[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”22″ border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Medical Arts Building<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”18″ border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Dan Brodkin<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Controversy flared up in the summer of 1992 when local doctor Stanley T. Kucera had a striking mural painted on the side of the Medical Arts Building. Kucera had moved to Northfield in 1939. Nine years later, he had built the Medical Arts Building for his practice.<\/p>\n The mural was intended to memorialize his early achievements. The Northfield Historical Society (NHS), however, did not see things that way. It argued that the Medical Arts Building\u2019s mural, adjacent to Northfield\u2019s historic district, undermined the district\u2019s historical value. It also asked why some of the town\u2019s early physicians were memorialized while others were not.<\/p>\n Despite the legal battle, Kucera\u2019s artist rapidly completed his project. By far and away the most problematic part of the completed mural was its caduceus\u2014or what was intended to be one. The image of the staff of Hermes, often mistaken as a historical symbol of medicine, as rendered in the mural, appeared blatantly phallic. Carleton students found the image so ugly that they displayed the mural twice in the student newspaper\u2019s humor section the following year.<\/p>\n A subsequent owner repainted the back of the building and erased the mural. Carleton purchased the building in 2012 and currently uses it for administrative and fund-raising offices.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery _builder_version=”3.0.65″ show_title_and_caption=”on” show_pagination=”on” gallery_ids=”407,406″ fullwidth=”off” orientation=”landscape” zoom_icon_color=”#1eaa98″ hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” background_layout=”light” border_style=”solid” auto=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"