Grong Church of rural Rollag will soon be added to the statewide North Star Story Map website of the American Institute of Architects MN.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

If the buildings of Clay County could talk, what stories would they tell?
The Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County is asking residents of Moorhead to share those tales as part of a statewide project to record the sometimes-undocumented histories behind familiar walls and windows. Their stories – along with others already gathered in public sessions in Hawley and Ulen – will be added to the North Star Story Map, a project already launched online by the American Institute of Architects, the Mill City Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society, with support from Minnesota’s Legacy Fund.
The local story-sharing session is scheduled at the Moorhead Public Library from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 23.
Levi Magnuson, the historical society’s communications manager, says the session is directed toward Moorhead residents … but any Clay County folks with an interesting story to tell are welcome.
“We want to hear stories about all kinds of buildings, some still standing, others long demolished,” he explains. They can be public landmarks like the courthouse or post office, but anything with four walls and a roof is welcome … private homes, commercial buildings, pretty much any structures that have meant something in someone’s life.”
Those who come to tell those tales are invited to share their personal stories and connections with the structures. Their accounts, possibly recorded on video, will be added to the statewide story map, which can be views at www.northstarstorymap.org, along with several of the collaborators’ pages.
According to the map’s sponsors, “it is a project created to connect the people of Minnesota to their built environment, recognizing that every built space holds memories and meaning of different kinds for different people. North Star Story Map brings forward the stories of the places of Minnesota that matter to its people.” The map now includes starred locations and their stories around Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as towns from Pipestone and Waseca in the south to Ely, Hibbing and Duluth in the northeast, and Sauk Centre, St. Cloud and Little Falls in the middle. The entire area of northwestern Minnesota is currently bare.
Earlier sessions in Ulen and Hawley have brought forth a number of tales rooted in our region. Mark Moothant told of Hawley’s Gerrick Theater, where he once occupied an upstairs apartment. Jamin Krause of Hawley focused on Grong Church near the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers ground in Rollag. At more than 150 years of age, it’s one of the oldest in Clay County.
Kim Syverson filled in background on the West Central Ag elevator in Ulen, recently sold to CHS. Dilworth’s famed Venice Garden nightclub, which reigned socially from 1909 to 1980, came into the conversation.
But it was a group of Ulen residents who told one of the most intriguing and least-known tales – the story of the Power House bar and the adjacent key club called the Blue Room, a place (as one informant said) “where you went to date people you were not supposed to date.” Someone who worked in the bar in the 1960s filled in the details. “Some people at the session already had known about it. Others were hearing about it for the first time,” Levi reports.
What kinds of stories will emerge in Moorhead? Levi’s historian colleagues are looking forward to hearing what residents remember. “It could be a store where you shopped with Grandma,” Levi suggests. “It could be your best friend’s house, where you spent time as a kid, or where you worked your first job.
“There are no rules about which buildings qualify for the North Star Story Map. It’s all about the places that hold some special meaning in your life.”