Written by Phil Wala
On October 18, 1875, a meeting was held in the home of T. A. Harrison to plan the first meeting of a new Sunday School named “Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal Sunday School.” This was a follow-up to the October 4 meeting at which the resolution to form a new church was adopted. But since it was the first entry in the church records, October 18 was long celebrated as the beginning of Hennepin Avenue Church.
Exactly one hundred years later, on October 18, 1975, a bronze plaque was placed on the church cornerstone as part of the church’s centennial celebration. After the placement of the plaque, the 500 or so church members present joined hands and encircled the church, while a photographer in a small airplane circled overhead. Most of you have probably seen the aerial photograph of that event.
The 1975 ceremony was also videotaped, and for the past fifty years that videotape has been held in storage in the church archives. The problem is that the recording was made on reel-to-reel tape in black-and-white EIAJ format — a format which became obsolete very quickly when VHS was introduced the following year.
As part of the 150th celebration, the anniversary committee was determined to find out if there was anything recoverable on that videotape. But equipment to support this format hasn’t been made for almost fifty years, and videotape players of any kind are notoriously finicky and hard to maintain, let alone something this old for which parts are no longer available. Has anyone actually been able to keep such a video player in operation for fifty years? Besides, we had no way of knowing what was on the tape, other than the attached label. And how badly would the magnetic recording have deteriorated since 1975?
We did find several companies that advertise the ability to transfer EIAJ tapes. But after contacting them, several of them replied that their equipment was no longer in operating condition and in need of parts that are no longer available. It appeared that the few remaining EIAJ video players were dying off, and time was running out.
But at last we got a response from someone with equipment that was, at least for the time being, in working condition. We shipped off the tape and said a prayer. A few weeks later we got a response.
The results were far from perfect. The picture loses synchronization frequently, and many individual video frames were not recoverable. But the sound quality is reasonably good, and the full ceremony is there. We’ve put hours into cleaning this up as much as possible — inserting repeated frames when necessary, filtering to reduce wind noise, and overlaying still photos of the event to cover up some especially poor-quality segments.
And now, finally, we are able to present this true gem from Hennepin History – not seen for fifty years! You’ll not only see the plaque ceremony and the church members lining up for “hands around the church,”, you’ll even get a glimpse of the airplane from which the famous photo was taken! And as a bonus, we’ve appended a short slideshow featuring some of the still color photos taken at the event. Click the image below to view the entire video!
VIDEO CONTENTS:
00:00 Prelude – French horn quartet
02:40 Invocation – Rev. Calvin Hanson
04:20 Hymn – “The Church’s One Foundation”
05:57 Responsive Lesson – Rev. Larry Gilmore
06:40 Scripture Lesson – Rev. Verda Aegerter
07:15 Words from the Bishop – Bishop Wayne K. Clymer
12:00 Litany for Marking the Cornerstone – Supt. Stanley Hanks
13:20 Presentation of the Plaque – Rev. Jerald Jackson
14:50 Minneapolis Mayor Albert Hofstede
17:10 Sen. Hubert Humphrey (letter)
18:09 Monsignor Terrance Berntson (Basilica of St. Mary)
20:45 Rev. Howard Conn (Plymouth Congregational – letter)
21:39 Rev. Donald Meisel (Westminster Presbyterian)
23:00 Rev. Hoover Grimsby (Central Lutheran)
25:35 Closing remarks – Rev. Jerald Jackson
27:50 Hymn – “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
29:47 Benediction – Rev. Richard Waggoner
30:20 Hands Around the Church
44:28 Added bonus: slideshow of photos from the 1975 ceremony