Minnesota Town Celebrates Renovation of Lost Cause

Preservation, October, 2005 by Margaret Foster

Last month, Fairmont, Minn., celebrated the rededication of a 107-year-old building most of the town's 10,800 residents almost gave up on five years ago.

"When we started out, the odds were that everyone would say, 'Tear it down," because it was in such bad shape," says Don Milbrandt, project manager for the Romanesque structure now known as the Red Rock Center of the Arts.

"By the end of the 1990s, it was in such poor condition that the Minnesota Historical Society thought it could hardly be salvaged—and we don't often come up with that conclusion," says Valerie Hauch of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Designed by Harry Jones in 1898 for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, the National Register-listed building, which is made of Sioux red quartzite, had...

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