Prairie Skyline Foundation

Imagine if the former Wayne/Palace Hotel was filled with 24 artists attracted to Crookston because of the affordable lifestyle and charming spaces to live.  As you walk by the windows you will join with tourists to watch artists at work at welding, construction, forming and firing clay, painting, photographing, and creating all kinds of one of kind pieces.  Bicycles will be parked in the rear of the building; artists will bicycle up to "A" Street and over to the former Cathedral on Ash to display and sell their works, where musicians and play practices are going on.  Down in the park, you'll see artists at work as well, inspired by the river and the great spaces of the great plains.  An "Arts and Learn" opens up in the former Eagle Drug location and other arts related spin-offs fill downtown retail spaces. UMC expands its visual arts classes and purchases the Fournet Block to house arts students. A "white tablecloth" restaurant opens up in th...

We looked for the best use of the three-story Union Building and found housing with services (also called “permanent supportive housing”) to be not only much needed in Crookston, but a chance to help people.  In order to apply for grants, the project had to have a name.  We called it “KT Apartments” after Kari Thompson who passed away the year I started working on the project.  When completed the project will contain 11 units for the very low income, (single parents, students, min. wage job workers), 5 of which will be designated for the “long-term homeless” as defined by HUD, (folks who have struggled with homelessness more than a few times.)   This 1.2 million project doesn't interest the large developers and is too big for small developers.  Only a non-profit could do this project.   The goal is to rehab the three-story brick walk-up building. It is located at 111 W Robert Street in the historic commercial district of Crookston registered with th...

Before my post on the Union Building Project, I must ask, Does anyone know why the building's name was changed from the International Order of Odd Fellows to the Union building?

Every now and then, we need to check our points of reference. Prairie Skyline's point of reference for the rehab of the Wayne (Palace) Hotel project is the Taralseth Building in Warren Minnesota. A similar building to the Palace, it didn't even have a roof when the community took another look at their downtown after the 1997 Flood and decided to save it. Please empty your mind of your mental picture of the run-down Palace Hotel and replace it with a vision of the restored Taraseth Building which has on its main floor a large community center, something we need here in Crookston.

After Crookston Paint & Glass had occupied the building for 60 years, and the elderly owner, Edith Krohn, passed away, the building was vacant and listed for sale. Estimates on the sagging east wall of the basement were gathered for the Realtor. They ranged from $6,000 to over $30,000. The heir to the estate decided to donate the building to the Prairie Skyline Foundation, Inc. in Jan 07. The board worked on a proposal to the Minnesota Historical Society and in July of 08 was awarded a grant of $6,000 to be matched by local donations and labor to brace the wall to prevent it from caving in. Our contractor, Ron Geray, started building a new plate for the bracing when the bowed wall caved. Luckily, we had put in a new beam before the cave-in, saving the entire east wall. Work halted while we figured out what to do next as $6,000 wasn’t going to be enough to do the entire project now. Then, the building inspector required us to get an engineer’s drawing of the new bracing...

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“Benedictine sisters began their work in the area that is now the Crookston diocese in 1899, when Mother Scholastica Kerst of Duluth opened St. Anthony’s Hospital over a store in Bemidji . In 1900 she arrived in Crookston to assess the need for a hospital in this lumbering center. After some study she opened Riverside Hospital in a frame building on Pine Street west of the Great Northern Railroad, on the bank of the Red Lake River . The first medical insurance in the state was sold to lumbermen for $2.00 a year. In 1902 the sisters purchased land on Seventh Street and there built St. Vincent ’s Hospital.” (The Benedictine) In 1901 the Diocese of Crookston was created from dividing the Diocese of Duluth. The Benedictine sisters from Duluth started and staffed many schools and two hospitals. In 1919 Bishop Timothy Corbett asked the Mother Eustacia Beyenka to come to Crookston with sister companions to establish a new priory. “ St. Vincent ’s Hospital served as ...

Watch for your postcard in the mail! We are sending out a SPRING FUNDRAISING POSTCARD ONLY to those that support the Arts, History, and Theatre. Because after all, what is Architecture but artistic, historical and drama? When you get your postcard, check your favorite project or projects, enclose just $20 and the card and return to us within 7 days for your FREE COPY of our first newsletter since 2007, (yes, we've been that busy!) containing great historical articles and lots of pictures. Remember this is your chance to "vote" on your favorite project by checking the appropriate box or boxes on the card. We want your money to go directly to where YOU WANT IT TO GO! 1. Right now, we need funds to hire "Artspace" to do an Working Arts Center Feasibility Study on the former Cathedral on Ash Street. An earlier pre-study revealed over 100 active visual artists in NW Minnesota who would LOVE to display and sell their art in such a "jewel on the prairie...