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Placeography is a wiki where you can share the history of and stories about a house, building, farmstead, public land, neighborhood or any place to which you have a personal connection. If you don't have a place to contribute, please enjoy learning about others.

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The Roy Wilkins Auditorium is named after the prominent Civil Rights leader who began his long and impressive career in civil and human rights in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Auditorium is significant to the African American heritage of Minnesota because of its association with Roy Wilkins, and it was designed by African American architect Clarence 'Cap' Wigington. Wilkins started out as an editor for a newspaper called the Northwest Bulletin. In 1955, after 24 years service in various NAACP positions, Wilkins became the organization's leader. Wilkins was worked for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. When Wigington took a civil service exam for the St. Paul City Architect's office, he scored the highest out of all those who completed the exam. He was appointed the senior draughtsman for the Office of Parks, Playgrounds, and Public Buildings. He designed city buildings and public structures including Monroe and Wilson Junior High and Washington High School, fire stations, park buildings and the Highland Park Water Tower. Although Wigington's architectural style was described as "simple, strong and clean", his ice palaces for St. Paul's Winter Carnival, were elaborately decorative.
February is Black History Month! Add a new place associated with Black history to Placeography!

The Minnesota Historical Society's 1968 Exhibit explores a pivotal year in history, covering everything from the volatile Vietnam War to the music, movies, fashion and more that defined a generation. While the exhibit takes a look at the year 1968 on a national level, we decided to hunt down what places in the Twin Cities were important, influential and just plain interesting to our state in 1968. Minneapolis's West Bank neighborhood was considered the Haight-Ashbury of the Twin Cities, and this tour begins in the West Bank, the focal point of Minnesota's counterculture movement, due partially to the proximity of the students at the nearby University of Minnesota. Two of the most powerful forces in the 1960s were activism and pop culture, and Minnesota was no exception. This tour examines many locations of local anti-war and civil rights demonstrations as well as centers of music, theater and more that helped make 1968 a pivotal year locally as well as nationally. All of these 1968 sites listed in this tour have spaces available to add memories or stories, so please feel free to add your own reflections.

ARCH 5670 Class Project
See what the students in Arthur Chen's ARCH 5670 class at the University of Minnesota have done!