Minneapolis Armory Construction 1935 Chevrolet Leader News Newsreel Vol. 1 No. 3
more at
http://news.quickfound.net/cities/minneapolis
.html
'
Title Card: "
USA" superimposed over cement mixer driving through construction site.
Cement (concrete) mixer turning into construction site; driving up ramp.
Mixer parked beneath loading station. Workers emptying sacks of cement into mixer. VS mixer driving along busy street. Cement flowing from mixer (worker shovelling cement along shoot into foundation).
Truck, loaded with cut logs, driving through clearing in woods (2 workers prominent). Approaching truck laden with logs. CU (passing) truck laden with logs.
Lumberjack wielding ax (collapses log pile).
Worker operating saw mill. Truck, loaded with milled lumber, driving through clearing in woods (stacked timber and pine trees in BG).'
Public domain film from the
Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/
3.0/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_Armory
The
Minneapolis Armory is located in downtown
Minneapolis, Minnesota. The armory was built for the
Minnesota National Guard in 1935-36 and was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in
1985.
The armory was the costliest single building in
Minnesota supported by a
Public Works Administration grant. The building is an example of the
PWA Moderne style, a design characterized by strong geometry, bold contouring and integrated sculpture ornamentation. The building was designed by
St. Paul architect
P.C. Bettenburg, who was also a major in the Minnesota National Guard.
From the late
1930s through the
1970s, it was a venue for civic events, including concerts, political conventions and sporting events such as
Golden Gloves tournaments. The building was used by the
Minneapolis Lakers of the
National Basketball Association as a part time home between 1947--59, and as its primary home court for the 1959--60
NBA season.
The National Guard ceased operations at the armory in
1980.
Hennepin County bought the armory in
1989 for 4.7 million dollars, with plans to place a new county jail on the site.
The Minnesota Historical Society sued to stop its destruction 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. In
1998, the county sold the building for 2.6 million dollars
USD to a private company for use as a parking structure on condition that it be preserved. That is its present use.
Minneapolis native
Prince used the building to shoot the music video for "
1999" in
1982. 16 years later,
Aerosmith recorded the video for their song "I
Don't Want to Miss a Thing" in the armory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Works_Administration
Public Works Administration (
PWA), part of the New
Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the
United States headed by
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the
National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the
Great Depression. It built large-scale public works such as dams, bridges, hospitals, and schools. Its goals were to spend $3.3 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in all, to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, and help revive the economy. Most of the spending came in two waves in 1933-35, and again in
1938.
Originally called the
Federal Emergency Administration of
Public Works, it was renamed the Public Works Administration in
1939 and shut down in 1943.
The PWA spent over $6 billion in contracts to private construction firms that did the actual work. It created an infrastructure that generated national and local pride in the 1930s and remains vital seven decades later. The PWA was much less controversial than its rival agency with a confusingly similar name, the
Works Progress Administration (
WPA), headed by
Harry Hopkins, which focused on smaller projects and hired unemployed unskilled workers
...
When
President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved industry toward
World War II production, the PWA was abolished and its functions were transferred to the
Federal Works Agency in June 1943.
Contrast with WPA
The PWA should not be confused with its great rival the Works Progress Administration (WPA), though both were part of the New Deal. The WPA, headed by Harry Hopkins, engaged in smaller projects in close cooperation with local governments... The WPA hired only people on relief who were paid directly by the federal government. The PWA gave contracts to private firms who did all the hiring on the private sector job market. The WPA also had youth programs (the
NYA), projects for women, and arts projects that the PWA did not have...