Statewide Group Needs Your Help To Save History in SW Minneapolis

Every city is constantly in the process of tearing down the old and building up the new, and Minneapolis is no exception.

From Uptown's new apartment buildings built on old factory foundations to Linden Hills and Fulton residents who tear down their old houses in anticipation of planting their growing families in the neighborhood for the long haul, we often blot out bits of history to meet our current needs, and often do so at great speed.

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, a statewide group dedicated to saving historic buildings, acknowledged as much recently, when it ditched a yearly campaign where it raced to save the state's 10 most threatened historic buildings from destruction. In its place, the PAM is building something called "Sites Worth Saving," a program asking locals across the state to apply to save particularly historic buildings in their communities.

“We were starting to get a large list,” Erin Hanafin Berg, PAM field representative who works on the program told Minnesota 2020. “Adding 10 sites a year was unworkable.”

The two or three sites that make it through the application process will get a good deal of help, according to the PAM website, including help raising awareness, engaging communities in the effort to save the buildings, and supporting efforts to find a preservation-minded buyer for the property. Applications can be downloaded from the Sites Worth Saving website (PDF).

So, are there sites in Southwest Minneapolis worth saving? What spots in your neighborhood are the most endangered? Leave your vote in the comments section!