Phase one of Windego Park Society’s three-phase project for the restoration of the Anoka Amphitheater is due to be started by spring of 2009.
“It will be a good thing for the community,” Anoka Mayor Bjorn Skogquist said. “And for the businesses downtown to have an extra thousand people walking through and past businesses and participating in the restaurants, being part of what a downtown should be.”
Skogquist revived Windego Park Society while working on a high-school project in 1996. He went on to propose the project to the Anoka City Council and succeeded in forming Windego Park Society by late 1997.
In December of 2005, the Windego Park Society received a 25-year lease to rehabilitate and operate the amphitheater.
Once Phase one is complete, the amphitheater will be in working condition. It will have a wooden deck at the entrance with shelter provided. The project has two more phases before completion.
Phase two will fix up the north section of the amphitheater that has crumbled and needs major reconstruction. This will open more seating up and also provide a hidden changing room, as there once was.
Phase three will bring a more fluid and uniform look to the amphitheater. A canopy will be installed to cover the audience as well as the stage, providing shade.
Windego Park Society needs to collect enough money to support Phase one by the end of 2008. Local events are being held to collect donations. This Friday they are hosting the Classic Horror Film Festival at Avant Garden, downtown Anoka.
“The politics are so polarized here.” Alyssa Baguss, Windego Park Administrator, said. “Bjorn formally resigned from Windego in 2005 in hopes to clear any conflict of interest.”
“Windego kind of became a poster-child for saving some drug rehabilitation centers,” Baguss said. In 1998 MnDOT planned to clear a large portion of the Anoka Amphitheater, making more room for the Highway 169 construction. The Amphitheater was saved as well as a few drug treatment facilities. This frustrated many people in the City Council.
The historic amphitheater, once a spot for many different activities, began as a project by Thaddeus P. Giddings in 1914. Giddings left the amphitheater in 1936 to found the Interlochen Music College in Interlochen, Michigan. The amphitheater frequented fewer activities until it closed down was and nearly forgotten.
“This is something that’s good for Anoka.” Skogquist said. “When it’s up and running, I think a lot of people will wonder why it was ever a fight.”
©2007 Michael Erickson, WordPress
October 14th, 2007
Tags: Alyssa Baguss, Anoka, Anoka Amphitheater, Anoka City, Anoka City Blog, Anoka City Forum, Anoka Historic Preservation, Anoka Historical, Avant Garden, Bjorn Skogquist, City Council, Classic Horror Film Festival, Downtown Anoka, Giddings, Halloween Capitol, Highway 169 Construction, Historic Anoka, Historical Preservation, Interlochen, Michegan, Minnesota, MN, Paul Pierce III, Phase I, Phast One, Preservation, Thaddeus P. Giddings, William Gray Purcell, Windego Amphitheater, Windego Park Society, WPS
October 16, 2007 at 12:03 pm
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