Bear Valley Grange Hall

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Bear Valley Grange Hall
ChesterTownHall.jpg
The Bear Valley Grange Hall from the northeast
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Location County Road 3, Chester Township, Minnesota
Coordinates 44°18′50.5″N92°27′56.4″W / 44.314028°N 92.465667°W / 44.314028; -92.465667 Coordinates: 44°18′50.5″N92°27′56.4″W / 44.314028°N 92.465667°W / 44.314028; -92.465667
Area 1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Built 1874
Built by Unknown
Architectural style Front-gabled vernacular
NRHP reference # 88003089 [1]
Designated  January 5, 1989

The Bear Valley Grange Hall is a historic meeting hall in Chester Township, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1874 for the exclusive use of a local chapter of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, an early farmers' advocacy group and fraternal organization. The chapter folded in the 1880s and the building has been used since as the Chester Town Hall. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 for having local significance in the theme of social history. [2] It was nominated for being the only surviving Grange hall in Wabasha County—and one of only a few in Minnesota—and a rare example of a purpose-built Grange hall, as most chapters met in existing spaces like schools. [3]

Chester Township, Wabasha County, Minnesota Township in Minnesota, United States

Chester Township is a township in Wabasha County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 470 at the 2000 census.

National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry fraternal organization in the United States

The Grange, officially named The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a fraternal organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. The Grange, founded after the Civil War in 1867, is the oldest American agricultural advocacy group with a national scope. The Grange actively lobbied state legislatures and Congress for political goals, such as the Granger Laws to lower rates charged by railroads, and rural free mail delivery by the Post Office.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

Description

The Bear Valley Grange Hall is a one-story wood frame building on a limestone rubble foundation, measuring 40 by 22 feet (12.2 by 6.7 m). The narrow ends are gabled and contain the front and rear exits. This front-gabled form of vernacular architecture was used widely in the American Midwest for churches, commercial buildings, meeting halls, and schools. The front door, on the hall's north end, is centered and flanked by two windows with large wood shutters. There are four similar windows on both of the side walls. The windows and doors are topped by lightly peaked lintel trim with rain caps. There are no decorative elements otherwise. The building is sided with clapboard and consists of a single room. [3]

Framing (construction) in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape

Framing, in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. The alternative to framed construction is generally called mass wall construction, where horizontal layers of stacked materials such as log building, masonry, rammed earth, adobe, etc. are used without framing.

Gable Generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns. A gable wall or gable end more commonly refers to the entire wall, including the gable and the wall below it.

Vernacular architecture category of architecture based on local needs, construction materials and reflecting local traditions

Vernacular architecture encompasses the vast majority of the world's built environment, and thus resists a simple definition. It is perhaps best understood not by what it is, but what it can reveal about the culture of a people or place at any given time. The sheer range of global building types and developments--from Mongolian yurts to Japanese minka to American roadside commercial strips--suggests that vernacular architecture is everywhere, but tends to be disregarded or overlooked in traditional histories of architecture and design. As geographer Amos Rapoport has famously written, vernacular architecture constitutes 95 percent of the world's built environment: that which is not designed by professional architects and engineers. While such an understanding has its limitations, it nonetheless indicates the vastness of the subject and helps us recognize that all aspects of the built environment can impart something about the society and culture of a people or place. If nothing else, vernacular architecture cannot be distilled into a series of easy-to-digest patterns, materials, or elements. Vernacular architecture is not a style.

The hall stands on a slight rise amid agricultural land. [3] It is near the unincorporated community of Bear Valley along Wabasha County Road 3 in Section 24 of Chester Township. [4] The nearest city is Zumbro Falls.

Bear Valley, Minnesota Unincorporated community in Minnesota, United States

Bear Valley is an unincorporated community in Chester Township, Wabasha County, Minnesota, United States.

Zumbro Falls, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Zumbro Falls is a city along the Zumbro River in Wabasha County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 207 at the 2010 census. U.S. Highway 63 and Minnesota 60 intersect in Zumbro Falls.

History

The Order of Patrons of Husbandry was founded by Minnesotan Oliver Hudson Kelley in 1868 as the first national advocacy group for farmers. Envoys spread out across the United States helping local chapters, called "subordinate granges", to organize. Grange official T.A. Thompson of Plainview, Minnesota, arrived in Wabasha County in 1870 for this purpose. With his assistance Bear Valley was one of the first six subordinate granges in the county and the 50th statewide. The Bear Valley Grange built this hall for themselves in 1874. The selected site was on land owned by a farmer named C. M. Boutelle, adjacent to the principal local road, which ran from Lake City to Mazeppa. Of the 18 subordinate granges active in Wabasha County that year, only one other had its own meeting hall. [3]

Oliver Hudson Kelley Father of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry

Oliver Hudson Kelley is one of the key founders of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, a fraternal organization in the United States.

Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and/or policy. They have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems.

Plainview, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Plainview is a city in Wabasha County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,340 at the 2010 census. The author Jon Hassler was raised in Plainview and some of the places in his writing are based on the town.

The rapid growth of the Grange, as it came to be known, was prompted by the massive changes in agricultural life after the American Civil War. Mechanized implements and more complex practises were being promoted, the rural population was booming, and railroad access linked farmers directly to eastern markets. Farmers previously engaged in subsistence agriculture were suddenly part of a vast, national economic network about which they had little knowledge or control. The Grange promised economic, educational, and social advancement for farmers, with opportunities to learn the latest scientific techniques, form agricultural cooperatives, and push for regulation of the railroads. The Grange also had a strong recreational component; rural communities had been lacking in social outlets aside from religious groups. Chapters hosted numerous lectures, potluck suppers, and other gatherings. Grange membership, open to any men and women involved in agriculture, numbered some 750,000 nationwide by 1876. [3]

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

Subsistence agriculture self-sufficiency farming

Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to feed themselves and their families. In subsistence agriculture, farm output is targeted to survival and is mostly for local requirements with little or no surplus trade. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to feed and clothe themselves during the year. Planting decisions are made principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, and secondarily toward market prices. Tony Waters writes: "Subsistence peasants are people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace."

Agricultural cooperative cooperative where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity

An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between 'agricultural service cooperatives', which provide various services to their individually farming members, and 'agricultural production cooperatives', where production resources are pooled and members farm jointly. Examples of agricultural production cooperatives include collective farms in former socialist countries, the kibbutzim in Israel, collectively governed community shared agriculture, Longo Mai co-operatives and Nicaraguan production co-operatives.

The initial heyday of the Grange was short-lived, however. Due to over-enthusiasm and poor judgment, several organizational efforts in Minnesota failed, and membership quickly declined. The Bear Valley Grange had been one of Wabasha County's largest, with over 100 members, but it dissolved in the 1880s. The hall was repurposed as a town hall for Chester Township, an ongoing use which led to the preservation of the building. [3]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Bear Valley Grange Hall". Minnesota National Register Properties Database. Minnesota Historical Society. 2009. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Erpestad, David (1987-07-08). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Bear Valley Grange Hall (Report). National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  4. ↑ Upham, Warren (2001). Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN   0873513967.
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