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CATHY WURZER: It's Morning Edition on Minnesota Public Radio News. I'm Cathy Wurzer. And yes, I've decided to leave the studio for a time and head down to Saint Paul's Harriet Island to talk about an amazing man. We're standing in front of the Clarence Wigington Pavilion. Wigington designed this building in most of Saint Paul's public buildings back in the 1920s. 30s, and 40s, including the Roy Wilkins Auditorium and the Highland Park Water Tower.

Today is "Cap" Wigington's birthday. He was born in Kansas in 1883, died in 1967. And he was not only Saint Paul's first city architect, but also one of the very few African-American architects working in the early 20th century. "Cap" Wigington played a big role in Minnesota history. And joining us here at Harriet Island is Annette Atkins, a history professor at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. How are you doing?

ANNETTE ATKINS: It's nice to be here on this beautiful day.

CATHY WURZER: It's gorgeous. I've always thought that the Wigington Pavilion is very simple but elegant in its style.

ANNETTE ATKINS: It's a simple, complicated building, and it's so much tells Wigington's story. As you know, he was born in 1883, which was just about the time that the James J. Hill House was built, and he dies in 1967, which is the year before the IDS tower is built. This man was living really in a period of enormous change in architectural styles, and part of what he had to do is to figure out his own style and his own voice.

So this building, you'd call Moderne, which means it's a horizontal building. So it's not very tall, but it has a nice, solid roof on it. And one of the things that Wigington did and liked were solid walls. But each doorway is in an arch. So there's this little neo-romanesque arch over each doorway, and that continues all the way around the outside. So we get something of the early bit of him and something of the later form of architecture because this is also almost right in the middle of his career.

CATHY WURZER: But of course, we're talking about when you have a municipal architect, we want it to be solid and strong.

ANNETTE ATKINS: In the United States, people were worried about industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and what would happen. And so many architects were thinking that if we made beautiful buildings and beautiful surroundings, people would be better. So these big, old buildings are partly an anti-crime technique and an anti-poverty technique. If people live in beautiful surroundings, perhaps they have a better chance of living more beautiful lives.

CATHY WURZER: You know what I like also here in front of us, Annette? This wonderful plaza that has little markers that signify all the buildings he's done in the Twin Cities.

ANNETTE ATKINS: Even those are interesting, because Wigington did at least 90 buildings that he signed, and he probably did at least double that again. So what they've picked out are some emblematic buildings, like the Como Park Grade School and Marshall High School and Hulman Field. And one of my favorite set of things that he did, of course, were the Ice Palaces.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, yeah. How many people know that he did designs for the Ice Palaces?

ANNETTE ATKINS: Probably very few, because the buildings were so fleeting. They don't have those corner stone markers on them to tell them. And Wigington really had, I think, a great time doing those. One thing to say about him, he's an African-American architect, and so he's never chief architect in Saint Paul. All of his buildings are somebody else with Clarence Wigington. The only buildings where he's listed in the papers as the sole architect are the Ice Palaces.

CATHY WURZER: Since this is "Cap" Wigington's birthday, if you had to pick one of his creations that happened to be a favorite of yours, would it be the pavilion here or something else?

ANNETTE ATKINS: Well, probably the water tower.

CATHY WURZER: Yes.

ANNETTE ATKINS: The Highland Park Water Tower. That water tower is part of the City Beautiful Movement, which was a Progressive Era reform. And one of the hallmarks of those City Beautiful measures was to provide vistas for people. And in Saint Paul, he must have had a hard time finding a vista. So you'll notice that the top of the water tower is a viewing platform. And when you stand up there, it's a glorious view. And so when I see that building, I think especially of how much he was part of his times and maybe even how much vision he had and wanted other people to have.

CATHY WURZER: Annette, thanks for coming all the way out to Harriet Island.

ANNETTE ATKINS: Thank you. What a beautiful day and a beautiful place.

CATHY WURZER: It is. Annette Atkins is a professor of History at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. She's also the author of the book Creating Minnesota-- A History From the Inside Out.