Comment

Comment by Maggie Argiro on October 31, 2010 at 4:00pm

You are most welcome -- I lived there for 8 years before my husband and I moved to SSI....

Comment by Wendy Rosier on October 31, 2010 at 3:52pm

I have been going to Minneapolis for over 20 years and this is the first time I ever heard the story of that wall - thanks Maggie!

Comment by Maggie Argiro on October 31, 2010 at 3:43pm

This is the "Music Wall" mural on the side of the old Schmitt Music building in downtown Minneapolis.
Schmitt Music Company (also known as Schmitt's) is one of the country's largest full-service music retailers, and it got it's start in 1890 when Paul A. Schmitt moved to Minneapolis from New York City. He founded Schmitt Music Company in 1926, and 1941, moved the company headquarters to this location in downtown Minneapolis, near the corner of 10th Street and Marquette Avenue. He chose this building because it had room for a warehouse and piano-rebuilding shop, which allowed the company to begin selling pianos and organs.
This building became an unofficial landmark when Robert P. Schmitt (the son of Robert A.) decided to beautify one of the large exposed exterior brick walls.

Like other American cities of the 1970s, citizens and business owners in Minneapolis were concerned about beautifying the older downtown buildings. Schmitt hired the repair of the old bricks and bricked up 32 exterior windows. He asked a company employee to choose notes from a musical score that could be painted as a mural over the enormous facade. The employee searched through the store's sheet music and came up with the most graphically attractive piece of music she could find, Maurice Ravel's "Gaspard de la Nuit." Pianist Van Cliburn posed playing a Steinway concert grand piano in front of the mural for a now famous photograph, which attracted the attention of national newspapers.

Schmitt's has since vacated the building, and it is now the sales office for the Nicollet on the Mall luxury condo project, but the famous mural remains - an informal downtown Minneapolis landmark.

Comment by Trudy Sloan on October 30, 2010 at 10:13pm

Great photo Wendy. I would like to know what the song is.

Comment by anna mccolm on October 30, 2010 at 9:51pm

What a great idea.It reminds me of the poems in the London underground trains-bringing culture to the masses.Mind you-you'd have to be able to read music.

Comment by Avril Kirby on October 30, 2010 at 9:47pm

We could get Joanne to sing this--she reads music. I like the steps down--great photo.