Dania Hall, Minneapolis Minnesota
On 10 November 1875 the Danish-American community of Minneapolis formed the Society Dania as a benevolent association and library to help immigrant young Danes to adjust to life in the United States. This society continued on to serve an important role in Minneapolis Scandinavian history for the next fifty years.
Eleven years after its founding, members commissioned the architect, C.F. Struck, to design their first edifice. was dedicated with much pomp and folk pagentry on 10 November 1886. It soon became not only a gathering place for Danish-Americans, but also a center for vaudeville entertainment which featured Scandinavian Americans talent. It was also the site of an annual Thanksgiving Turkey raffle, the Society Dania Festival, and a gala Christmas celebration. Also countless parties, wedding receptions, and meetings filled its rooms over its many active years. The Society did not restrict the use of the hall or entertainment to its members or to the Danish community, it was open to all and provided a significant community and cultural resource.
The Riverside neighborhood began as a result of its proximity both to the fledgling city of Minneapolis, founded to take advantage of the waterpower of St. Anthony Falls, and to the Mississippi River, where continued development of industry occurred along its banks. People settled close to their place of employment; the location of industry dictated the location of residential areas. Riverside developed when industry took hold on the west bank of the river. The choice of newcomers to settle here, as opposed to other places, was due to the kind of industry and the kind of employment available. Since the Washburn Mill was next to Riverside, those ethnic groups familiar with milling and seeking employment that could accommodate their skills, naturally settled in this area. A characteristic unique to Riverside as opposed to other parts of Minneapolis, was that it began and remained the area where immigrants new to the city made their first homes. Once individuals attained economic stability and were able to purchase a house, they moved out of the area to other locations in the city. These new locations, in turn, became new neighborhoods with people of like, or similar, ethnic origins. This identity was to remain over a period of time and, in some cases, is still in existence today. Riverside, then, cannot be associated with a single group of people that claimed the area as its own and shaped its make-up. Riverside finds its identity in the diversity of the people, institutions and social organizations. Through the latter, the people marked or influenced the area before moving out to other parts of the city. This turn-over and rapid movement of groups of immigrants in and out of the area gives Riverside a colorful and varied past, blurring distinctions of any single group as being dominant, yet recognizing the importance each nationality had in the development of the area.
Outside of the Mill and the employment it offered, the attraction in settling in Riverside was enhanced by low, and even nonexistent, rents. The flat area below Cedar A venue on the river bank developed into an area of squatters, attracting the poorest immigrants due no rent collection. The Danish were the first to settle here in the 1870s and the area came to be known as the Danish Flats. In a brief time period, they moved up the hill to Cedar and the Flats became known as the Connemara Patch, due to the Irish becoming the dominant group in the area. Finally, by the 1890s, the Patch became known as the Bohemian Flats as a result of the influx of Czech settlers to the area. For each of the groups, it was their first place of settlement in the city, and as each group attained economic security and moved on, they were replaced by new ethnic groups wanting to settle near their place of employment. This area became a separate locale in the neighborhood. The rents were minimal and the residents could build their own shacks, often from scrap lumber floating down the river.
The Riverside neighborhood reached its peak in population and activity around the turn of the century. Thereafter the population slowly diminished due to people moving to new areas in Minneapolis, and fewer immigrants arriving to replace those leaving. The movement to new areas in the city was a direct result of the arrival of public transportation. The first horse-drawn trollies were installed in the city in 1876 and the first electric cars appeared in 1889. This enabled people to live away from their place of employment.
There were several other factors that contributed to the decline in population in the area. The reputation Riverside had for entertainment and saloons was greatly reduced by the Minnesota Dry Law, which greatly limited the sale of alcoholic beverages. The law went into effect in 1918, resulting in the closing of nearly a third of the Cedar Avenue storefronts. Although the halls were still open and Bond Komik, a popular form of entertainment, was still attracting the people, this was the beginning of the end for the area and its entertainment. Coupled with this, immigration, which had slowed during World War I, was virtually closed in the early 1920s. Consequently, there were few new families moving into the area to replace those moving up and out of the Riverside area. The final blow to the area and the economic attraction it held for new arrivals came from the Flats. Up until 1923, rents in the Flats had been minimal. From its beginning, it was inhabited by squatters, making claim to a plot and making it into a home. In 1920 the deed to the Flats was signed over to a land speculator, C.H. Smith. His initial attempts to collect rent were unsuccessful, and it was not until three years later, in the company of his attorney and a police lieutenant that he received his first payment from the inhabitants. For those who still refused, workmen removed their furnishings and bulldozed their homes. By spring 1923, a quarter of the Flat's population had moved out. This continued and by 1931 the last house was removed.
Dania Hall is representative of a building type developed to provide a social gathering place for residents. This type became visible in the area for people to identify with and became a part of the community. In general, this type of building had a theater on the top floor or floors of the building, meeting rooms were on the upper floor, and the street level provided an area for stores. Architecturally, the building represents no new "style"; instead, new building types were created to respond to the unique set of circumstances arising from mass immigration and migration to developing areas.
In the 1950s the Society waned and the building fell into a multitude of uses. The hall ceased to cater to meetings and performances and fell into disuse and disrepair. Only the two lower levels were occupied and the Society is gone.
Afire in July 1991 resulted in removal of the roof and portions of the balcony. As a result, the building was left open to the elements through the winter, resulting in water damage to the interior finishes. The roof was replaced and the building is made watertight.
On February 28, 2000 a fire broke out in the building and destroyed it.
The following description of the building is from 1974.
Dania Hall was constructed at the corner of Fifth Street South and Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, in 1886 according to designs by the architect C.F. Struck, It is four storeys in height with a distinctive corner tower. Characteristic of High Victorian Eclecticism, it exhibits a facade which is polychromed by red brick, white Ohio stone; and a painted pressed metal cornice, The Ohio stone is used in both flat and arched windows as well as in decorative carved panels and pilaster capitals. Design elements suggest a Gothic overtone as may be distinguished in pointed dormers in the tower, rosettes and fleur-de-lis in the galvanized iron cornice and arcade-like pointed windows in the second and third storeys. The building is surmounted by a slate mansard roof with three diminitive gables, one of which is decorated by a cast metal crest of three horses, The name "DANIA" and date 1886 is to be found within a low tympanum on the upper storey of the tower.
Formerly, the building served a function as a community center and hall for the Society Dania and the interior attests to this fact. Now used primarily for storage, the basement once contained facilities for food preparation such as a kitchen and dining hall, On the first storey (street level) were two stores and the main entry to the Society Dania via Fifth Street, The entire street level is presently used by one enterprise which has occupied these quarters for many years: Richter's Drug Store. The second storey was formerly designated for use as the Society's clubroom, billiard room, reading room and six rental offices, It is now used by the Weaver's Guild and is in a good state of preservation. Walls and ceilings in this portion of the building are covered with elaborately patterned pressed metal.
The third and fourth stories comprise the assembly hall or auditorium. This hall is 44 feet by 65 feet in dimension with accommodations for 200 seats in a circular balcony which extends along, either side of the hall to the stage, and seating for 600 on the floor level. This section of the building has retained a great deal of original furnishings and fittings; however it has not been used for a number of years and has suffered deterioration from water intrusion through the roof. The present owner has expressed concern for halting this deterioration and restoring the hall for use by community groups (as was the original intent of the Society Dania.)
