Title
Partnering with and supporting the American Indian Family and Children’s Services (AIFACS) to apply for a Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant (Legacy) to structurally stabilize the historic Pattern Shop of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company Shops at 25 Empire Drive.
Body
WHEREAS, the Pattern Shop at 25 Empire Drive is one of three remaining 1882 limestone buildings that were part of a larger complex of shops built for the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway (aka Jackson Street Shops) under the direction of James J. Hill. The oldest railroad shops complex in Minnesota, it was from these shops that Mr. Hill, the “Empire Builder,” equipped and maintained the railroad that became the largest system in the nation, the Great Northern Railway; and
WHEREAS, the Jackson Street Shops were designated a St. Paul Heritage Preservation Site in 1985 (Ordinance No. 17268) and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as part of a major (and controversial) redevelopment effort, by the St. Paul Port Authority and the City of Saint Paul. During that time the three buildings were rehabilitated in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation; and
WHEREAS, the Pattern Shop was rehabilitated into office space and was purchased by the American Indian Family and Children's Services (AIFACS) in 1995, a nonprofit corporation established that year to coordinate and provide foster care services for American Indian children in Minnesota; and
WHEREAS, the roof of the Pattern Shop has been in a state of collapse since mid-November 2012, resulting from failure of all of the structure's trusses; and
WHEREAS, the City of Saint Paul has been working closely with the owner to stabilize and ultimately rehabilitate the structure without compromising the agency's mission to provide foster care and services; and
WHEREAS, the City contracted for the emergency shoring and stabilization of the buildi...
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