Prairie Skyline Foundation

. Watch for the Artspace Report on www.prairieskyline.com!  Here is an excerpt: "...the citizens of Crookston should make it clear to their elected leaders that they want the building (Palace/Wayne) preserved. While we are sympathetic to the County Commissioners who see the building chiefly as drain on scarce resources, we cannot state too strongly our view that tearing it down would be akin to burning a Rembrandt because you can’t afford to have it cleaned. Every effort should be made to find the money needed to stabilize the building until a suitable reuse can be found. Once gone, it can never be replaced.

This is the original home of Felix Fournet, who built the outstanding Fournet Block (Four Seasons Clothing, Munn's Jewelry, etc.  He was a builder of the highest quality and he built his home on Houston Avenue.  I've been inside when it was owned by Dr. and Mrs. Mitchell and the woodwork has remained untouched and is beyond belief stunning. 

Care and Share got the former cathedral church when they purchased the former rectory and adjacent land. The plans were to expand the Care and Share Homeless Shelter and they did that. They never wanted the former Cathedral, but it was part of the package. Minnesota Housing Finance Agency funded part of the project, said Jan Delage. Sister Justina was in charge of the Care and Share Board at that time. People constantly approached Care and Share about the cathedral. People were very interested in its future. Of course, the non-profit homeless shelter did not have funding to tear it down (estimated at that time $35,000) nor did they have a use for the building. The board was concerned about preserving the stained glass. There were problems with the high school kids smoking and lounging behind the church. Stones were thrown and some of the storm window glass was broken. In an effort to preserve the glass, Care and Share gave the ventilator windows with family names on them to ...

You just never know when history comes alive!  I was delighted to meet the Rigg's family as they toured historic Crookston searching for sites their great grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, the City Bandmaster before T.W. Thorson took over, may have performed in.  Be sure to check out their great blog at http://bit.ly/9mNco2. It is full of pictures and information and SONGS played by G. Oliver Riggs.  Watch this blog for song lyrics sung at the old Winter Shows Building, the former Crookston Armory.  Who knows, perhaps G. Oliver performed on that stage as well. Former owner, Arnold Lahd, removed the eagle emblem from the stage for safekeeping.  Did you know the original Winter Shows consisted of three buildings?  Yes, the former Crookston Armory is just one, the current Crookston School Bus garages are the others.   Anyone who knows more about the great Winter Shows and our former great Crookston band master, G. Oliver Rigss, please comment! fr...

Rev. Dan Wolpert has suggested once again that we consider a "planned ruin" similar to the St. Boniface ruin in Winnipeg.  Despite our open grant for a feasibility study for an arts center, I believe this option should be considered carefully.  The difference between St. Boniface and the former Cathedral is that St. Boniface had a fire that destroyed most all of its interior and some of its exterior, whereas the Cathedral doesn't have that reason.  Still there is some sad and wistful beauty in the idea of a planned ruin as opposed to waiting for volunteers, and contributors to come forth on the idea of a Centre for the Arts in NW Minnesota or demolition by the County. Please do comment.

A list of the contributors to the new wing added in 1920 to the former Villa St. Vincent Hospital, Crookston, MN.  I found my great grandparents "Electrical Store," contributing $2!  Could Charles E. Lindberg be the father of Charles A. Lindbergh.  Charles A. Lindberg's father was brought her for treatment. Some of the names were hard to read because they were written in fountain pen.  If you have a correct spelling or more history, Please comment! A Friend 1 A. Friend 0.5 Aesceltat Faces (sp?) 25 Balfour Bros. 1 Ball, Joseph 100 Becker, Nm. 25 Bemington, N. 2 Berget, O.K. 1 Bertlson, Dr. C.L. 5 Boe, Minnie I. 10 Boe, Minnie I. 50 Bray, N.A. 10 Bridgeman-Russel Co. 10 C.O.D. Clothing House 10 Chesterman, G. S. 20 Collins, S.L. 1 Conley, E.W. 1 Corbett, Rt. Rev. Timothy $350 Crawford & Son, J. ...

"I am excited to start chasing some of those elusive Minnesota bricks again now that milder weather has come again. I took a trip to Crookston, Minnesota, to look around what remains of Crookston bricks. Amazingly, this community still holds many of its old ties to the past. I would highly recommend a trip over to Crookston if you are looking to see what old buildings used to look like. You can also poke around antique stores looking for old gems. There are a couple of them in old historical buildings in the downtown area. If you look carefully, you can find old signs painted on the sides of some buildings and original hardware still on some of them. What a treat! I took my webmaster along for the ride, and we both enjoyed looking around town. Several days later, we took another swing through Polk County...and what a huge county it is!! I guess at one time they looked at dividing up the county, but never did. So there is quite a range from east to west, where you go fr...