Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: The old Duluth armory is four stories of classic dignity. It was built in 1915 of local brick that has an unusual greenish color. Carolyn Sundqvist says it's sitting on an ideal spot. It's at the Eastern edge of downtown Duluth. Across the street is the Rose Garden and a panoramic view of Lake Superior.

CAROLYN SUNDQVIST: It's such an incredible view with a little gazebo there and the historic horse watering trough over there and the wonderful Rose Garden and the lake walk down below it.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: This armory cost four times as much as most armories of its time. It had club rooms, meeting rooms, and a ballroom on the top floor. Now, paint is peeling from the ballroom's walls and the hardwood floor curls up in places. But Carolyn Sundqvist can picture people dancing here again and concerts and plays.

Sundquist is working with other volunteers to save the armory from being torn down. She's standing in the ballroom with her friend, Susan Phillips. She reminds Phillips of an old poster they found advertising an early concert series.

CAROLYN SUNDQVIST: Mrs. Richardson's series of cultural events from 1918. And who was coming that year? Paderewski--

SUSAN PHILIPS: Paderewski was coming.

CAROLYN SUNDQVIST: --and the top performers. It was called the new armory. And it was just proof that it always started as an arts and music center.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: The armory was built in Duluth's heyday when there was plenty of money. Now, the building's a bit rundown, like the city's economy. But for Sundqvist and Phillips, the potential is still here.

Another room is nearly the size of a football field. This is where soldiers drilled and even practiced digging fox holes with sand brought in for the purpose. In the 1960s and '70s, a new armory and a new entertainment center went up and the old armory became a city garage. Carolyn Sundqvist grew up in Duluth. She says for years, this building was the soul of the community.

CAROLYN SUNDQVIST: Everything that went on in Duluth went on here. From sheltering the 1918 victims of the Cloquet Fire to basketball tournaments to symphony concerts to Buddy Holly and everything else in between.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: The Buddy Holly concert was in 1959. In the audience was a young, impressionable musician who later called himself Bob Dylan. Years later, Dylan would say that concert inspired his career. Susan Phillips is a marketing consultant. She recently moved to Duluth from New York City. She says, the Dylan connection is a treasure that can help create a future for the building.

SUSAN PHILIPS: Bob Dylan never talks about anything. And in 1998, he gets up at the Grammy Awards and on international television and talks about seeing Buddy Holly play when he was 16 or 17 years old. And this is probably the only comment he has ever made of a personal nature. So this building has that and that story. And they always say stories drive projects. And this story is driving this project.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: The project is to return the armory to its former use as a community and arts Center. Sundquist and Phillips and others they're working with picture an antique market and farmers market in the old auditorium space. A local entrepreneur might open a restaurant. And there's plenty of space for specialty shops, offices, and studios.

A few other cities have rehabbed their armories in similar ways. Jim Gelcer says, it's a great way to bring tourists to town. Gelcer is with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Chicago. He says Duluth has lots of buildings worth preserving and reusing. That's the silver lining in Duluth's economic gloom.

JIM GELCER: For decades, it's been relatively static. And so when you don't have new money coming into economies, no one tends to knock things down as much, if that makes sense. So you keep more of the building stock.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: But Gelcer says until recently, people in Duluth haven't recognized the value in those old buildings. A few individuals and nonprofit groups have preserved some public buildings. BNBs in restored mansions are successful, but they haven't had much help from the city government.

A couple of years ago, the city tore down three buildings in the heart of the historic downtown district. They needed the space for the new technology village, a development project that so far has failed to meet expectations. One person was so upset at the demolitions, he sued the city. He lost, but the delay and public outcry forced the city to design the new building to fit in better with the older buildings around it.

Duluth's had a lot of battles over development versus preservation. Jim Gelcer says that's holding the city back. He wants to get city officials and preservation activists to listen to each other. His goal is to get them to work together.

JIM GELCER: So we would really like to shift that paradigm from preservation folks being seen as reacting to city policy, reacting in an oppositional manner and really becoming proactive and connecting to that city power structure, maybe influencing decisions before it's a stop the bulldozer, stop the wrecking ball mentality.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: Duluth's Mayor, Gary Doty, is a veteran of these battles. During his three terms as mayor, he's been in the thick of fights over many major projects. Doty invented a name for people, he says, are against development of any kind. He once called them cave people. It stands for citizens against virtually everything.

GARY DOTY: I think that some of the people who I think are obstructionists in the community need to realize that the development does have to take place. I'm not interested in putting blacktop every place in this community. But there has to be a balance between historic preservation and environment and business development in our community. And I'm willing to compromise, but there are some people that aren't.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: Doty says controversy can be helpful. He says sometimes the intense public discussion results in better projects. Advocates say preservation and economic development can go hand in hand. The old armory can be preserved as a special part of Duluth's history. And at the same time, it can be a tool for development.

It can be a home for a mix of arts activities and technology businesses that could help revitalize Duluth's downtown. And it might be the project that brings Duluth's feuding groups together. Mayor Doty says, as long as there's a chance the old armory can find new life, he won't knock it down. I'm Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio.