When the Mayflower Congregational Church formally organized in 1925 in Minneapolis, they built a little white church for one hundred people. Because this part of Minneapolis and the church experienced a big boom in the 1920s, the congregation was in need of more space by the 1930s.
Even during the throes of the Depression, enough money was raised for the construction of this building and a sanctuary in 1935. How odd it was seeing a Spanish Colonial-Revival style building in the middle of the Midwest of all places! It turned out that the church's first resident pastor had been very fond of the Mission churches in San Antonio, Texas, and convinced his congregation to include architectural elements from the Missions in their new church design.
When The Museum of Russian Art acquired the property in 2004, it was converted into what has been described as a world-class museum that preserved the original architectural character. A museum brochure indicated "The historic building has a rich history of service and dignity. The Museum of Russian Art continues these traditions while instituting its own legacy of art and culture.
The handmade Soviet dolls were known as stockinette or rag dolls because they were covered in stockinette, a soft knitted silk or cotton. They were dressed in traditional peasant outfits and were made in early Soviet-era production cooperatives called artels. The artels had partial control of their output and could sell them internationally, even to the US. These came from the collection of the museum's co-founder.
I sure hadn't realized that there had been a hotbed of avant-garde art and design in the post-revolutionary decade and that these dolls' costumes from the 1920s reflected that. All the dolls were made with fabric, wire, cotton wool, and bark fiber.
Note the samovar in front of the couple!
As the museum was in the process of changing out exhibits, we didn't have a chance to tour its full complement of paintings. Here were some that caught our eye and reminded us of traditional Russian art.
This massive painting of birch trees brought me back to my childhood as my parents' home in Ottawa had been on Birch Ave. I hadn't known that Russia's most common deciduous tree had been exalted in folklore, poetry, songs, and visual art as a symbol of Russia.
Depending on whom you read and trust, the museum was one of a few in the country or the only one dedicated exclusively to collecting Russian and Soviet art. When the museum began there were only a dozen Soviet oil paintings. In 2021, the collection has now reached 7,000 pieces of art ranging from sculptures, icons, coins, nesting dolls, and more after 100 collectors generously donated their artworks and cultural artifacts to the museum.
The highlights of the collection were reportedly Soviet-era paintings by masters of Soviet Realism, the official art style of the era, and examples of non-conformist art produced during the 1960s-1980s by the artistic underground.
Soviet artists were directed to create art that was "nationality-specific in form and socialist in content." Look at the Ukrainian women in the foreground wearing traditional dress and it's apparent the artist dovetailed with the theme of the celebration of Socialism's achievements with a nod to ethnic inclusion.
The First Spring referred to the first spring of the Virgin Lands Project, a plan by Nikita Kruschev in 1954 for hundreds of thousands of youth to travel to the eastern republics to cultivate millions of hectares of new land. Though the initial harvest on the Virgin Lands was very bountiful as we could see depicted in the painting by Boris Kolesnik, it was followed by failures due to prolonged droughts that were common in those arid regions.
In this powerful painting, the three women were participants and survivors of WW II. Note the woman in the center wearing medals pinned to her coat for heroism in combat over Nazi Germany. There was a conspicuous absence of men in the painting because millions didn't return from the war and the brunt of post-war recovery fell to women. These women were shown sowing seeds of a future harvest.
Even though we weren't able to view as much of the museum's collection as we'd have liked, it was a treat admiring the massive Soviet Realism works. It was interesting, too, looking at art we'd viewed on our first overseas trip together back in 2013 when we traveled across the former Soviet Union from St. Petersburg to Mongolia by train!
We drove next over to St. Paul, Minneapolis' twin city and also Minnesota's state capital. Before touring the capitol building, we looked at the Executive Mansion, the home reserved by the Governor.
Not far from downtown was Summit St. in the Historic Hill neighborhood where there was quite possibly the largest number of mansions I have ever seen in one spot. It was literally house after house, block after block. The residents chose this area because of the commanding view of downtown St. Paul and of the Mississippi River.
Here were just a few I took photos of from my side of the car - Steven said the ones on his side were far more opulent but that seemed impossible!
The largest house in St. Paul had been built at the turn of the last century for railroad magnate James J. Hill. It had 44,552 square feet of total space! Following Hill's death in the 1920s, his daughters donated the mansion to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, located practically across the street. The US Department of the Interior designated the home a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
I read that the spectacular Cathedral, referred to as the Great Temple on the Prairie, annually welcomes over 200,000 people but unfortunately it was closed to us in mid-June.
While standing on the cathedral steps we certainly had incredible views of the St. Paul skyline including the statehouse dome.
I would think that Minnesota's favorite son would have to be former mayor, US senator, and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey! His statue graced the plaza opposite the capitol and showed him facing the building.
I heartily agreed with Humphrey's view of the government's role but was saddened that with such polarization we see now so many are suffering in this land of plenty.
The present capitol building was certainly a very impressive undertaking for a state that was only 35 years old in 1893.
Since the pandemic began last year, Steven and I made a very informal plan to visit as many statehouses as possible since we couldn't travel overseas. That has certainly been a big focus of this 2.5-month-long road trip. It has been eye-opening, quite frankly, in this day of age of especially heightened security to be able to literally just walk right into some capitol buildings with no measures being taken at all. That was the case at the Minnesota statehouse even though there were significant protests taking place inside.
The Italian Renaissance-style building included more than 25 varieties of marble, limestone, and granite!
The interior was gorgeous but it was extremely noisy listening to the amplified voices and noisemakers as we attempted to walk among and through the crowds to look at the sculptures and paintings. This was definitely not the best day to visit the capitol!
If I had a gown on I would have felt like a queen ascending the stunning staircase. Instead, it was just a hot and sweaty Annie from Denver doing so!
From the second floor, we had a great view of the rotunda below even with many people making their voices heard to have the governor pass the Refinery Safety Bill.
Participants in the protest had brought pots and pans and other types of noisemakers to capture their representatives' attention. They made such a fearful racket it was hard to even think above the din!
The most jaw-dropping feature of the capitol had to be its dome as it is the second-largest self-supported marble dome in the world! The architect, Cass Gilbert, based the design of his dome on the largest, Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Though we could only admire the decorative masonry dome as we looked up from the rotunda, there were actually two others as well!
It was hard not to take a gazillion photos of the capitol as everything was so stunning and photogenic. I imagine it was because of the protests that day we couldn't enter the Senate, House of Representatives, or the Supreme Court. Certainly a shame but I couldn't imagine they would have been anything more spectacular than what we'd already seen.
Bronze light sconces:
Painted grapevines adorned the ceilings.
Surrounding the rotunda were several state flags that were important to its residents.
Once the protesters had left, we were able to get close enough to the state seal in the center of the rotunda to look at it in detail.
It was almost like a case of deja vu looking back at the Cathedral from the statehouse steps!
A close-up view of the dome now that we knew how massive it was:
Having been to so many capitol buildings by this time we know we'd never seen one of them honor Special Forces in Laos on statehouse grounds before. The monument in St. Paul was comprised of four tiers, representing Before the War, During the War, Post War, and Resettlement. Each side of the sprout told a story from a different point of view. It was an absolutely exquisite way to honor those Hmong who had resettled in the state.
Also on the grounds was this inspiring Spiral for Justice that honored the lifetime achievements of civil rights icon Roy Wilkins.
The city's Art Deco-style City Hall and Courthouse seemed as mammoth in proportion as the statehouse! We didn't have time to visit but I read that each of its 19 floors featured marble and hardwoods from countries around the world.
When Steven told me about the cute Peanuts cartoon character sculptures in Rice Park, located in the heart of downtown St. Paul, I was all in! Who wouldn't want to sit beside Marcie reading a book across from the Downtown Central Library? Not me, as you can see!
Peppermint Patty:
Steven plopped himself down on a bench in the park while I went exploring for more Peanuts characters throughout the park and beyond!
The historic St. Paul Hotel faced one side of the park.
Any Peanuts fans out there who know definitively who these characters are? Let me know, will you!
Linus, we think!
More of the park that seemed so attractive but was dead as a doornail on a summer's weekday afternoon for some reason.
The elegant Landmark Center faced another side of Rice Park.
This impressive building was catty-corner to the park.
The most adorable sculpture in my mind was this one of whom we think were Lucy and Charlie Brown! What a shame Steven didn't get to spot these up close but I know he appreciated his downtime.
In one corner of the park was this statue honoring essayist, screenwriter, and short-story writer and St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald probably best known for The Great Gatsby.
I was surprised the Church of Scientology had such a vast presence in the city. I don't recall ever seeing another one in any other city and we have traveled through an overwhelming number of US cities and towns over the years.
As much as I especially loved so much about downtown St. Paul, it was nice to retreat to Indian Mounds Regional Park.
A sign reminded us that we needed to be respectful while walking through the park as it had been a burial place for thousands of years and that the sacred lands extended beyond the park to the bluffs spanning the region and even further than that.
While sitting in the park overlooking Holman Field, the city's downtown airport, I finished knitting a dress for our almost one-year-old granddaughter, Clara, as we'd be seeing her in Chicago in a few days' time. What a relief to have it completed in time! It was actually very soothing knitting while watching small jets land and take off every few minutes from our vantage point.
Just behind us was the Airway Beacon that had been built in 1929 to define an airways corridor that pilots used as their route between Chicago and St. Paul.
If you've been reading the blog for a while, you likely remember seeing photos of old-time carousels around the country as we try and see them, too, in addition to state capitols, executive mansions, etc. Kay - you know that firsthand from our visit with you and Gary to one in Couer D'Alene last summer!
The Cafesjian's Carousel was built in 1914 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company and spent 75 years at the Minnesota State Fair before being rescued at auction in 1998. Imagine our disappointment when we noticed the sign indicating the oppressive heat had closed down the carousel for the day.
The closest we got to the carousel was striking our faces right up to the window and peering in. With a bit of imagination, we could almost hear the music playing and watch the horses go round and round.
Steven and I arrived just five minutes too late to walk around the Conservatory. Just one more reason to return to the Twin Cities someday, I thought, as the building and grounds looked amazing.
In the St. Paul suburb of Roseville, I gazed enviously at all these lined up in front of the state's oldest Dairy Queen or DQ as I am a big fan of DQ blizzard treats! The odd-shaped little building opened in 1947 and still appealed to ice cream lovers almost 75 years later.
Next post: Goodbye Minneapolis/St.Paul and Hello Madison, Wisconsin!
Posted on June 16th, 2021, from Lexington, Virginia, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Tomorrow we look forward to continuing our exploration of one of this nation's most scenic roads as we follow it through the state of Virginia to North Carolina.
No comments:
Post a Comment