Speaking of History in Minneapolis

One of my mom's guesses (she worked in the building where JB Hudson's was located, so I thought she'd have it for sure, but Chris, my friend from Boston's correct answer was even more surprising!) was the Foshay Tower.

Andrew had a tour of the tower and got to go up to the observation deck a few weeks back for a homeschool coop outing.  I did not attend and wish I had, as the building is a fascinating and beautiful one.

The iron work inside of the Foshay Tower is famous, and it was worked at the same company as the gate at JB Hudson.

The Foshay was designed to look like the Washington Monument, and contains four bronze busts of George Washington in its interior.  

Foshay Tower was the lifelong dream and namesake of Wilbur Foshay, an art student turned businessman who bought and sold utilities companies in order to make his fortune. He planned to locate his business and residence on the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors where a three bedroom, three bath suite was built, with a fireplace and library, Italian Siena marble walls and glass-paneled ceilings.

Foshay invited 25,000 guests to the dedication ceremony and provided all-expenses paid trips to many who included cabinet members, senators and congressmen. Half nude dancers entertained. Each guest received a gold pocket watch. The military gave 19-gun salutes. John Philip Sousa conducted music, including "Foshay Tower-Washington Memorial March" a march he wrote for the occasion. Foshay presented Sousa with a check for US$20,000.

The march was only played once during Foshay's lifetime. Six weeks after the building's opening, Foshay's corporate empire crumbled as the Great Depression began. Ignominiously, Foshay's check to Sousa bounced, and in retaliation, Sousa prohibited the playing of the march so long as Foshay's debt to him remained outstanding. Foshay never lived in his new home which went into receivership. In 1988, a group of Minnesota investors repaid Foshay's debt to Sousa's estate, and the march was permitted to be played again.

For your listening pleasure....

Nowadays it is a tres chic hotel, which I want to mention because some of the photos above are from their site.  For those with some K left during this recession, it would be an awesome place to stay a night, and you'd be right in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, which is a lovely place to visit.

What Jewelry Stores and Alumacraft have in common

JB Hudson's in the Dayton's building in Minneapolis at 8th and Nicollet.  The space is now owned by Macy's which took over Dayton's several years ago, and reacquired this space after JB Hudson relocated to a new location further down Nicollet Mall.  

JB Hudson's was "born" in 1885 when Josiah Hudson moved to Minneapolis from Ohio at the age of 35.  He had been working in jewelry since he was an apprentice as a child during the Civil War, and had worked hard and saved hard, buying out his bosses interest in a jewelry store in Ohio in 1976.  He started in a tiny store near the river on Nicollet and throughout the course of the store's 124 year history, it has continued to "move up" from the riverfront area to its current location near Peavey Plaza.  

The Hudson family sold the company to Dayton's in late 1929, mere days before the stock market crash.  The store survived this and a 1911 fire which took all its inventory.

JB Hudson was repurchased from Dayton's in 1982 and is still held privately until this day.

The wrought iron gates, of which I showed the headpiece, were designed and handmade by Josef Bernasek, a Bohemian craftsman for Flour City Ornamental Iron Company. He also did the iron railing at the Young-Quinlan store, the ironwork in the Foshay Tower lobby and the famous doors of the Tribune Tower in Chicago.   

The Flour City Ornamental Iron Works Company was founded by Eugene Tetzlaff in 1893 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company was originally a blacksmith shop, but later became a manufacturer of wrought and cast iron. During World War II, Flour City produced aluminum bridge pontoons and aircraft parts. In 1945, Henry J. Neils, first president of the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works Company, began production of aluminum boats. The first aluminum boat produced by Flour City subsidiary, Alumacraft, came off the production line in 1946. Hupp Corporation bought Alumacraft from Flour City in 1960.

I don't know what will become of this beautiful piece of history and that is why I wanted to get some photos.  Hard financial times mean that consumers aren't necessarily looking for a sumptious experience when out shopping and its hard to see the wisdom of reopening the space.  Still, it is a one of a kind location with its ornate plaster ceiling, velvet drapings, hand carved ballasters and travertine marble floors and walls.  I wish now I had gone in when it was still open, instead of just looking through the doors.

Hint #2 for The Trivia Game

No, saying its in the Minneapolis area is not good enough.  

Mom, you REALLY should know this...think WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back....

Here is what adorns the ceiling in front of this lovely grate...

Name that Mythological Creature

Took this cool photo recently and thought it would be great for a trivia game.

Question 1:  What is the creature featured on this bronze grate?

Question 2:  Where is this grate located?

Lisa and Scott and Erin are exempt from this trivia game, (Lisa because she knows too much, Erin because she was there, Scott because we discussed it over dinner recently!)

Gustav Mahler

"The content of my entire life is poured into my symphonies. In them I have expressed all my experiences and suffering. It is truth and poetry set to music. If someone knew how to read it well my whole life would be transparent to him. So closely entwined are creating and living, for me, that it seems to me if henceforth my life were to flow as peaceably as a brook in a meadow I could no longer make anything of value." Gustav Mahler

"Art should be an ax for the frozen ocean in us." Franz Kaftka

"As a conductor and a composer I am sure of everything. But as a human being I am riddled with doubt. To be human is to be uncertain." Gustav Mahler

"Strange; when I hear music, even while I am conducting, I hear quite specific answers to all my questions, and am completely clear and certain, or rathr I feel quite distinctly that they are not questions at all." Gustav Mahler

"Creation is a mystical process. The residue of mystery always remains, even for the creator. I find in the end that one does not compose, one is being composed." Gustav Mahler

"I believe in the end art's purpose is deliverence and uplift from suffering." Gustav Mahler

"In order to express yourself in a piece of art you need to be secure in yourself, know yourself, have confidence in yourself, finally, love yourself." Gustav Mahler