The Tenney Fire Hall, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

, was a small (24x14') metal-sided wood frame building with a bell tower and flag mast, located in Tenney, Minnesota

Tenney, Minnesota

Tenney is a former city, now an unincorporated community, in section 28 of Campbell Township, Wilkin County, Minnesota, United States. A post office was established there in 1887, and Tenney was incorporated as a city on November 30, 1901. The population was five at the 2010 census, making the...

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Functions

The Fire Hall was built to house the town's two hand-pulled chemical fire engines. The engines were used in conjunction with a large curbed well

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

 with a double stroked pump, an arrangement which was not abandoned until 1924. The rearmost part of the building also contained the town jail

Jail

A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...

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History

The building was erected in 1904 and was used for many years as a meeting house, a polling station, and of course as a fire hall and jail. During the 1990s the private owner had hoped to take measures to preserve the Fire Hall and to make it a viable attraction, but his efforts were hamstrung by the state and federal regulations governing the type of actions that can be taken with regard to moving or refurbishing properties on the NRHP. In the summer of 2008 an anonymous vandal crashed a vehicle into the fire hall, badly damaging the northwestern corner of the building. In the winter or spring of 2010 the fire hall was burned to the ground.

Significance

According to the National Register's Inventory-Nomination Form, the Fire Hall was significant for the following reasons:

1. "Government functions were often centered in towns, [including] places as small as Tenney with its Fire Hall..."
2. "Though of simple metal-sided, frame construction, the diminutive Tenney Fire Hall...is a visual landmark
   Landmark
   This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
   
   in the small town."