SPNN will broadcast three segments of Historic St. Paul’s Green Retrofit series several times from March 25 through April 3. All programs will air on Comcast Channel 19.

Schedule details:

Thu., 3/25

• 9:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks of Neighborhood Energy Connection

Fri, 3/26

• 9:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams, MN Greenstar – Green Building Standards

Sat., 3/27

• 12:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 1:30 p.m. guest Mike Williams

• 3:00 p.m. guest panel discussion (including Alliance Field Representative Erin Hanafin Berg)

Sun., 3/28

• 12:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

• 1:30 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 3:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

Mon., 3/29

• 12:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 1:30 p.m. guest panel discussion

Tue., 3/30

• 12:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

Weds., 3/31

• 12:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

• 9:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

Thurs., 4/1

• 12:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 9:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

Fri., 4/2

• 12:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

• 9:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

Sat., 4/3

• 12:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

How did preservation projects fare in the bonding bill that was trimmed, and then signed, by Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Sunday? Some wins, some losses. Here’s the rundown, as far as my non-political mind can discern.

Vetoed Projects:

$2 million request for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (not preservation, per se, but we had encouraged support of the project)

$2.2 million request for the Potter Center for the Arts in Chatfield

$840,000 request for the Minnesota African-American museum, which is going to be housed in the historic Coe Mansion in Minneapolis

$5 million request for the Asian-Pacific Cultural Center, which is to be housed in the former Hamm’s Brewery in St. Paul

$9.357 million request for the Oliver Kelly Farm, a Minnesota Historical Society site in Elk River

$8.5 million from the state required to match a Federal grant for the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority to use towards the renovation of Union Depot in St. Paul

Funded Projects:

$23 million for the renovation of Folwell Hall, on the U of M East Bank campus, Minneapolis

$1.2 million for ongoing stabilization of the buildings on the Fort Snelling upper bluff, which has been both a PAM 10 Most Endangered and a National Trust for Historic Preservation 11 Most Endangered site

$75,000 to predesign renovation of the Governor’s Mansion, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places

$2 million to renovate the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge in Bloomington as a bike and pedestrian bridge

$1 million to develop the Rock Island Swing Bridge park and trail in Inver Grove Heights, and to link them to the historic bridge, which was a 10 Most Endangered site in 2009

$2 million for work to Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis, a 10 Most Endangered site in 2008

$3.4 million for historic sites owned by the Minnesota Historical Society

$1 million to fund the Capital Grants-in-Aid program at the State Historic Preservation Office

$150,000 to renovate the 1941 Navy Hangar at Fleming Field in South St. Paul, Gov. Pawlenty’s home town

Over the weekend, I set up a booth for the Preservation Alliance at the Twin Cities Sustainable Communities Conference. Hosted by a non-profit organization called the Alliance for Sustainability, the two-day conference was held at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis (whose volunteers wore aprons that read “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle . . . Rejoice”—cute!). Day 1 featured speakers and sessions geared towards local government officials. Day 2 was intended for private citizens and neighborhood groups. There was a great crowd both days, and a whole new audience to reach out to with the message that “the greenest building is the one that’s already built.”

This is the second or third time I’ve rolled out my “Historic Preservation: The Ultimate Recycling” banner. Slick, it ain’t—but we think it resonates with the grass-roots message of preservation (and was made out of a discarded banner from our 2008 home tour). And while this is not a new message for the Preservation Alliance, or for the preservation movement in general, I find that we still need to willfully assert our position in the sustainability conversation. Preservation would seem to be a no-brainer at an event advertised as a “sustainable communities conference” (and many thousand thanks to Sean Gosiewski, the program director who invited our participation). But I was a little taken aback at having to explain, again and again, why the Preservation Alliance was present.

Surely, nobody wondered why the organic farm people where there, or the solar products folks, or the bike advocates. All of those efforts will certainly make some kind of impact on the sustainability of our communities, to varying degrees. But look around you (when you’re outside, that is)—what do you see? Trees, and (soon enough) grass, and rivers and lakes, and roads and sidewalks—but also, buildings. Lots and lots of existing buildings. Ensuring that those buildings are continually used and made to be as efficient as possible can be a key strategy to combating the environmental changes of the coming decades. Provided that they are relatively energy efficient, reusing those buildings will conserve precious natural, manufactured, and economic resources, as well as decades of investment in infrastructure, transportation systems, and—oh yeah, almost forgot—our collective history.

Prioritizing reuse over new construction should be one of the primary goals of every local governmental agency, but most of the local government attendees at the Friday sessions talked about LEED-certified new construction, alternative energy sources, and reductions in air and water pollution. Certainly the local goverments that are tackling these issues, including Burnsville and its mayor, Elizabeth Kautz, who presented Friday’s keynote address, deserve praise. Many of the communities who are taking the initiative on issues like these have very little “historic” fabric to work with. Burnsville, which was one of the first communities to develop in Dakota County, according to the mayor, has only one building listed in the National Register of Historic Places—but still, reusing and maintaining existing buildings is a key component of its sustainability plan.

Until it is our society’s default position for businesses, governments, and individuals to look first for an old or historic building that will fit their needs (or that can be adapted to do so), I think the Preservation Alliance will need to claim a spot at the sustainability table. And I’ll be bringing my banner.

The Minnesota Historical Society’s Visual Resourse Database has a great collection of historic photographs from throughout the state. You can browse thumbnails very easily—great for researching or just whiling away the time. A new finding aid pulls together the historic images from Norton & Peel, a commercial photography studio that was based in Minneapolis from 1886-1969. As you can guess, the photos range from horse-and-buggy street scenes to growing suburbia. The collection is sorted by decade, so explore your favorite historical period in the Twin Cities via historic photographs. Read more about this great new tool here.

Richard Moe, the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announced his retirement in November. This recent article in Architect magazine is not only a great retrospective of Moe’s career and the changes he brought about at the National Trust, but also a great primer on the many and varied tenets of historic preservation. A great read—and positive reinforcement for those of us in the trenches. Enjoy!

An unsuspecting young salesman from The Window Store just had the misfortune of ringing my doorbell. My “Not interested,” which I delivered as soon as he introduced himself, was not enough to deter him. So, instead of getting a quick and easy brush-off, he got a30-second diatribe as to why I am adamantly opposed to what he does—market replacement windows so aggressively that salesmen go door-to-door in the dead of winter. I threw a few window rehab facts at him—that there’s no good reason to replace historic wood windows, that replacement contributes to the landfill and wastes resources through intensive manufacturing processes—and his eyes grew wider with every word. Hoping that he is young and impressionable—and maybe even a little uniformed, himself—I referred him to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has pages of information about window rehabilitation as an alternative to replacement. (I was a little reluctant to divulge my association with the Preservation Alliance, lest he come back later and egg my house, or something. Admittedly, I could have been nicer to him, but he rang when I was in the middle of cleaning the litter box and my kids were upstairs alone, so I had to rush up from the basement. Why can’t the door-to-door sales types understand that there is almost never a good time to interrupt somebody at home?)

Do you have facts at the ready to deliver a 30-second defense for historic windows, for those times when the window salespeople come knocking at your door? If you need some refreshing, read my earlier Window Talk post in the Field Notes blog, peruse the resources listed with the 10 Most Endangered listing of Historic Wood Windows, read the March/April 2008 issue of the Minnesota Preservationist, or go in-depth at PreservationNation.org

I know I’d catch more bees with honey, and all, but I was a little unprepared myself. This visit served as a bit of a wake-up call—and definitely an opportunity. Maybe if all of us could be a little more prepared, we’d make inroads with the salespeople themselves—who would see the light and turn to window restoration instead.  Zach-the-salesguy, if you’re reading this, I hope you’ve learned something. (And I’ll try to be nicer the next time you ring my doorbell—I promise.)

The other day, I was having idle conversation with a friend about White Castle, and she said something about the “White Castle accordion shop.” What?!? (I wonder if those four words had ever before been strung together in the English language.) I was familiar with the White Castle on Lyndale Ave. S. in Minneapolis that had been turned into a jewelry store—apparently lots of people took pride in saying that they bought their wedding rings at White Castle—but was confused by the reference to an accordion. Turns out the jewelry store has closed, and the accordion shop has moved in. What a great new business for something as off-beat as an original White Castle!

The first—and only—time I’ve ever eaten a White Castle was last spring, when the Ramsey County Historical Society hosted a lecture by a long-time White Castle employee who is the corporation’s Twin Cities historian. He pointed out the ever-evolving designs of White Castle restaurants, which raises some interesting issues for historic preservation. Given that fast-food restaurants are such a significant part of our modern culture, it seems that the most historically intact of them should be identified and preserved. But most fast-food corporations have a policy of planned replacement. Relatively few of them retain the original characteristics that would allow them to be considered historically significant.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has done some research on this topic, and the LA Conservancy’s successful campaign to save the world’s oldest remaining McDonalds is well known, at least in preservation circles. Here in the Twin Cities, I know of an old Dairy Queen in Roseville, and am starting to think that the Taco Bell on Snelling Ave. N. in the Midway area of St. Paul might be considered vintage. (Back in the ’70s, it was a Zantigos.)

As for me, I get a little teary-eyed thinking about the McDonald playland of my youth, located on Robert Street in West St. Paul. I recently drove my kids by it to make sure it is still there—it is, but a sign says it is closed and obviously inaccessible. My fellow neighbor kids and I loved our occasional excursions to this McDonalds across town, because the playground was elevated on a bluff above the restaurant. To get there, we had to walk up a steep path, or take a little train. I’m sure the moms loved it because we were worn out before we even started playing. The playground itself had all the usual equipment—the Grimace cage, a fiberglass tree filled with Fry Guys, and a fairly ominous Hamburglar slide looming over the entire park. On my recent drive-by, I think I caught a glimpse of Grimace through the snow, but can’t be sure. I’ll have to case it out again, come spring.

(This post is proof positive that even professional preservationists aren’t immune to nostalgia.)

As always, I’m open to your comments—and examples of fast food places worth preserving. Contact me at PAMfieldnotes@gmail.com

I will be one of five panelists for the final event of Historic Saint Paul’s Green Retrofit series. Join us for what is sure to be a lively discussion at the SPNN studios on Tuesday, Jan. 26, from 5:00-7:30. An hour-long open house precedes the program, which will begin at 6:00. While the event will be taped for later broadcast on SPNN (cable channels 14, 15, 16, or 19), a live, studio audience is welcome to attend and get the information well ahead of the general viewing public.

The panelists will talking about insulation, energy efficiency, windows, the Minnesota Green Star program, and other topics related to making older residential buildings more “green.” I’ll post an update after the event, both to summarize the panel discussion, and to let you know when it will be broadcast. Stay tuned!

Minnesota Public Radio has reported that Gov. Pawlenty has announced a deal for the state to $18 million for 10 miles of Lake Vermilion shoreline to create a new state park. The property, owned by U.S. Steel and adjacent to the Soudan Underground Mine State Park, would have been developed for residential lots, if the state park proposal had not come through. I had recently approached someone in the area about submitting a 10 Most Endangered Historic Places nomination for the area. Lake Vermilion is spectacular (and the Stuntz Bay boathouses are really cool)—definitely a place worth preserving for all of us to enjoy. I am relieved that the state park proposal may actually pan out.

More recent coverage on the Lake Vermilion State Park proposal:

Star Tribune editorial, Jan. 21, 2010

Timberjay editorial, Jan. 19, 2010

MPR story, Jan. 15, 2010

Timberjay story, Jan. 14, 2010

I recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Arrowhead Leader, a newspaper in Moose Lake, Minnesota. Since I suspect that the newspaper’s circulation is rather small, and an online version is not available, I am printing my letter here, with a link to a PDF copy of the original article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Dear Ms. Johnson:

I am writing to tell you how much I enjoyed reading John Schwoch’s article about the Moody Barn, printed in the Dec. 24, 2009 issue of the Arrowhead Leader. Here at the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, we subscribe to a clipping service so we can keep tabs on historic preservation activity throughout the state. Most of the time, the articles that are sent tell us of buildings that are threatened with demolition, or are the subject of local political battles, or have been victims of a devastating fire. Mr. Schoch’s article reflecting on first finding this unique, historic barn, and then searching it out again and considering another pilgrimage to the site on Christmas Eve, warmed my heart and inspired my daily work to save other important historic places throughout the state. Thank you for publishing this piece.

To all of you, best wishes for 2010.