Preservation Group Needs Your Help To Save History in Hopkins

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota is looking for endangered buildings.

Every city is constantly in the process of tearing down the old and building up the new, and Hopkins is no exception. From tacking additions on to old buildings to replacing aging structures outright, we blot out bits of history to meet our current needs—and often do so at great speed. The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, a statewide group dedicated to saving historic buildings, acknowledged as much recently, when it ditched a yearly campaign where it raced to save the state's 10 most threatened historic buildings from destruction. In its place, the PAM is building something called "Sites Worth Saving," a program asking locals across the state to apply to save particularly historic buildings in their communities. “We were starting to …

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Local Researcher Talks About The Hopkins Library’s 100 years

Kristin Kaspar researched and wrote a history of the Hopkins Library in celebration of the library’s centennial.

Kristin Kaspar studied history in Augsburg College and was a member of the school’s history club. She works as a software quality assurance analyst, so she considered it fortuitous when a chance encounter led to an offer to write an article on the Hopkins Library’s 100th anniversary. “It’s fate,” she marveled. “They didn’t know me. I didn’t have anything published.” Kaspar, a Hopkins resident, was well suited to delving into the library’s past, though. In addition to a love of writing and history, she grew up in Minnetonka, just on the other side of Shady Oak Road. Her family has deep roots in this area and worked at the businesses that made Hopkins. As the library prepares to celebrate its anniversary Sunday, Hopkins Patch sat down with …

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12 Days of Hannukwanzaamas

A Festival of Lights

How well do you know your Menorah?

Hannukah is observed by the kindling of one light on the Menorah every night for eight nights. While there are eight days in the celebration, the Menorah features a ninth light—the shamash—raised in the center of the Menorah. Why does the Menorah hold a ninth light? Editor's Note: Select your answer in the poll below and tell us how you know the answer in the comments section. We'll post the correct answer later Tuesday.

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Caitlin Burgess

12:44 pm on Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Will you be attending any Jewish services during the Hanukkah holiday? If so, any place in particular that people should check out if they are interested?   more ›