Neighbors try to save the Pauline Fjelde house

BY THORSTON ERICSSON

Pauline Fjelde was a seamstress who emigrated from Norway to Minneapolis in 1887.  She and her sister embroidered a Minnesota State flag for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which is still a prized possession of the Minnesota Historical Society.

A group of housing preservationists met early in December to try to save the Pauline Fjelde house, located at 3009 Park Avenue.  They included Bob Roscoe, formerly of the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission, and interested people from across the city.  They proposed to the Housing Committee of CANDO (the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization) that the house be saved.

Although a stucco façade covers the original wood, and additions have made it seem mundane and not unique, the original house was designed by the firm of Boehmme and Cordella, who also designed the Gluek Building, Grain Belt Bottling House and the American Swedish Institute. The house was built in 1907 and Pauline Fjelde used the house as her home and her dressmaking and embroidery shop from 1907 to 1918.

Pauline Fjelde was a seamstress who emigrated from Norway to Minneapolis in 1887.  She and her sister embroidered a Minnesota State flag for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which is still a prized possession of
the Minnesota Historical Society.

A recommendation by the CANDO Housing and Land Use Committee to save the house was made to the full board, but the board, rather than approving the recommendation and sending that resolution to the Minneapolis City Council, referred the motion to the CANDO Economic Development Committee. The house is owned by the Schoffmans, who own the storefronts on Lake Street that are adjacent to the Fjelde house.  They want to demolish the house and use the land for a parking lot for their businesses.  There is unused commercial property kitty-corner from the storefronts at the vacant Jordan gas station that could be used for parking, but that property is owned by Sabri Properties, and Basim Sabri reportedly wants a million dollars for it.