THE KENWOOD ARMORY

The predecessor to the Minneapolis Armory was located at present-day Kenwood Parkway and Lyndale Ave.  It was built in 1906, dedicated on January 8, 1907.  With its castle-like fortresses, it certainly looks formidable.

 

In addition to being used as the home of the National Guard, it was the site of the nascent auto shows of the turn of the last century.  The photo below comes from the University of Minnesota and also dates to 1907.

 

 

One blog says that the building was built on sand, so the foundation kept sinking.  The Kenwood Armory was demolished in 1934, and is now the site of the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden.

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THE MINNEAPOLIS ARMORY

The Minneapolis Armory is located at 500-530 So. 6th Street.

From the Historyapolis Facebook Page:

The Minneapolis Armory, a structure in downtown Minneapolis, is a relic from a forgotten age. This concrete fortress on the corner of 5th Street and 5th Avenue, on the eastern edge of downtown, is a monument to the city’s past troubles. Constructed in 1935, it was planted in downtown as a bulwark against revolution, a legacy of the civil unrest that happened on the streets of downtown Minneapolis in the summer of 1934. That year, battle lines were drawn between the Citizens’ Alliance – an employers’ organization – and a group of radical labor organizers, determined to win a greater voice for workers in a city known for its hostility to unions. Organizing first a union and then a strike, the Teamsters prevailed, but only after Governor Floyd Olson called in the National Guard to keep the peace. Troops under the command of Adjutant General Allard A. Walsh made the city into an armed encampment, setting up machine gun installations and military roadblocks around the downtown.

In the aftermath of the Truckers’ Strike, leaders of the National Guard decided to build their new military installation downtown, ignoring the protests of some city residents. There is “no reason why we should throw away more tax money in this smoky, semi-slum section of the city,” H.M Orfield argued in a letter to the editor, penned in 1934. “It will always be a rendezvous for transient laborers and homeless, hungry men seeking city aid.” The National Guard remained steadfast, arguing that events of the previous summer had demonstrated the importance of having a military installation at the center of the city.

Hoping that the construction would bring jobs and economic development to a deteriorating part of the city, community leaders embraced this effort, lending their support to the largest WPA project in Minnesota.

 

 

 

Musical performances were held in the building from the start, and lasted through the 1970s, hosting such luminaries as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and James Brown.

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Hennepin County bought the Armory in 1989 with plans to build a new county jail on the site.

The Minnesota Historical Society sued and in 1993 the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the structure was protected by state law and could not be torn down because of its historical status.

The building was put on the National Register of Historic Places on September 26, 1985.

Its next use was as a parking structure.

As of early 2017, the Minneapolis Armory was purchased by a new owner, revitalized, and now the host to a number of social functions: concerts, sporting events, trade shows, and other private celebrations.