Posted by Anne M on Tuesday, Mar 1, 2016
It was announced last week that the United Action for Youth building at 422 Iowa Ave is moving to a new home: 623 College Street. What will it take to move the beautiful Queen Anne a few blocks? To get an idea, take a look at some of our u
rban renewal photographs on the Digital History Project, which include several houses parading down the street to new locations.
To find these photographs, search for “house relocation.” For more photographs on urban renewal, click on “Browse Collections” and choose the collection “Urban Renewal, 1970’s-1980’s.”
Set in 1894 Minneapolis, the backdrop is a new city, teeming with possibilities--and every vice that comes with that. Abby, a progressive crusader and treasurer of the Bethany House for Unwed Mothers is desperately trying to solicit donations and lobby city leaders to support the work of the respite home. She needs to shore up their reputation as their work might not have the support of the incoming mayoral administration. And then Faith shows up. Newly pregnant, unable to speak, wearing an expensive gown, and looking as if she survived a serious act of violence, Faith is welcomed into the house’s community. But she comes with rumors—rumors of the occult, of magic powers, of mesmerism and she is quickly blamed by the other girls in the house for any small misfortune. Abby wants to help the girl—that is her prerogative and the purpose of the Bethany Home. But she also doesn’t want Faith’s reputation to be a blight on their tenuous stance in Minneapolis. She tasks May, Faith’s roommate to figure out how Faith got to Bethany. The answer is far more human than supernatural. -Anne M