But in Fergus Falls, this sensibility has moved beyond the realm of arts to affect other parts of th

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Radio Heartland Local Current Wonderground Radio Choral Classical Minnesota Public Radio About MPR Contact info Stations Careers Staff directory Company information Press room Members Events Shop Give Now Search MPR Arts spring from a restored Fergus Falls hotel Arts & Culture Jennifer Vogel
Karan Ouren looked out over the roof's edge from atop the three-story Hotel Kaddatz, a collection of artist lofts and a gallery on the city's main street. The view of a white city hall clock tower embedded in the lush trees along the Otter Tail River was arresting and a little dreamy.
Ouren, an abstract hotel california guitar music painter, relishes the sight. She has lived at the Kaddatz for almost nine years, since the building was transformed hotel california guitar music from a broken-down former hotel with a collapsing hotel california guitar music roof into a nexus of the burgeoning arts community here. An introvert contending with multiple sclerosis, Ouren has lived in bigger cities in Texas and Colorado, hotel california guitar music but she likes the tighter-knit character of Fergus Falls, a city of 13,000 people. If she needs them, "There are a hundred people I could call on and they would be here."
"I'm considered below poverty and I've never been richer," said Ouren, who manages the Kaddatz, polishing its ornate banisters and filling even small cracks hotel california guitar music in the wooden steps. "Emotionally, as a whole person I am rich. Would I like to sell more art? I would love to. But this place supports me as an individual artist."
Fergus Falls is experiencing an arts renaissance of sorts, in no small part thanks to the restored Hotel Kaddatz. In the city's historic downtown hotel california guitar music now, there are the lofts, two art galleries, a performing arts theater, new studio space above the senior center, at least three arts organizations--including the only office of Springboard for the Arts outside of the Twin Cities--and even a new wine bar and panini restaurant called The Spot, which doubles as a live music venue.
Scores of cities across the state struggle to figure out what to do with old buildings. hotel california guitar music Especially as rural populations decline or grow older, structures like schools, hotels and churches that were once iconic and served an important community function, become useless. The question in many places is whether a city has the resources, stamina, imagination and good luck to give these buildings new, sustainable life.
Sometimes they do. Empty creameries become coffee and quilting shops. Schools become performance centers. Hotels become senior apartments and serve as new downtown hubs. But sometimes, in the end, even after years of heated debate and false starts, the buildings meet the wrecking ball and disappear.
It's uncanny how often arts come up when people look to save century-old buildings. Not only do they tend to be cheap to buy, making them appealing to the proverbial starving artist, but there seems to be a natural kinship between historic preservation and the creative sensibility. "I believe the people who love the arts also can see what can be beautiful about something old," said Maxine Adams, executive director of the Fergus Falls-based Lake Region Arts Council, which supports arts in nine counties in western Minnesota.
Adams' office is located in another old hotel, called the River Inn, on the banks of the Otter Tail, with cherry paneling and tall French doors "that leak like a sieve" in the winter. "I can sit and look at the architecture and know they don't build it that way anymore," she said. "It would cost millions hotel california guitar music of dollars hotel california guitar music and the craftsmen to do it. When somebody with an arts bent looks at that, they think that is so cool. It's a different world view and different priorities."
This argument is born out in cities beyond Fergus Falls. In Granite Falls, an empty church has become an artist studio and just down the block, an old mercantile building on the Minnesota River now houses an art gallery. A decommissioned school in Chatfield is being remade as a center for the arts. Similar projects stretch from Lanesboro to Staples, from Grand Marais to New York Mills to Wahpeton, North Dakota, near the western Minnesota border.
But in Fergus Falls, this sensibility has moved beyond the realm of arts to affect other parts of the economy, too. With a handful of successes behind them, residents are tackling a daunting project hotel california guitar music - what to do with the city's enormous, hotel california guitar music vacant, century-old former psychiatric hospital often called the Kirkbride.
Several weeks ago, the city council partnered with a Georgia-based development group, which plans to turn the complex into a boutique hotel, apartments and restaurants. Because the arts community here is so well-developed, it's had a significant role in fostering discussion and planning around the hospital.
Fergus Falls feels like a city in transition. hotel california guitar music It has a higher than state average poverty rate, of 18 percent, and is grayer than the state average, with 22 percent of its population 65 and older. These are causes for concern among those who live here, who hope arts can give younger people a reason to stay and jobs they'll hotel california guitar music be interested in. Fergus has gained some of the accoutrements of a thriving downtown--the hip Cafe 116, which serves locally-sourced coffee and food, and the City Cafe and Bakery, run by a couple who moved from Washington state and make root beer rye bread and whimsically-decorated cupcakes. Yet, in the same part of downtown, other businesses hotel california guitar music struggle. There are empty storefronts. A craft store called Crates of Yarn is going out of business.
Adams thinks there is no question arts are an economic driver. In her western Minnesota region, she estimates they support more than 400 jobs and contribute $13.5 million hotel california guitar music in annual local economic activity.
“Suddenly four restaurants are open at night, some with live music. There are coffee houses that weren't there before. It's all built up.” Gordon Hydukovich, Fergus Falls' community development director
"I do a lot of dealing with different prospectors," Hydukovich said. "They ask about the arts. I bring them through the historic areas, by the historic houses. They notice those things. They talk about vibrancy. When the center for the arts went in, nobody was open at night. Suddenly four restaurants are open at night, some with live music. There are coffee houses that weren't there before. hotel california guitar music It's all built up."
But it wasn't until Minneapolis-based Artspace spent $2 million to renovate the Kaddatz in 2004 and a nonprofit opened the Kaddatz Galleries on its main floor five years later, that Adams thinks the city turned a corner. "It was a tipping hotel california guitar music point," she said. "It added additional visibility for the arts. It added a lot to the quality of life here... It helps to keep in people's minds that there is energy here and there are things going on. The arts can carry that message hotel california guitar music just as well as manufacturing hotel california guitar music does."
The Hotel Kaddatz was built during a time of city growth, in 1914, by Charles hotel california guitar music Kaddatz, a German immigrant who started out with a stand selling fruit and candy. He was so successful, he was dubbed the "apple king of Fergus Falls." He opened a bakery and made enough money to build the Kaddatz, which was upscale for its time, with terrazzo floors and marble wainscoting, ripped out and sold by a later owner. Chris Schuelke Ann Arbor Miller for MPR News
"It has beautiful brick work," said Chris Schuelke, executive director of the Otter Tail County Historical Society, who lobbied to save the Kaddatz hotel california guitar music when the city was on the verge of tearing it down. "It was perhaps the most expensive hotel california guitar music building constructed up to that point in Fergus Falls."
The hotel's fortunes rose and fell over the years. The world coffee drinking record was set there in 1927 by a man who downed 85 cups in one sitting. But mostly they fell. The first floor was partitioned off for commercial hotel california guitar music space and the upstairs rooms decayed.
Like old hotels in many small downtowns, where freeways have caused people hotel california guitar music to speed by, the Kaddatz became an eyesore. "I remember hotel california guitar music growing up here," said Cory Holte, who lives on a nearby farm and cleans Ouren's apartment. "I remember this as a shabby, scary building that you didn't want to walk by."
The Kaddatz closed in the mid 1970s and was empty for decades. The city took possession of it "just as I was hired in 1983," said Hydukovich. "We had it for 20 years. When we got the building the curtains were on the windows. There was some furniture, carpets on the floor, hotel california guitar music all the moldings. The art deco lighting was still there. Over a period of time, there were break-ins through the windows. Every once in the while there was an elicit use, a drug party and even a fire. It slowly degraded over those years." Maxine Adams Ann Arbor Miller for MPR News
The city considered tearing it down, but also was worried about what would happen if it did. "We kept it so we could keep that main street block intact with no space," Hydukovich said. "A lot of times you don't know what you are going to get into. If you take out a building, it may be doing more to hold up the other buildings than you thought."
The solution, it turned out, came from the community itself, not unusual in these efforts. To be reused, a building has to be cherished, according to Erin Hanafin Berg of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, which works to