Plummer Building facts for kids
|
Mayo Clinic Building
|
|
The Plummer Building seen from the southwest.
|
|
| Location | Rochester, MN |
|---|---|
| Built | 1928 |
| NRHP reference No. | 69000075 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
|
| Added to NRHP | August 4, 1969 |
| Designated NHL | August 11, 1969 |
The Plummer Building is a famous and important building in Rochester, Minnesota. It's part of the big Mayo Clinic campus. This building opened in 1928. It gave the growing Mayo Clinic much more space to help patients.
The company that designed it was Ellerbe & Co., now called Ellerbe Becket. This was the third building they designed for the Mayo Clinic. In 1969, the Mayo Clinic Buildings were added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Just one week later, the Plummer Building itself became a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
History of the Plummer Building
The design of the Plummer Building was a team effort. Henry Stanley Plummer and Franklin Ellerbe worked together. Their ideas helped create the way new clinic and hospital buildings would be designed for many years.
The 1928 Mayo Clinic building was built in the Art Deco style. It showed the dream of the early Mayo partners. These doctors, including Drs. Will and Charlie Mayo, wanted to create the first combined group medical practice.
When the Plummer Building was finished, it was the tallest building in Rochester. It held this title until 2001. That's when the nearby Gonda Building was completed.
The Famous Tower and Doors
The building has a special tower at the top. It is decorated with terra-cotta tiles. Inside the tower, there are 56 bells that make up a carillon. The carillon is played every day. Its music can be heard all over downtown Rochester.
At night, bright lights shine on the tower. It stands out as a main part of the city's skyline. Ray Corwin helped design the building's decorations. He also designed parts of the Chateau Theatre and the Oakwood Cemetery gate.
The Ellerbe company designed over 200 buildings in Rochester. The Plummer Building is one of them. They also designed other Mayo buildings. These include the 1914 "Red" Clinic building and the 1922 Mayo Institute for Experimental Medicine building. They also designed the 1954 Clinic building and the 2002 Gonda Building. They even designed the Rochester Methodist Hospital.
The building has large, ornamental bronze doors. They weigh about 4,000-pound (1,800 kg). These doors are almost always open. This shows that the clinic is always ready to help people who need medical care. The doors have only been closed a few times. This happens to remember very important events in Mayo Clinic or national history.
See also
In Spanish: Plummer Building para niños
