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11 Most Endangered
Fort Snelling Upper Post
Year Listed: 2006
Location: , Minnesota
Current Status: Favorable
Threat: Deterioration
Fort Snelling Building 101, 102, 103 - Infantry Enlisted Barracks. Fort Snelling Upper Post in Hennepin County, Minnesota was on the 2006 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
Credit: Chris Morris
Significance
Fort Snelling was established in 1820 to protect fur traders and early settlers. Beginning in the late 1800s, dozens of new buildings were constructed on the Upper Bluff for training, supplies and administration. Today, Fort Snelling is a National Historic Landmark, and the Fort Snelling Historic District is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. While the original 1820s fortification is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society and is open to the public for tours, the Upper Post has had little attention for the past 25 years. The military gradually abandoned all of the buildings in the Upper Post area after World War II, disposing of parts of the site to various federal and state agencies, and now there is no clear authority responsible for overall infrastructure or stewardship. While several of the buildings were shuttered at the time they were vacated, many have suffered from deferred maintenance and vandalism over the years. When listed, the historic buildings were deteriorating at an increasingly rapid rate as a result of broken windows, damaged gutters and downspouts, and deteriorated roofs -- some of which were on the verge of collapse. The historic buildings that make up Fort Snelling's Upper Post complex occupy a unique and important place in Minnesota history.
Updates
Hennepin County secured a Save America's Treasures grant for $300,000 in 2007 and $500,000 in state capital bonding money to stabilize critical properties at the post, and with some of its own funds currently implementing improvements under the guidance of a qualified historical architect. The county is employing its Sentence-to-Serve program to make the money stretch as far as possible while training convicted offenders in the construction trades. The County also was awarded a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to fund a study of the historic cultural landscape and historic context for the 28 historic buildings on site. That study, which identified areas where new development was appropriate and suggested guidelines for new construction was completed in 2008.
In 2008 the National Trust convened an interagency stakeholders and landholders group which has been meeting monthly to develop a strategy to consolidate land titles and development rights from the myriad of federal, state and local agencies involved and to develop a master plan for redevelopment of the area. Chaired by Peter McLaughlin, Hennepin County Commissioner, the stakeholders explored models for redevelopment and governance at other similar abandoned military installations and will soon seek a federally commissioned Reserve and a non-profit Historic Trust to oversee revitalization of the site. Concurrently, dialog is underway with Native American tribal communities with cultural ties to the site. The planning process is moving slowly but steadily toward a call for proposals for reuse of the historic buildings and appropriate infill development while the stabilization work provides time to work that out.
Share your memories of this endangered place
Submitted by Arizore at: June 1, 2009
This place might make a good bed & Breakfast if the price is right. At least it would put the property on the tax rolls. Private owners tend to find the highest and best use for land.