News

Mystery of the Stone Bank solved in a one investigation

By Scott Wagar

06/05/2012

Editorial Note: The Bottineau County Bank, which is commonly called the Stone Bank, and is presently being rehabilitated by Touchstones Inc., has held a longtime mystery, that of when the bank went from being a wood structure to a stone edifice.
For almost a year, the Bottineau Courant has conducted research to locate the exact date of the structure’s construction period. During this time, the newspaper has followed leads and gone through thousands of primary documents to no avail, but this past week, in the depth of the Bottineau County Courthouse’s archive room, the Bottineau Courant solved the mystery and discovered the date of when the stone structure was built.
Here is the bank’s story, which brings with it more than a story of construction, but a story of hard work, struggles, loss and triumphs.

In July, the Stone Bank on the corner of Main and Sixth Street will see the112th anniversary of the ground breaking ceremony of the bank, which in 1900 was transferred over from a wood frame structure to a stone building.

The Stone Bank, which was officially called the Bottineau County Bank, was established in 1887 on the exact same location the structure stands today. The original bank building was a two story wood frame structure, but just over a decade of opening its doors, the bank’s owner, attorney and North Dakota senator, Virgil Noble, made the decision to build a new bank out of stone.

CONSTRUCTION
 
In June of 1900, one of the city’s local newspapers, The Bottineau News, announced the Bottineau County Bank was preparing to build a new stone structure to replace its wood frame edifice.

“Contractor Fd. White drew plans for the new Bottineau County Bank,” The Bottineau News stated on July 13, 1900. “It will be a beautiful one story stone structure.”

Within days of the newspaper’s announcement, the Bottineau County Bank moved into the McArthur & Williamson’s building, so the bank’s wooden frame structure could be moved two blocks down the street to make room for the construction of its new stone edifice. (McArthur & Williams was located where the Golden Rule is located today in what is considered the south portion, or the men’s department, of the store.)

On July 26, the building was moved down Main Street, which in 1900 was a dirt and dusty road; and, the move was anything but easy.  

“The office part of the Bottineau County Bank was taken up Main Street yesterday afternoon,” The Bottineau News stated. “And, after a number of break downs, and other delays, was gotten near to its future location west of Dr. Greig’s office.” (Dr. Greig’s office was located on Fifth Street just west of Main Street.)

With the move made, and the bank back in business, Nobel was in high hopes as the stone structure began to take shape. However, terrible tragedy would soon strike Noble.

In the first week of August, the community experienced one of the worse wind storms in its history, which affected Noble personally when he lost his entire barn to the blustery weather.

“The storm Tuesday night did considerable damage around town and in the country. It took off part of the roof on M. Hawker’s house, A. Brothen’s drug store, Woodward’s mill and Hall’s furniture store,” The Bottineau News stated. “It demolished Senator Noble’s barn and twisted A. McBain’s new barn around on the foundation besides racking it up.”

With Noble’s barn destroyed, and him overseeing the stone bank project, Noble was overcome by a lot of additional work. However, Noble was a strong and determined man and by September his new barn was well on its way in the construction process, as well as the bank.

“The new bank is beginning to loom up,” The Bottineau News reported on Aug. 21, 1900. “But, it will be some time before it will be ready for occupancy.”

THE STONES

The stone for the bank came from the local area. However, the stones are believed to have originated in Canada and came to the Turtle Mountains and its local prairies by glaciers out of Canada, which dates back 10,000 to 25,000 years ago. It has also been discovered the stones were formed deep in the earth during the Pleistocene era, which dates back 2.5 million years ago, making the stones on the Bottineau County Bank very ancient.

At the turn of the 20th Century in downtown Bottineau, numerous brick and stone buildings were raising up from the ground. This came to be due to the New Year’s Eve fire of 1888 in downtown Bottineau where over 90 percent of all the structures were destroyed by fire due to the fact the buildings were built from wooden frame structures.

To make sure buildings would no longer be completely lost to fire, the local businessmen began constructing their stores out of brick and stone. In fact, so many building were being built out of these materials that in 1900 the townspeople referred to the business district as the “Brick Block.”    

OUTBREAK

With the bank project on schedule, another incident occured in Bottineau causing some delays in the community, an outbreak of typhoid fever.

The disease made its way quietly into town causing one women to become ill, but in the matter of a couple of weeks, it spread and was discovered in the French speaking Catholic community of Tarsus. No one died from the outbreak, but it brought fear into the communities dealing with the disease, causing people to be more cautious, and slowing down the everyday lives of these communities to a slow pace.     

As quickly as typhoid fever came to Bottineau, it quickly left. However, summer turned to fall, which quickly turned into winter. By November, the prairie around Bottineau had eight inches of snow and the temperatures plummeted below freezing (down to 20 below at times). However, the local masons in the town continued their work, which included the men responsible for the Bottineau County Bank.

THE GIFT

By Thanksgiving of 1900, the bank structure was nearing completion, which brought excitement to the bank’s employees. “The Bottineau County Bank [employees] are anxious to get into their new building as they are somewhat crowded,” the newspaper stated.

As work continued, and the Christmas season came, the bank’s employees received an early Christmas gift.

“The Bottineau County Bank moved into their new quarters yesterday and are now nicely settled,” The Bottineau News stated on Dec. 21, 1900. “This institution now has one of the nicest buildings in the county.”

During the week of Christmas, a new side walk was laid in front of the bank and new plate glass windows were installed. “It [the bank] presents an up-to-date appearance,” The Bottineau News stated.

TODAY

Considering the size of the Bottineau County Bank (which was about 30 feet shorter than it is today, because an addition was added onto the building in the 1930s), the masons who constructed the stone edifice showed true initiative at that time.

Normally, a structure this size would take years to be constructed, but the workers accomplished the project in just six months; and, the masons’ true skills show today considering the original building still stands in good condition (minus the 30 additional feet, which had to be removed this past fall for safety issues and renovation work, which occurred due to substandard work on the addition’s footings in the 1930s).

Not only did the mason workers in 1900 build a high quality building, but they did so during an extreme and tragic time in the city’s history with wind storms, disease, deep snow and cold temperatures.  

With 112 years, that institution, which was referred to as “one of the nicest buildings in the county,” still holds true today. The edifice has great potential in adding to Bottineau’s downtown business district’s revenue, along with the town’s economic prosperity, which is where Touchstones Inc. has come into place.

“We started Touchstones  with the intention to save old buildings we feel are worthy of being rehabilitated. We feel the stone bank is worthy of saving because of the potential it has to offer downtown Bottineau,” said Karen Larson, president of Touchstones Inc. “We also appreciate the tenacious research that Scott Wagar has continued to do on the stone bank for us.”  

Individuals, who wish too stay updated on the restoration project, can go to StoneBankBlog.wordpress.com or www.StoneBank.org. Individuals, who want to donate money to the project, can send it to 511 Ohmer St., Bottineau, ND 58318.