As so often happens with blog posts, a number of little things come together to make a much bigger topic. Such is the case with today’s post. It started with a National Register nomination I was reading, was further reinforced by the mention of a local building in a city document, then developed into a full-fledged puzzlement followed by a really big question. Historic Structures with Non-Historic Additions I sit on the Minnesota State Review…
Johnny Appleseed – The Mythic Tree-Planting Hero Remember learning about Johnny Appleseed as a kid in elementary school? I do. For my readers who may not have heard about Johnny Appleseed, he was a guy from the past who, we were told, wore a tin pot on his head and walked all over the place planting apple trees in America. It’s a pretty vague mythic sort of tale. Where did this guy walk? In my…
The Importance of an Accurate Census I recently attended a board retreat in Rochester, MN, for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) having joined the board this year (2019). During the retreat, there was a panel entitled “Census 2020: Nonprofits Take Action.” When it comes to the United States’ democratic republic, we hear a lot about getting people out to vote in elections. However, one of the main foundations of having proper representation for the…