Today, my friend and I spent a couple of hours enjoying the beauty of St.Paul’s Landmark Center which is located in beautiful Rice Park. The magnificent building was designed by Willoughby J. Edbrooke, who served as a supervising architect for the U.S. Treasury Department. Local architects James Knox Taylor and Edward Bassford supervised the building which cost approximately $2.5 million dollars. The turn of the century masterpiece is often referred to as St. Paul’s very own fairy tale castle. The interior four story courtyard has a grand skylight, which displays the splendid oak and mahogany wood working and marble staircases used throughout the building. The rooms on the upper levels have twenty foot ceilings and one of the rooms houses the Schubert Club Museum, which was established in 1882. We looked inside through the large window and saw a collection of rare instruments, keyboards and manuscripts.
The Landmark Center was originally used as a Federal Post Office, Courtroom and Custom House for Minnesota. When the Federal building was moved to a new location, in 1967, the building was already in need of much restoration so a group of concerned and determined citizens saved the building from demolition and during the years 1972 to 1978, the building was restored to it’s original grandeur. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places and opened to the public in 1978, when it became a center for preservation of the arts and culture.
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While we were there,we attended a program of classical music which is put on every Thursday by the Schubert Club Musicians. Though I usually do not listen to classical music, I can certainly appreciate the great talent of the musicians. One has to acquire a taste for different kinds of music and culture by exposure to the many opportunities to enjoy them , which are plentiful in our twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
While we were down there , we noticed that already they are beginning to set up decorations for the beautiful Rice Park display which will feature those grand ice sculptures which magically appear every year during the winter carnival. This year, we hope to be there to take photographs to share . In Minnesota, with our varied seasons, we always have something special to look forward to with anticipation.
