Education has always been a priority for Northfield residents. The first schoolhouse was built because of Ann North less than a year after the town was founded. It is thought to be the first school in Rice County. A few years later the school was moved to the more durable Drake building, located at the junction of County Road 1 and Hwy. 246. The building has since been demolished. In 1874, the building pictured here was built for $35,000 on Union Street. The school’s first class consisted of seven girls, who graduated in 1877. Until the building was badly burned in a fire in 1908, most of the…

The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, based on British scouting programs and quickly absorbed other scouting organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of the Unites States, the National Scouts of America, and the Highway Patrol Association Scouts. The organization quickly grew under the leadership of James West, forming a governing structure and better communications. The original handbook for scouts was originally based on the British handbook, but was quickly revised to be more relevant for American boys. The organization is notable for many reasons, one of which was its acceptance of …

The Minnesota State Odd Fellows Home was built in 1899 and is now known as the Three Links Care Center. Shown here is the original building with its residents circa 1905. The building was razed in 1974 because it could no longer meet safety codes. The cornerstone for the building was laid on June 16, 1899, and the building was finished a year later, opening on June 15, 1900. Northfield beat Winona, Minneapolis, Montevideo and Owatonna to be the site of the new Odd Fellows Hall. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is the American branch of the Oddfellows, an organization that was founded in …

This picture looks like an average college football game, but it is not. It is actually a photo of the only NCAA-sanctioned metric football game ever played. On September 19, 1977, St. Olaf College and Carleton College played each other in the first and only "Liter Bowl." During the 1970s there was a push in the United States to change the measuring system to metric because the U.S. was one of only five countries still on the English system. At the time, sports like swimming and track were switching over to metric measurements, so Jerry Mohrig, a chemistry professor at Carleton, thought …

Shown here is a man testing a fire proof face shield for the G.T. Schjeldahl Company, circa 1965. The company began in Northfield as a specializing in making plastic bags and quickly grew to be a widely diversified company. The company later changed its name to Sheldahl Inc. and had close ties to NASA. Sheldahl built Echo I, America's response to Sputnik. It was a sphere and larger than a 10-story building, which could bounce radio and television signals back to earth, allowing TV signals to be transferred coast to coast. Sheldahl's work can be found in the Apollo missions as well. All of the…

On Feb. 15, 1898, the battle ship USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, Cuba. The board of inquiry formed afterwards determined that the ship had been blown up by a mine but did not mention who might have placed the mine. In recent years, this finding has been debated but no satisfactory explanation for the explosion has been found. The incident gave the United States an opportunity to release the tension that had been growing between the U.S. and Spain, formally declaring war on Spain on April 25, 1898. President William McKinley called for 125,000 men to volunteer for the war. Once news …

Pictured here is President William H. Taft's campaign visit to Northfield in 1908. The local club borrowed an elephant from the street carnival that happened to be in town. Miss Mildred Ware was dressed as Columbia and placed atop the elephant that was covered in flags. The elephant, along with a crowd of 4,000, met Taft at the train station. Perhaps with a little bias, Mayor W. A. Hunt wrote to Miss Beulah Hulbert that "Northfield gave the president the best reception of any place from Mankato to Minneapolis." Taft was the 27th president of the United States. His term was drastically …

Pictured here is Northfield's United States Post Office building under construction. The Northfield Post Office occupied five different sites before receiving its own building in 1936. The wedge shaped lot chosen for the site of the post office became a problem when it came time to build. Because the government only had plans for square post offices, a special act of Congress was required to provide the money to hire an architect to design a building to fit the oddly shaped lot.

Two recruits tend to the mascot of the U.S. Naval Aviation School located on the St. Olaf College grounds. One recruit holds the goat, as the other recruit appears to take inventory of the goat. The sign behind them indicates that this mascot may belong in Room 14 of the Supply Department.

Shown here are two Northfield High School football players. The boy on the left is in full uniform. In the early 20th century, football players wore little padding and rarely used helmets. On Oct. 23, 1905, the Northfield High School football team was dominated by Carleton College 36-0. The results improved, however, as the NHS team later defeated Austin and Mankato, 15-5 and 12-0, respectively.