Ramsey County History – Winter 2000: “Architect to the Kings of the Carnivals: ‘Cap’ Wigington and His Ice Palace ‘Babies’”

Architect to the Kings of the Carnivals: ‘Cap’ Wigington and His Ice Palace ‘Babies’
Author: Bob Olsen

A chronicle of Clarence W. “Cap” Wigington’s designs for the St. Paul Ice Palaces of the 1930s and ‘40s. Financed by the US Works Progress Administration during the years of the Great Depression, these civic buildings achieved the WPA’s mission: inexpensive, and providing employment for many skilled and unskilled workers. According to the author, “city leaders persuaded people that working hard and playing hard in the dead of winter was the best cure for the economic doldrums of the time.”

PDF of Olsen article