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Crescent Grange Hall #512

Contributor: 
Johannes Allert
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Crescent Grange Hall #512

The front side of Crescent Grange Hall #512. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user Bobak Ha'Eri. CC BY 3.0.

Crescent Grange Hall #512 in Linwood Township is an artifact of Reconstruction-era Minnesota (1865–1877). During this period, rural residents united in response to economic upheaval and high interest rates. Farmers, particularly those in the south and west of the state, struggled to make a living in a volatile and unregulated economy.

After the Civil War, Southern farmers who had exploited enslaved people for their expertise and labor tried to adapt through sharecropping, while farmers on the Western plains faced falling crop prices. Both became increasingly indebted to bankers and merchants who charged high interest rates. Compounding the problem, railroads and food producers charged high tariffs.

In 1866, the US Department of Agriculture assigned Oliver H. Kelley of Minnesota to assess the situation. Kelley, a successful farmer who owned 200 acres of land near Elk River, was struck by the social isolation he encountered on farms. In response, he and six colleagues founded the National Grange and Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, which included both men and women as members. His message to farmers was clear: join the movement, find strength in numbers, and secure prosperity through a share of the market.

Envisioning a way to counteract the tariffs and fraudulent methods endured by the farmers, Kelley encouraged farmers to form cooperatives through which they could store and sell their crops and compete against middlemen and their high fees. He then organized the State Grange of Minnesota—the first such state-level subdivision of the organization—in 1869. By 1875, the national Grange had grown to 858,000 members.

Minnesota’s Crescent Grange #512 was organized in Linwood Township (Anoka County) in 1874. Until a hall was built, members met at churches and in the homes of charter members. On February 23, 1881, a meeting was held at the home of J. G. Green in which L.O. Tumbler proposed building a thirty-two-by-twenty-foot hall. J .G. Green offered to donate the land for the project, and the motion carried.

On March 25 of 1881, Grange #512 members met to cut pine wood from a nearby forest. The men hauled the wood to George Haskell’s sawmill near Typo Lake, where they cut it into lumber for building. Construction began in earnest at township 33, range 22, section 4 of Anoka County on the first Saturday in June. Over the summer, members absent from the project were fined one dollar. During this period, the original architectural plans were modified to include sufficient kitchen space.

Crescent Grange Hall #512 held its first formal celebration on July 4, 1882, but work on the structure continued until 1884. The one-story, forty-six-by-twenty-foot structure is capped by a gabled roof with clapboard siding. The interior contains a meeting room, an auditorium, and a kitchen.

In 1916, further embellishments to the hall made by Grange member W.W. Wittig created alcoves on each of side of the building. The front alcove began to serve as an entrance; the one in the rear contained decorative stained glass. Further modifications to save heat and improve acoustics occurred in 1949, when the ceiling was lowered.

The hall served as a venue for educating and informing farmers of the best practices in agriculture throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It allowed members to share equipment owned collectively (including a thresher and saw) and to use a barn space for both storage and social gatherings for the Granger community.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the Grange Movement had outlasted the remains of the Farmers Alliance, a group that called for more explicitly political action and served as a catalyst for the Populist movement.

Crescent Grange Hall #512 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

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© Minnesota Historical Society
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“Crescent Grange Hall No. 512.” National Register of Historic Places nomination form, asset #79001190. National Park Service, 1979.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/79001190

“Few Minnesotans Gathering Around the Dying Flames of the Grange.” Minneapolis Star, July 25, 1973.

“Organized Agriculture Begins with Grange, 1867.” Minnesota Farmer, March 1958.

Peterson, Mary L. Crescent Grange 512 Centennial History, 1874–1974. [Minnesota]: [N.p.], 1974.

Related Images

Crescent Grange Hall #512
Crescent Grange Hall #512
Black and white photograph of Crescent Grange Hall and members, Linwood Township, Anoka County, 1880.
Black and white photograph of Crescent Grange Hall and members, Linwood Township, Anoka County, 1880.
Crescent Grange Hall #512
Crescent Grange Hall #512

Turning Point

At a meeting held at the home of J. G. Green on February 23, 1881, L.O. Tumbler proposed building a thirty-two-by-twenty-foot hall for Crescent Grange #512. The motion carries.

Chronology

1866

The US Department of Agriculture asks Oliver H. Kelly of Elk River, Minnesota, to investigate the conditions of local farmers.

1867

Kelley and associates organize the National Grange in Washington, DC.

1869

Kelley and associates create the State Grange of Minnesota.

1874

Minnesota’s Crescent Grange #512 is organized in Linwood Township.

1875

The National Grange supports 858,000 members.

1881

At a meeting held at the home of J. G. Green on February 23, L.O. Tumbler proposed building a thirty-two-by-twenty-foot hall for Crescent Grange #512. The motion carries.

1882

Crescent Grange #512 formally celebrates its founding on July 4.

1884

Members of Crescent Grange #512 complete their meeting hall.

1893

The Minnesota State Grange meets at the Crescent Grange Hall.

1916

W. W. Wittig embellishes the hall by adding two alcoves—one as an entrance and a second decorated with stained glass.

1948

The J. G. Green Farm is sold. The members of Grange #512 are deeded the acre of land their hall sits on.

1949

The hall’s ceiling is lowered to conserve heat and improve acoustics.

1979

The hall is added to the National Register of Historic Places.