Wednesday, November 13

Hennepin History Museum is excited to announce we are partnering with Preserve Minneapolis as part of the museum’s new Program Partners initiative. This lecture is part of Preserve Minneapolis’s Minneapolis History Lecture Series and is about Minneapolis’ first housing project, Sumner Field Homes. Two more lectures will be held at the museum over the next several months with speakers provided by Preserve Minneapolis.  Click here for information about future topics.

The Sumner Field Homes, completed in 1938, was the first federally-funded housing project in Minnesota. Kate Solomonson will discuss Sumner Field’s design and the controversies that surrounded its construction; as well as the 1990s lawsuit that led to its demolition, the preservation and social issues that arose, and the question of how Sumner Field—and Heritage Park, which replaced it—relate to the city’s heritage.

Kate Solomonson, Ph.D., is an architectural historian who taught in the University of Minnesota’s School of Architecture for over thirty years. In the early 1990s, she was part of a research team that documented Sumner Field’s history and developed scenarios for the site’s future. Currently she serves on Minnesota’s State Historic Preservation Review Board, and co-edits a book series—Architecture, Landscape, and American Culture—published by the University of Minnesota Press.

Doors open at 6:15pm.

Free parking is available in the museum’s lot and on 3rd Ave S.

This program will also be presented virtually on Zoom. Email info@hennepinhistory.org to receive the link and passcode.

Hennepin History Museum is partnering with Preserve Minneapolis to present this program.

Image from https://dsl.richmond.edu/