The Harriet Island Pavilion, also known as the Clarence W. Wigington Pavilion, is a park pavilion on Harriet Island just across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

from downtown

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

, United States. It was designed by Clarence W. Wigington, the nation's first black municipal architect, and renamed for Wigington after a 2000 restoration. Harriet island was named for

Harriet Bishop Harriet E. Bishop (January 1, 1817 – August 8, 1883) was an American educator, writer, Women's suffrage, suffragist, and temperance movement, temperance activist. Born in Panton, Vermont, she moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1847. There, she st ...

, a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

school teacher from

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. She arrived in Saint Paul in 1847, was involved in the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

, and opened the first school in the frontier city, teaching children of diverse ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.

History

The park at Harriet Island was built by Dr. Justus Ohage, Saint Paul's health officer, who donated the land to the city in 1900. His idea for the park was to build a place for healthy living in the center of the city. The park originally had a public bathhouse and beach, along with amenities like playgrounds, picnic grounds, handball and tennis courts, and a bandstand. The park was initially very popular, but pollution from the Mississippi River forced the bathhouse to close in 1919. The city made several attempts to revitalize the park, but none of the attempts was particularly successful until the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

built the pavilion in 1941-1942. The architecture combines Moderne design with classical influences. The

Kasota limestone Kasota limestone or simply, Kasota stone, also called Mankato stone, is a dolomitic limestone found in southern Minnesota, especially near the Minnesota River and its tributaries. This sedimentary rock is part of the Oneota Dolomite of southern ...

used in the construction was salvaged from the former Saint Paul City Hall and Ramsey County Courthouse, which was built in 1889 and demolished in 1933.

References

{{Mississippi National River and Recreation Area National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Moderne architecture in Minnesota Clarence W. Wigington buildings Government buildings completed in 1942 National Register of Historic Places in Saint Paul, Minnesota Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Works Progress Administration in Minnesota 1942 establishments in Minnesota

History

See also

References