Alfred Dickey

First Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 28, 2024

1. Alfred Dickey Marker

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Prairie.

Corridor,

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America,

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World,

Anglosphere.

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by Jackie Sluss, Historical Assistant & Kurt Schweigert, Architectural Historian, State Historical Society of North Dakota, 3/19/1980:  The library was funded

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 28, 2024

2. Alfred Dickey Marker

Looking northeast from 3rd Street Southwest; 1st Avenue South is to the left; the Alfred Dickey Public Library is on the right. The marker is embedded in the sidewalk.

by and named for Alfred M. Dickey and his son, Alfred E. Dickey, who were very prominent in regional, commercial, financial, and political matters in the early settlement period of 1879-1900. The elder Dickey was a partner in the Wells-Dickey Land Company, which at one time controlled large areas in the James River Valley for speculative purposes. He also served as North Dakota's first Lieutenant Governor in 1889, and was honored by having Dickey County, North Dakota, named for him. In 1901 he pledged funds to support a permanent library in Jamestown, and after his death the same year his son renewed the pledge. The younger Dickey himself died in 1910 and willed $30,000 for construction of a building and a library stock. The building was finally constructed in 1917, and has served as the community's only public library since that time.

Excerpt: Dickey permanently moved his family to Jamestown in 1884 and he became a respected local figure. He served as North Dakota’s first lieutenant governor from 1889 to 1891. While he never served in

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 28, 2024

3. Alfred Dickey Free Public Library (entrance detail)

office again, he continued in public service. In 1892 he planned the North Dakota exhibit for the Chicago World’s Fair.

His most lasting legacy began with a public reading room. Memberships paid for much of the cost, but Dickey personally paid for janitorial services and bought magazine subscriptions. Dickey wanted everyone to benefit and knew some people couldn’t afford a membership, so in 1901 he announced plans for a free reading room. Dickey never lived to see it, however. He passed away in January 1901, only weeks before the room opened.

Dickey considered the reading room the “last good work of his life,” but there was more...

Excerpt:  The reading room was opened on February 16, 1901, in a room in the Opera House Block. The room was open to the public as a free reading room. For $1 a year a library cardholder could borrow books. In 1908 the city of Jamestown voted to support the library with city taxes and in January 1909 the library was moved to the city hall and the first trained,

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 28, 2024

4. Alfred Dickey Free Public Library (south/front elevation)

From the National Register Nomination:  The Alfred E. Dickey Free Library is significant both for its clear expression of an architectural style and its role in community education. The building is an excellent example of true Prairie School architecture, and is one of two known applications of that style to public buildings in North Dakota. The Egyptian decorative motif, one of many ancient stylized forms borrowed by Prairie School architects, is also a rarity in North Dakota. The building was designed in 1917 by the architectural partnership of J. H. Shannon and Henry J. Scherer, but it is believed that Scherer produced the actual design. Scherer may have been influenced by the Prairie School philosophy both in his education at St. Johns University in Minnesota and in his early employment with architectural firms in Chicago and Minneapolis.

The principal design element of the single-story brick structure is its horizontal movement. The lineality of the rectangular front facade is expressed in the running bond of the brickwork, stained glass ribbon windows, and terra cotta stringcourse and cornice on the first story level. Three brick stringcourses and corbeling at the ground level are less obvious but reinforcing elements. Characteristic of the Prairie School design, the naturalistic motif, smooth finish and buff color of the terra cotta ornament contrasts with the rough surface and dark color of the brick. An Egyptian motif runs throughout the building, the lotus flower being the main component of the design.

full-time librarian was hired. Alfred E. Dickey died in 1910. In his will he left $20,000 to the Board of Directors of the library for a new library building. The city was to provide the site. He also left $15,000 as an endowment fund with the interest to be used for the upkeep of the library. In 1917, with contributions from businessmen and city funds, the site for the library was purchased. By 1919 the Alfred Dickey Free Library was in its new home, with approximately 7,000 books. In 1980 the Alfred Dickey Free Library building was entered in the National Register of Historic Places.