Obscure Local History #10: Metropolitan Building, c. 1890 and 1961

[Metropolitan Building, 1960.]

I happened across this wonderful film made in 1961 by U of MN students, focusing on the famous and tragic Metropolitan Building in the Gateway District. It includes the speech given at the opening of the Metropolitan Building in 1890...

This day in 1890 shows that men of rare business ability are not afraid to place their money in a building investment involving many hundreds of thousands of dollars. All Minneapolis units today to pay tribute to the men who have built in this great structure not only a monument to their own usefulness in the community, but an enduring testimonial to the gigantic progress of the greatest city on the vast valley of the Mississippi. 

... and then continues to show, to a then-contemporary cool bop soundtrack,  the demolition of that same building seventy years later. It's a well made film about one of Minneapolis' huge mistakes. Check it out.