Winonans Gaut and Neff honored for courthouse controversy chronology

WINONA, Minn. — Winona authors Dr. Greg Gaut and Marsha Neff received the David Stanley Gebhard Award from the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians at their annual meeting and banquet on March 26 at the Minnesota Humanities Center in St. Paul.

The Gebhard Awards are given biannually to the best book and article on the subject of Minnesota's built environment. The major criterion is how well the work strikes a balance between scholarship and accessibility. Gaut and Neff’s prize-winning article, titled “‘Save the Lady’ – The Struggle for the Winona County Courthouse,” appeared in Minnesota History, Vol. 59, No. 7 (Winter 2005-2006). The Gebhard Award for best book went to Jeffrey A. Hess and Paul Clifford Larson for “St. Paul’s Architecture: A History” (University of Minnesota Press, 2006).

In their article, Gaut and Neff provide an extensive history of the Winona County Courthouse and examine why the courthouse has been at the center of one of the state’s longest battles regarding the historic preservation of a public building. The couple detail the reasons why some Winonans in the ’50s and ’60s fought to restore the courthouse, while others thought its Victorian architecture made the town look “old fashioned.” The article also recounts a second controversy over whether or not to repair the building in 2000 after a fourth-floor ceiling collapsed, breaking water pipes and flooding the building.

Gaut serves as an associate professor in the Saint Mary’s University Department of History, and Neff is the grants development coordinator for Mercy Medical Center, North Iowa.

To order the complete article, go to www.mnhs.org/market/mhspress/MinnesotaHistory/backissues.html.

For more information on the David Stanley Gebhard Award, visit www.mnsah.org/gebhard.php.