Valentine’s Day Heart Bombing celebrates historic Minnesota buildings

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By Kerry Gaynor
Murphy News Service

For the second year, the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota has held a Heart Bombing week to celebrate historic buildings in and around the Twin Cities. The campaign expanded this year, honoring establishments throughout the state and with increased community member participation.

To “heart bomb” a building essentially means to give Valentines to it. The pink and red decorations stay up through the holiday, drawing attention to spaces that may go overlooked otherwise. Heart Bombing is all about celebrating vibrant buildings in the community, said Will O’Keefe, the Real Estate Program Director with the Preservation Alliance.

Heart Bombing week kicked off Feb. 9 with a party at Uptown’s LynLake Brewery. About 100 people came out to play historic Minnesota and architecture trivia and enjoy local Minneapolis craft beers.

The brewery is located in what was previously the Lyndale Theater. Over the years, it became many incarnations before becoming LynLake Brewery. For the celebration, Heart Bomb Valentines hung from the original theater marquee.

Where theater seating would have been is now the space for LynLake’s bar, featuring the many in-house brews on tap. From the bar, patrons can see the large conditioning tanks containing the different beers in the back of the building. With decorative graffiti and chalk board menus on the walls, the building’s space is not especially large, consisting primarily as a single room.

The Heart Bombing event is a concept originally borrowed from preservationists in Buffalo, N.Y. who wanted to show love to historic vacant buildings. The Alliance adopted the idea to bring a Minnesota spin that has taken off, O’Keefe said. Heart Bombing can be seen in cities and communities nationwide.

Last year, only five establishments in the Twin Cities received the Heart Bomb treatment. This year the number has increased with a dozen or more buildings state-wide sporting the Valentines.

“I have been really blown away by the way that people have engaged with this,” O’Keefe said, adding that even more folks have spoken out about wanting to participate.

One of these people is Ivy Spoerner. Last year, Spoerner bought a foreclosed home on Park Avenue in South Minneapolis. The real estate agent is fixing up and renovating her three-story home, hoping to eventually rent out a portion of it. By heart bombing her house, Spoerner is showcasing her historic home to her neighborhood.

This is the major goal of Heart Bombing: to give love and attention to spaces with history and character that often get overlooked by the community, said O’Keefe.

There are multiple “heart bombed” Minneapolis buildings, including Spoerner’s Park Avenue home, LynLake Brewery, and the Hollywood Theatre in Northeast. There are also participating locations across the state in St. Paul, Rochester, Chatfield and Stewart.

However, there are many more buildings with heart bomb Valentines from people who participated on their own, said O’Keefe.

To see some of these historic buildings check out #HeartBomb on Twitter and Instagram. The Preservation Alliance also encourages people to post their own photos with the hashtag.

Kerry Gaynor is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.

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