Laughter, Falling Water and Time
The Minneapolis Pantages Theater opened as a vaudeville house in 1916. The original, Beaux-Arts style building, designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm of Kees and Colburn was operated by Winnipeg theater tycoon, Alexander Pantages’ entertainment consortia. At the height of his empire, the Greek immigrant owned and operated 84 theaters in the United States and … Read more
Groundbreaking for Southdale took place in 1954. 800 construction workers were used to build the two-story, 800,000 ft shopping mall. When it was completed two years later at a cost of cost twenty million dollars, the mall had 5,200 parking spaces and room for 72 tenants. Southdale was developed by the Dayton’s and their department … Read more
After his amazing Pagoada Pavilion burned to the ground in 1903, The Park Board decided to give architect, Harry W. Jones another try. This time his pavilion was designed in the Classic Revival style. Affectionately known as “The Pavilion”, the facility featured two levels with changing rooms, a restaurant and lower level refreshment stand. There … Read more
Built in 1864, the yellow limestone walls of the Frederick Spangenberg House came from banks of the Mississippi River. The rocks were hauled up on a sled by oxen. Frederick Spangenberg was a German immigrant dairy farmer. His 80-acre farm become the best part of Saint Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. When August Spanburg died at … Read more
In the late 1880’s, T. B. Walker’s brother-in-law, Andrew B. Robbins gathered a group investors and built the Hubbard Specialty Manufacturing plant in what would become Robbinsdale. The firm made chairs, wheelbarrows, camp furniture, grocery boxes and wooden washing machines. In 1891 Robbins sold the company to Sweatt Manufacturing. A year later, the Robbinsdale building … Read more
Hazel Buckham was born in Minneapolis on December 27, 1888. She moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1910. Hazel began her acting career in road productions on the East Coast with the Ferris Stock Company. In 1912, Buckham was recruited by Biograph Studios to appear in films. She went on to work in … Read more