March’s History Friday: The History of a History Building
By Matt Goff, Kraus-Anderson Historian/Archivist
In 1956, Kraus-Anderson performed a fairly extensive interior renovation of the headquarters for the Minnesota Historical Society.
To be clear, this was not a renovation of the current Minnesota History Center, which is now celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The building that Kraus-Anderson facelifted in the 1950s was, in its day, quaintly referred to as the Historical Building, which is found just east of St. Paul’s Capitol building. It serves as the Minnesota Judicial Center.
Designed by Clarence Johnston, and built in 1917, the Historical Building was the Minnesota Historical Society’s first stand-alone building.
Before this, the Society inhabited basement space in the various capitol buildings that existed before Cass Gilbert’s masterpiece currently housing Minnesota’s government.
Aside from being generally damp and otherwise unsuitable for document preservation, the previous Minnesota capitol buildings had a tendency to start on fire. In 1913, the Minnesota Legislature appropriated half of a million dollars for a new fire-proof building.
As the Historical Society’s collection grew, its Historical Building grew increasingly inadequate. The renovation Kraus-Anderson did in the 1950s was part of ongoing efforts to accommodate increasing visitor counts to the reading room, as well as the mushrooming archival collection.
When Minnesota’s legislature decided to turn the Historical Building into the Minnesota Judicial Center, the Historical Society lost its pride of place directly next to the capitol building.
However, in taking over the old Miller Hospital site, it gained the breathing room it needed to become the institution it is today.
Images are courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.
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