 1874 to 1878, a Republican presidential elector in 1880, a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota from 1882 to 1893, and a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Fifth District from 1883 to 1889. The 1882 election was a fierce fight, between Charles F. Kindred and Nelson, earning the Fifth Congressional District the reputation as "the bloody Fifth," in which the local (eastern North Dakota) Norwegian-language newspapers, the Red River Posten in Fargo, North Dakota, and the Nordstjernen in Fargo, North Dakota, were involved. For most of their years of publication, the newspapers were owned by conservative groups outside the Norwegian community, were independent Republican organs, and spoke for the liberal, progressive views of the majority of the Norwegians, but the Red River Posten was purchased by Major Alanson Edwards, publisher of the conservative Argus in Fargo, North Dakota, and the Nordstjernen became owned by a corporation representing conservative Republicanism, and both became spokesmen for Twin City interests that regarded the region as a colony and were identified with the powerful political machine created by Alexander McKenzie. Nelson was elected the governor of Minnesota in 1892 and was reelected in 1894. He resigned the governorship and was elected by the Minnesota Legislature to the U. S. Senate in 1895, being the first person born in Norway to attain that post. Nelson was reelected in 1901, 1907, 1913, and 1918 and was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Minnesota in 1904. Parting company with Republicans, he favored antitrust legislation, the creation of an income-tax, and U. S. membership in the League of Nations and he played a major role in the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor. In Congress, Nelson championed causes such as conservation, a federal income tax, and pure food and drug legislation. Nelson was chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and the senate committee on public lands, and was active on the commerce and Indian affairs committees. His most notable legislative measures included the Nelson Bankruptcy Act, in 1898, and the act creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, in 1902, and he was also active in the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Nelson was an enemy of the Non-Partisan League in the Northwest, was an opponent of the soldier bonus, although he was one of the two civil war veterans still in the Senate, was a supporter of the Dyer anti-lynching bill, and was an advocate of a child labor amendment. A 1905 law, known as the Nelson act for Senator Knute Nelson, further strengthened separate schools in Alaska by creating the Alaska Fund, which was generated by license fees collected outside of incorporated towns and used primarily for road construction, with 25 percent designated for the establishment and maintenance of schools for Indian and Eskimo children. After 1905, when proposed legislation by Wisconsin's Robert M. LaFollette to conserve coal deposits on Indian land failed, Nelson submitted a scaled-down version of the bill to Congress with the support of Theodore Roosevelt. Knute Nelson unwittingly assisted in causing the demise of the White Earth, Minnesota, Indian Reservation by sponsoring a federal act that allowed for the division of lands on the White Earth Ojibwe reservation, and subsequently the sale of those lands by Ojibwe/Chippewa Indians deemed to be “mixed bloods,” which set off a tidal wave of land sales, frequently for money simply to buy liquor. Subsequently, George Welsh, Commissioner of immigration, of the Minnesota State Board of Immigration, wrote to Senator Knute Nelson asking that he try to help resolve a problem of disputed or questionable titles to Chippewa (Ojibway) Indian lands in Becker and Mahnomen counties. In 1919, during the "Red Scare" that followed the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, when the Seattle, Washington, Central Labor Council announced that a general strike in support of the shipyard workers and the city of Seattle was gripped by mass hysteria, Nelson denounced unionism and declared that the Seattle strike posed a greater danger than strikes during the war. The oldest man in the Senate in 1923, Nelson died on a train near Timonium, Maryland, while en route to his home. Nelson was known as the "Grand Old Man of Minnesota." Nelson claimed a homestead in Alexandria, Minnesota, in 1871, built a small farm house on the property in 1874, then made additions to the house, adding a formal living room and large bedroom in 1900, and completed the structure in 1915 with the addition of a dining room and a kitchen on the main floor and four more bedrooms on the second story. Knute Nelson's will provided that following the death of his daughter, Ida Nelson, the house should be given to the Norwegian Lutheran Church as a home for the aged, and it served in that capacity for 38 years. In 1978, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1939, the Norwegian tanker Knute Nelson picked up the survivors of the passenger ship Athenia, torpedoed by a German submarine, and landed them at an Irish port, including James Alexander "Goody" Goodson (1921- ,) who later became an Royal Canadian Air Force/Royal Air Force/United States Army Air Force pilot in World War II, an ace, credited with the destruction of 30 German planes, and a leading "strafer" of enemy air fields in the European theatre. The Minnesota Historical Society has the death mask of Minnesota Governor Knute Nelson, made of plaster of Paris and painted dark brown. Knute Nelson's desk, a flat top mahogany Eastlake style double pedestal desk, was the last gubernatorial desk used in the old State Capitol before 1905 and the first to be used in the new Minnesota State Capitol Building after 1905 and is now owned by the Minnesota Historical Society.
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard: <;a href"http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~dbahle/Port/images/TwinCities5.jpg">Minnesota State Capitol/Quadriga. Built in 1905; steel frame and brick with an exterior of Georgia marble, St. Cloud granite, Mankato limestone, and sandstone; Cass Gilbert, architect; Quadriga/"Progress of the State" Statue erected in 1906; gold-leafed covered copper and steel; Daniel Chester French and Edward Potter, sculptors. The 1905 capitol is the fourth building to serve as the seat of government for the Minnesota Territory and then the State. The 1849 temporary capitol was a log hotel, the Merchants Hotel, located in St. Paul. The first capitol building, designed by N. C. Prentiss for a fee of $50 and built for $31,000 by Joseph Daniel, was finished in 1854, was remodeled in 1866, and was remodeled again in 1872. The first capitol building was destroyed by a fire that broke out during a legislative session in 1881, when the Market House again became the temporary capitol building. In 1882, the second capitol building, designed by local architect Leroy Buffington, was finished, but that building was considered to be too small even before it opened for business. An 1893 commission formed for the purpose of selecting a new capitol design and chaired by Channing Seabury conducted two design competitions and eventually selected Cass Gilbert, then a St. Paul-based architect, to design the current capitol building, his first major commission. While Gilbert was an accomplished professional architect who designed a number of houses along Summit Avenue, his friendship with Channing Seabury did not hurt his chances of being selected from the five finalists in the design competition. The building was built atop Wabasha Hill rather than in downtown St. Paul. Alexander Ramsey laid the cornerstone for the building in 1898. The building cost $4.5 million to build, double original estimates, and took nine years to construct. The use of marble from Georgia was controversial for a State that sent more than 23,000 young men, a considerable percentage of the population of the five year old state, to fight against Georgia in the Civil War. The remaining veterans of the First Minnesota Regiment, famed for their sacrifice during the second day at the Civil War battle of Gettysburg, including Colonel William Colvill, its commanding officer at Gettysburg, participated in the opening dedication of the building in 1905. The importation of Georgia marble also prompted the migration to Minnesota of numerous African-American stone cutters and stone workers, adding to the very modest minority population of the Twin Cities and of the state. The second capitol building was kept as a storage facility after 1905 and was subsequently razed in 1937-1938. The first floor rotunda features a glass and brass star in the floor that is a symbol of the North Star State. The rotunda also features a six foot high crystal chandelier which is only infrequently lowered to change light bulbs. The red stone that surrounds the upper portion of the rotunda is Minnesota pipestone. The rotunda contains glass display cases housing the battle flags which were carried by Minnesota units in the Civil War and in the Spanish-American War. The Governor's Reception Room has white oak woodwork and gold leaf-covered plaster ornaments. The reception room center table was designed by Cass Gilbert, is hand carved, and was damaged by some protestors during the 1980's central Minnesota powerline controversy. The reception room also has six large historical paintings, including a painting of Father Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony, a painting of the signing of the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, and a painting of the Civil War Battle of Nashville. The Senate chamber is done in French Fleur de Peche Marble, mixed in with colors of ivory, blue, and gold. Gilbert commissioned Elmer E. Garnsey (1862-1946) and Edwin Howland Blashfield (1848-1936) to decorate the chamber and hired Arthur Willett (1868- ) to paint four medallions in each corner, each for one of the four virtues (Equality, Justice, Freedom, and Courage.) Edwin Blashfield created the murals that form the centerpiece of the chamber, including "Civilizers Led to the Source of the Mississippi" and "Minnesota, the Granary of the World." Garnsey and Blashfield also decorated the House chamber. In 1938, Italian immigrant Carlo Brioschi and his son created the sculpture, "Minnesota-Spirit of Government," that dominates the chamber. John LaFarge was the artist of the murals in the Supreme Court Ceremonial Chamber, which are "The Moral and Divine Law," "The Recording of Precedents," "The Relation of the Individual," and "The Adjustment of Conflicting Interests." The basement of the building features the Rathskeller cafeteria, which was designed by Gilbert and Elmer E. Garnsey to resemble a German eating hall. The total cost of the building was $4.5 million. The greatest length of the building is 434 feet, its greatest width is 229 feet, and its height from ground to the top of the dome is 223 feet. The dome is actually two domes, which are an outer one made of marble and in inner one made of brick and sandstone. The exterior dome diameter is 89 feet and the interior dome diameter is 60 feet. The building also sports a self supporting cantilevered ovoid/circular stairway from the ground floor to the third floor. Having a flat roof in a cold, Midwestern state was not Gilbert's most successful venture and since the beginning, the capitol has had terrible problems with a leaking roof. The capitol roof recently has been redone after having decades of leaking problems. The ball on the top of the dome is copper covered with gold leaf. The capitol does not have the landscaping that Gilbert would have preferred. Gilbert's original plans called for tree-lined grand boulevards and large courtyards to surround the capitol building, resembling a European city in its flavor, but the design had to yield to the existence of a residential community that predated the development of the capitol complex. The capitol mall was built in the 1950's and 1960's in a fan shape, allowing the capitol to finally have a front yard that gives the building more visual prestige. The four horses of the Quadriga represent the power of nature (i. e. earth, wind, fire and water.) The women symbolize civilization and the man standing on the chariot represents prosperity. Daniel Chester French also designed six statues for the outer facade, just below the Quadriga, entitled Bounty, Courage, Integrity, Prudence, Truth, and Wisdom. The Quadriga was regilded in 1949 and again in 1979. From 1994-1995, the Quadriga was removed and shipped to Connecticut for complete restoration and regilding. The supports/brackets that hold the Quadriga on the capitol building were fabricated by the Reliance Iron Works of St. Paul, which was owned by Joseph Rothwell. Elmer E. Garnsey worked as an assistant to architect Edward Pearce Casey and as a decorator for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Garnsey also was the decoration designer for the library at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1901, designed the decoration of a portion of the Boston Public Library in 1896, decorated the General Assembly chamber and the Governor's Conference Room of the Wisconsin State Capitol, and designed the decoration scheme for the Iowa Capitol rotunda. Garnsey also painted the murals in the Entrance Lobby and Collector's Suite at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City, designed by Cass Gilbert. Edwin Howland Blashfield was an 1869 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he trained as an engineer, but became a notable artist. Blashfield painted murals at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1923 and 1930, at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral/Church of the Saviour, at the Library of Congress, and at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Blashfield also designed the Evangeline Blashfield Memorial Fountain in New York City in 1919. Sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, and was reared in Cambridge and Concord, Massachusetts, where he was embraced by members of the Transcendentalist community, including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Author Louisa May Alcott encouraged him to pursue a career as an artist and artists May Alcott and Samuel Ward were his early teachers. French studied in Boston and New York prior to receiving his first commission for the 1875 statue, "The Minute Man" on the Green in Concord, Massachusetts, to commemorate the battle of Lexington and Concord. Daniel Chester French also designed the statue of the seated Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and statues at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City. Other sculptures by French include "General Lewis Cass," executed for the U. S. Capitol in 1888, "Alma Mater" at Columbia University, an 1889 statue of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and his first pupil, Alice Cogswell, "The Angel of Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor," created for Boston's Forest Hills Cemetery, "John Harvard," located at Harvard University, "Death and the Young Sculptor," at the Milmore Memorial (Boston,) "Mourning Victory," at the Melvin Memorial (Concord, Massachusetts) and a standing "Abraham Lincoln" at the west entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol. French grumbled over the amount of the payment for the five ton Quadriga, $37,600, and about the timelines for its delivery. For his 1906 Minnesota Quadriga, French reused the design he had prepared for a sculpture for the World's Columbian Exhibition at Chicago in 1893. The 1893 Columbus Quadriga sat upon the Peristyle and featured a 14-foot high Christopher Columbus standing in a four horse chariot whose horses were lead by women and had mounted heralds accompanying it on each side. French executed equestrian statues of "General Grant" (Philadelphia,) "General Washington" (Paris,) and "General Joseph Hooker" (Boston,) in collaboration with Edward C. Potter. Channing Seabury ( -1910) was the son of John Seabury and Caroline Plimpton Seabury, was born at Southbridge, Massachusetts, initially worked as an errand boy in New York, moved to St. Paul to escape the "family disease" of tuberculosis which had claimed eight of his family, worked for J. C. and H. C. Burbank & Company, a wholesale clothing business that later was acquired by Amherst H. Wilder, during the Civil War, served as treasurer of the Northwestern Union Packet Company in St. Paul from 1867 to 1872, spent ten years with C. Gotzian & Company, a wholesale boot and shoe manufacturer, entered the wholesale grocery business in 1882, became a partner in Maxfield, Seabury & Company, which became known as Seabury & Son in 1892, represented St. Paul in the Legislature, operated a grocery store, and was associated with Amherst H. Wilder and Auguste Larpenteur in business ventures in the mid-1860's. Seabury was married twice, to Frances W. Cruft in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1870, and after his first wife's death, to Elizabeth P. Austin, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1883. Channing Seabury had three sons, John Seabury, Gerald Seabury, and Paul Seabury, and one daughter, Edith/Edyth Seabury Nye. Elizabeth Seabury was host to the visiting artists involved in decorating the Capitol in 1904-1905 and she helped select the quotations inscribed throughout the Capitol. Channing Seabury, chairman of the Capitol Commission, broke ground for the new Capitol building in 1896. Channing Seabury died in Ramsey County. Elizabeth Austin Seabury ( -1944) died in Ramsey County. The cornerstone was laid in 1898 by Alexander Ramsey. After an 1896 tornado hit St. Cloud, Minnesota, a general committee composed of A. Barto from Sauk Centre, 0. C. Merriman from Minneapolis, Channing Seabury from St. Paul, John Cooper from St. Cloud, Minnesota, and C. B. Buckman from Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, was appointed to have control and oversight of the expenditure of the money and supplies contributed for the relief of the disaster. [See note on Gilbert for 318 Summit Avenue.] [See note on Leroy Buffington for 445 Summit Avenue.]
John A. Johnson Memorial: Erected in 1912 and restored in 1999; Andrew O'Connor, sculptor. John Albert Johnson (1861-1909) of St. Peter, Nicollet County, Minnesota, was Minnesota's first governor who was born in the state, was a Democrat, was a Swede, was a Presbyterian, and was a very popular governor (1905-1909.) Johnson was born in a log cabin, the son of Gustav (Jenson) Johnson, from Jonkoping, Sweden, and Caroline Heden, from Smaland, Sweden, worked in a grocery store, a drug store, and a railway office, before becoming editor of the St. Peter Herald in 1887, of which Henry J. Essler was the publisher, married Elinor Preston, was a candidate for Minnesota state House of Representatives for the 17th District in 1888, was a member of Minnesota state Senate for the 20th District 1899-1902, and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1908 against William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska. Johnson pressed for progressive reforms in the legislation he supported. After his death from cancer while in office, thousands of Minnesotans contributed one dollar each for the establishment of a Johnson memorial on the Capitol mall. Johnson is buried in Greenhill Cemetery in St. Peter, Minnesota. Johnson was the first native-born Minnesotan to be elected as governor and the first governor to die in office. Johnson's statue includes additional figures who represent the major industries in 1912, agriculture, iron mining, manufacturing, and lumbering. In 1911, over student protests, St. Paul's Johnson High School, on the East Side, was renamed for Governor Johnson, who died when the former building (Grover Cleveland High School) was being rebuilt. Johnson Hall at Gustavus Adolphus College was named for Governor John A. Johnson, who led the fund-raising campaign for it, but was razed after the 1998 tornado that hit St. Peter, Minnesota. Republican Adolph Olson Eberhart (1870-1944), the Lieutenant Governor under Johnson, became governor upon Johnson's death and remained in office until 1915. After Johnson's death, Elinor Preston Johnson married William J. Smith. Gustav Jenson ( -1889) changed his name to Johnson after coming to America with some friends, was a blacksmith, settled in Traverse des Sioux, Minnesota, just north of St. Peter, Minnesota, the site of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux of 1851. Caroline Heden ( -1906) went from Chicago to St. Paul in search for relatives and finally to Traverse des Sioux, Minnesota, and married Gustav Johnson in 1858. The Johnson family moved to St. Peter after the Dakota Conflict of 1862 and Gustav Johnson opened a Blacksmith Shop, but drifted away from the family and ultimately died in a County Poor Folks Home. John A. Johnson had several siblings, of whom three reached adulthood. Edward Johnson worked at the State Hospital in St. Peter. Hattie I. Johnson was a school teacher in St. Peter, Minnesota, for many years. Fred A. Johnson moved to New Ulm, Minnesota, married Emma Seiter of New Ulm, where his wife's family operated a hotel, and for whom Johnson Park in New Ulm is named, Fred A. Johnson helped start the Brown County Historical Society and is known as the father of the New Ulm Park System. Andrew O'Connor (1874-1941) was a sculptor from New York City who specialized in monuments and portrait busts and was a student of Daniel Chester French. When French was too busy to accept a commission, he would recommend O'Connor. In 1901, Andrew O'Connor left New York for Paris, abandoning a wife and son, and taking his model, Jesse Phoebe Brown, who was pregnant with his child. He worked in Paris for 11 years before returning to the USA. His work can be seen at the Tate in London, in the National Statuary Hall (Old House Chambers) in the U.S. Capitol, for the State of Indiana-sponsored statue of General Lew Wallace, a Civil War hero and the author of Ben Hur, the Vanderbilt Memorial bronze doors for St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, the Beaux Arts soldier (1898) at Wheaten Square in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and in Baltimore, for a statue of Lafayette on horseback, in Springfield, Illinois, for a statue of Lincoln (1918,) and in Chicago, for a statue of Theodore Roosevelt.
Floyd B. Olson Memorial: Erected in 1958; Restored in 1999; Brioschi-Minuti Company, sculptors. The second Broschi statue at the State Capitol was a near-duplicate of the Floyd B. Olson Memorial Statue on Trunk Highway 55. It was created in 1958, 17 years after the elder Brioschi's death, under the direction of Amerigo Brioschi, was financed by labor union members and by Minnesota statehood centennial funds, and was dedicated on Labor Day in 1958 on a site that faces the State Office building on the State Capitol Approach. The Olson statue is a nearly identical, but simpler, composition than the original Olson Memorial Statue on Trunk Highway 55. The statue on the Capitol mall is missing the owl and books resting on the pedestal behind the figure's legs, has a different pedestal and base, and has a much smaller and simpler site design. Floyd Bjerstjerne Olson (1891-1936) was governor of Minnesota and the head of the Minnesota Farmer Labor Association from 1931 to 1936. The Minnesota Farmer Labor Party was the most successful third party in the history of 20th century United States politics and was the voice of populism in an era reputed to have been comprised of tory conservatives and wishy-washy Democrats. Olson was the most successful leader of the populist of that era. Floyd Bjerstjerne Olson was born on the North Side of Minneapolis to a Norwegian father and a Swedish mother, graduated from Minneapolis North High School in 1909, worked on the Northern Pacific Railway and in the wheat fields of North Dakota before he entered the University of Minnesota in 1910, left Minnesota in 1911 for adventures westward, and wound up working odd jobs in the Canadian West, Alaska, and Seattle. In Seattle, Olson worked as a longshoreman and briefly held membership in the International Workers of the World (the IWW or "Wobblies.") Olson returned to Minneapolis in 1913 and enrolled in Northwestern Law College, now the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, and worked by day in a Minneapolis law office as a clerk, received his law degree in 1915, was admitted to the Minnesota Bar, and became a practicing attorney. Olson married Ada Krejci of New Prague in 1915 and the couple had one daughter, Patricia Olson. Olson became an assistant Hennepin County Attorney in 1919 and became a member of the "Committee of 48," a group organized to draft Robert M. LaFollette to run for President on a Progressive third-party ticket. By the end of 1920, he was Hennepin County Attorney, appointed by the Republican County Board of Commissioners to serve out the term of his predecessor, who had been removed for graft. Olson was elected to the post in his own right in 1922 and was re-elected in 1926. He earned a reputation as County Attorney for the stern prosecution of corrupt businessmen, racketeers and politicians. He also prosecuted the local Ku Klux Klan and the Minneapolis Citizens Alliance for enlisting a man to dynamite a local contractor's home. In 1927, as County Attorney, Olson prosecuted The Saturday Press, published by Howard A. Guilford and Jay M. Near, under Laws of Minnesota 1925, Chapter 285, banning as a public nuisance, "malicious, scandalous and defamatory" newspapers. The The Saturday Press articles charged in substance that a Jewish gangster was in control of gambling, bootlegging and racketeering in Minneapolis, and that law enforcing officers and agencies were not energetically performing their duties. The case resulted in the U. S. Supreme Court case Near v. State of Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U.S. 697, in 1931, which called the Minnesota law the essence of impermissible censorship and ruled that the prior restraint of the press was unconstitutional. In 1930, after an unsuccessful attempt in 1926, Olson became the first Farmer-Labor Party governor of the State of Minnesota, carrying 82 of the state's 87 counties, and outpolling his Republican candidate, Raymond P. Chase, by nearly 200,000 votes out of a total of 780,000. Henry Arens, a vice-president of Land O'Lakes Cooperative Creamery, was Olson's Lieutenant Governor. As Governor, Olson pushed for public unemployment insurance, hours and wages legislation for women and state highway employees, a mortgage moratorium on farms, a progressive state income tax to relieve tax pressures on property, old age pensions, and the expansion of state environmental conservation programs and the state forest system. He also refused to use state troops to crush strikes in Minneapolis and Austin. The Minneapolis strike was the 1934 Teamsters strike, when the Minneapolis police, under Police Chief Mike Johannes, spurred by the anti-union business organization, the Citizens Alliance, opened fire on the striking truck drivers as the culmination of a series of three strikes that year organized by Teamsters Local 574. Olson's Farmer-Labor coalition consisted of farmers in the form of the Nonpartisan League, organized labor in the form of the Minnesota State Federation of Labor, and small business in the form of the Independent Bankers' Association. Olson sought "a promised land halfway between Populism and socialism." There were many socialists in the Farmer Labor movement, and Olson himself favored limited government ownership of industry, at least of established monopolies. Olson ran for re-election twice, in 1932, when he defeated Republican Earle Brown by almost 300,000 votes, overwhelmingly winning Hennepin, Ramsey, and St. Louis counties with support from the national Democratic Party, but not the local Democratic Party, which was controlled by traditional Catholic business interests rather than the emergent "New Deal coalition," and again in 1934, defeating Republican Martin A. Nelson by 50,000 votes, when the Farmer Labor Party proposed an extensive program of state ownership of basic industries to combat the Great Depression, which scared off most middle-class support for the party. Olson was a governor with "a genius for inspiring hope during frightening times." Floyd Olson planned to leave the governorship and run for United States Senate in 1936. and secured the Farmer Labor Senate nomination, but died at Rochester's Mayo Clinic of stomach cancer prior to the election. His funeral, held at the Minneapolis Civic Auditorium, was attended by approximately 150,000. Olson's reputation, however, is not without allegations of a blemish. Minneapolis once enjoyed the unsavory reputation of having legendary gangsters and corrupt and tyrannical politicians, according to Walter W. Liggett (1886-1935.) Liggett was a trained boxer, an agriculture scholar, and the editor/publisher of the Midwest American and the Minneapolis Weekly, a struggling local weekly that provided Liggett with a public forum for tireless campaigns against government graft and corruption, who alleged that there was an unholy alliance between the office of Governor Floyd B. Olson and the Minneapolis underworld. Liggett was murdered in 1935, apparently by Isadore Blumenfeld (1900–1981,) commonly known as "Kid Cann," who was the most notorious mobster in the history of Minnesota. State Highway 55 has been named the Floyd B. Olson highway. The trophy held by the winner of the annual University of Iowa-University of Minnesota football game, "Floyd of Rosedale," arose from a bet in 1935 between Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson and Iowa Governor Clyde Herring. After Iowa lost the 1935 game, Herring presented Olson with "Floyd of Rosedale," a full-blooded champion pig and a brother of the pig "BlueBoy" from the Will Rogers' movie "State Fair." Olson gave the pig to the University of Minnesota and commissioned St. Paul sculptor Charles Brioschi/Brioscho to capture Floyd's image and the result is a bronze pig that is 21 inches long and 15 inches high. Minnesota holds a 37-26-2 advantage in the series with "Floyd of Rosedale" on the line. The S.S. Floyd B. Olson, a Liberty ship, MC Hull Number 1565, was launched at the Permanente Metals Corporation, Shipyard Number One, Richmond, California, in 1943. The Floyd B. Olson house is located at 1914 West 49th Street in Minneapolis. Hjalmar Petersen (1890-1968,) Olson's Lieutenant Governor, assumed the governorship upon Olson's death for the remaining few months of the term, then returned to Askov, Minnesota, to run his weekly newspaper, The Askov American. Peterson also was the city clerk of Askov, Minnesota, from 1918 to 1924, the mayor of Askov, Pine County, Minnesota, in 1928, the editor of the Askov American from 1914 to 1968, a Minnesota state legislator from 1931 to 1935, and a state railroad and warehouse commissioner from 1937 to 1942 and again from 1954 to 1967. Carlo/Charles Brioschi (1879-1941) sculpted the Christopher Columbus monuments in St. Paul (1930-1931) and in Chicago (1932-1933) and sculpted the death mask of Charles Horace Mayo (1865-1939,) of Mayo Clinic fame, in 1939.
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Information from the University of Minnesota, Northwest Architectural Archives, was used in this webpage.
The Cass Gilbert chronology also was a source.
This webpage was last updated on November 14, 2008.
