Shortly before the building opened, a fundraising drive was launched to pay for a grand pipe organ. The Minneapolis Auditorium opened to great fanfare in 1927, hailed by one local business leader as “one of the greatest civic attractions we have.” It was home to concerts, exhibitions, meetings and sporting events – including Minneapolis Lakers basketball games starting in the 1940s. Money, or a lack thereof, is the thread that runs through the Mighty Kimball’s history. “It can go from a whisper – something very transparent, like incense – to the roar of a salvo of cannons.” Paul by American Public Media and broadcast on 100 public radio stations nationwide. “It’s ravishingly beautiful, and it has the potential to move hearts and souls with its music, if given half a chance,” said Michael Barone, the host and senior executive producer of “Pipedreams,” which is produced in St. Instead, its myriad pieces quietly occupy a warren of rooms that were originally intended to house its complicated mechanics. To this day, an elaborate bronze plaque in the building’s lobby thanks to people who donated money for “the preservation and reinstallation of the Mighty Kimball organ.” The plan was to reassemble it inside one of the convention center’s domed exhibition halls. In 1987, shortly before the Minneapolis Auditorium was razed, the organ was carefully dismantled, cataloged and stored in wooden crates.
“It seems like a waste to have some big, beautiful instrument, sitting in boxes,” said Plymouth resident Tyler Breuch, one of several people who sought answers about the whereabouts of the instrument from Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune’s reader-powered reporting project. And some wonder if it will ever be heard again. They felt it.īut the grand pipes of the “Mighty Kimball” fell silent three decades ago – banished to storage at the Minneapolis Convention Center, which now occupies the former site of the auditorium. Audiences at the Minneapolis Auditorium did not just listen to this thunderous instrument. One of the largest pipe organs ever produced in the United States was the pride of Minneapolis when it debuted nearly a century ago. Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher
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