Updated: 09/30/2009 7:16 AM KSTP.com | Print |  Email
By: Molly Reuter

Historic Home Goes Up in Flames

Flames tore through a Minneapolis house, injuring a fire captain and charring what was once the home owned by Pauline Fjelde.  She stitched Minnesota’s first state flag.

Neighbors say they want to save the home, located on the 3,000 block of Park Ave., as an official historic site, but they are fighting with the owner who wants to turn the space into a parking lot.  The windows are now blown out and boarded up after fired destroyed the house late Tuesday night.

When firefighters arrived, they say flames poured from the first and second floor.  Firefighters also say they tried to battle the blaze from inside, but it became so intense that had to move outside.  Part of the roof collapsed on a fire captain.  Firefighters say her injuries were minor.

The house is under review by the city to become an official historic landmark.  Neighbors say they desperately want to save it because it’s link to Pauline Fjelde who lived here in 1907.  She was not only a well-known textile artist.  She stitched together Minnesota’s first state flag.