Churchill Residence Hall

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 27, 2024

1. Churchill Residence Hall Marker

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Valley.

Corridor,

prairies,

Plains.

America,

Hemisphere,

World,

Anglosphere.

Land

Purchase.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 27, 2024

2. Churchill Residence Hall Marker

Looking north; the marker is mounted on the right side of the main/front/south entrance.

From the National Register Nomination prepared by Norene A. Roberts, 11/5/1982:
The North Dakota State University Historic District comprises a large portion of the original 1891 campus. The district contains a concentration of examples of the work of Fargo's finest practicing architects between the years 1890 and 1949. The work of William C. Albrant, the Hancock Brothers, Milton Earl Beebe, Orff and Joralemon, and William F. Kurke can be found scattered from Montana to Minnesota but is nowhere concentrated altogether as at the North Dakota State University campus. In addition, these campus buildings are associated with the University's achievements in education, research, and agricultural science, the effects of which were felt far beyond the Red River Valley.
North Dakota achieved statehood in 1889. Anxious to take advantage of the 1862 Morrill Act, supplemented by the Hatch Act of 1887 and the second Morrill Act of 1890, the state legislature established a people’s college and experiment station for the sons and daughters of North Dakota farmers at Fargo in 1890. During the 1890

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 27, 2024

3. Churchill Residence Hall (south elevation)

academic year, the new Agricultural College took up quarters in the basement of a building at Fargo College, a Congregational institution, operated since 1882. Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees located the campus on Section 36, Fargo township. The land was poorly drained prairie a mile and a half northwest of the Fargo business district. Erection of College Hall, now “Old Main,” began on April 18, 1891 with a state appropriation of $25,000.
When the faculty and student body moved into College Hall on January 1, 1892, the new building housed all the instruction, faculty, and students under one roof. As mandated by state and federal laws, the courses of instruction were threefold: (1) a course in common school subjects and agriculture for working farm students; (2) a preparatory course for students desiring to eventually enter the regular four year course of study; and (3) a regular four year course of study in liberal arts with an emphasis on agriculture and mechanic arts. As with most of the land grant institutions in the new states of the west, the faculty, of necessity, concentrated on pre-college instruction in the early years. A

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wave of building construction on the campus followed the construction of Old Main.

Men's Dormitory — Churchill Hall (1930-31): Collegiate Gothic, tapestry yellow brickwork; crenelated parapet, paired arched windows on projecting bays, stone cornice and tracery at south-facing front entry. William F. Kurke, architect.

Excerpt:  The construction of Churchill Hall (originally Men's Residence Hall) began in 1927 after its plans and funding were approved by the State Legislature. The dormitory was to house 192 male students and six resident instructors. It would contain approximately 100 rooms measuring 14 by 14 feet with hot and cold running water and two beds. The entire structure would be a three-story structure with a basement for recreational purposes.
The completed structure had two wings measuring 37 by 56 feet and 52 by 56 with the main section measuring 196 by 36 feet. Students moved in before the start of school in 1930, but the building still had no name.
In 1957, the Men's Residence Hall changed its name to Churchill Hall in honor of Omar O. Churchill who was a member of the School of Agriculture staff from 1904 to 1950. He served as dean of the School of Agriculture for two years and assisted President Shepperd with organizing the North Dakota Experimental Union.

Excerpt:  North Dakota State University District is a 36-acre historic district on the campus of North Dakota State University, in Fargo, North Dakota, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Also known as North Dakota Agricultural College, it was built in Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Moderne, and Late Victorian architectural styles.