Teien School nominated for National Historic Register

By Anna Jauhola
Four years of hard work have paid off for a group trying to save a historic building in Teien Township, but there’s still a long road ahead.
On Tuesday, Aug. 12, the State Historic Preservation Office Review Board met to consider five properties in Minnesota for nomination to the National Historic Register. Teien Central School/Town Hall was on the list and was formally approved to be nominated.
“Absolutely worth it,” said Laura Bloomquist Hammond. “It’s been very rewarding. The building is loved by members of the community. It was either undertake the preservation of it or tear the building down.”
Hammond and her brother Tim Bloomquist, who grew up in the Teien neighborhood, along with others like Marlys Nelson, Lorna Anderson and Raymond Hanson have thrown themselves into the project.
Hammond spearheaded the grant writing as she first wrote a grant in 2021 to hire an architect historian to evaluate the building and its cultural and historical significance to the area.
“He decided he couldn’t nominate it, so he quit and we hired another architect to finish the project, and we submitted it,” Hammond said.
It was 2023 before the project was determined eligible for review to be placed on the National Historic Register. Hammond then began working with MacDonald and Mack Architects, Minneapolis, who completed a condition assessment of the building in January 2025. Then Hammond completed the nomination documentation for the National Historic Register review meeting last week.
During the virtual meeting on Tuesday, Ginny Way, National Historic Architectural historian, gave a synopsis of the project.
The Teien Central School served the Teien rural school district from 1904 to 1954 when the rural schools consolidated with city schools. A year or two after that, the Teien Township Board purchased the old school building for use as the town hall. It served in that position through 1998, but also provided room for groups such as 4-H and homemakers clubs.
The property has unique features such as the two-story building itself, an old hand-pumped water pump, the school bell and cupola. Inside the building are the original voting booths along with some old ballots, Hammond pointed out, as well as old text and chapter books. The town board still uses the building for storage of flood mitigation materials like road barriers and sandbags.
“For over a century, the building served as an important community resource for a sparsely populated region of northwest Minnesota,” Way said. “The period of significance encompasses the years the building served as a school and the town hall.”
The next step is for the State Historic Preservation Office to sign the nomination form and send it to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., where the Keeper of the National Register will review it and either approve or deny the request.
Hammond said it can take about six weeks for it to go through the national vetting process. Should it be approved, national officials send a signed copy back to the state for final approval. This will give Hammond the green light to apply for Minnesota Legacy Fund grants through the Clean Water Legacy Amendment.
The first priorities are to fix the leaking roof and the foundation, which is damaged due to the leaking, Hammond said. She already has a timeline and hopes to begin working on grants to fix these issues yet this year. A long-term idea is to work with Kittson County Historical Society to make the building into a satellite museum, focused on the Teien Central School and Town Hall history with displays and artifacts.
SHPO Review Board member John Stark said it’s a good project and he hopes the focus is to refurbish the building.
“I think it’s very interesting that they saved the bell and took it down and set it aside,” Stark said. “So there is some deep love here and it’s a very unique-looking schoolhouse.”
Board member Mike Worcester asked whether the building is owned by the township still.
Hammond said later the township does still own the building, but she and the group involved have formed a 501(c)3 nonprofit called Friends of the Teien School. Anyone interested in the preservation of the building can give to the group’s account set up at any KodaBank location.