MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1870s

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

2nd Liberty Memr'l Bridge

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MissValley Grocery Warehs

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

Whispering Giant Statue

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

ND Memorial Bridge

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Red Trail / State Route 3

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkin-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Elfriede Trinkler Kuhn

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

Tilden Selmes Jr

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

Central School - 406 4th St NW
After statehood was granted in 1889, Mandan's population along with other cities in North Dakota exploded.  Both schools in town, both the "West End" school on 8th Avenue as well as the "East End" two story wood schoolhouse on Wright Avenue (now Collins Avenue) would quickly fill to capacity.

In 1899, the Mandan Board of Education presided by C.E. Draper with members T.A. Cummins, J.H. McGillic, H.H. Harmon and H.D. Stevenson set to the voters a bill to approve construction of a $15,000 ($452,000 in 2018$) "Central School" to house the junior and senior high students as well as provide a new, larger grade school for west part of the city. The bond issue passed.

An Italianate 3-story brick building was designed and constructed with a central tower and cupola. While typically rather plain, boxey and two or three stories tall, low-pitched (gently sloping) and hipped roofs with deep overhanging eaves apparently supported by decorative brackets or "corbels" are also associated with this architectural style.  Windows are typically tall and narrow beneath arched or curved tops; frequently as triplets. Cupolas are typically squared; but in this instance the school building has a rather unique octagon-bell roof style.

Italianate-style architecture was popularized in Europe in the 1830s and immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century.  It evolved from 16th Century Italian Renaissance architecture. Often referred to as “semi-rustic,” it was a perfect approach to a formal public building on the Dakota frontier. The Dakota Territorial Capitol, built only 7 years earlier in neighboring Bismarck, was constructed in the same architectural style. Both buildings were made with red pressed brick from the massive brickworks at Sims, only 45 miles to the west by rail.

Mandan Central School as depicted on color linen postcard c. 1911
The School District owned an entire city block just south of a natural ridge of bluffs that defined the north edge of the city. Over the years, more buildings were added to the school complex. The first addition occurred in 1911 with the addition of new high school on the west edge of the lot. A new gymnasium was added in 1919.

The schools' alumni would eventually buy a bell for the Central School, ordered from the American Bell Foundry Company in Northfield, Michigan. The massive 1380-pound solid bronze bell was installed in the copula bell tower in 1914.

The bell remained in the Central School cupola until 1966 when the building was demolished upon completion of the new senior high school building. The bell was moved to a plinth on the south side entrance of the high school building which at that time served as the School District's junior high school.

The bell was removed in 2016 and returned to the School District when the complex was sold to private investors.

The bell along with the corner stone of the original Central School building and the description plaque from its former plinth, is now on display within the Mandan School District's current middle school at 2019 12th Avenue NW in northwest Mandan.

Bell on Display in 2019

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 05/29
/25    ©  2006-2025  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved