HISTORY · HISTORICAL MARKER
Early Places
History
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Early places in Rapid City included Rufus "Pap" Madison's Cabin, whose original structure stands at the Journey Museum, and Rapid City High School, which stood on school land where Dakota Middle School sits today, with fencing and hay bales in the foreground showing that the athletic field was once a pasture. Felix Poznansky's Montana Store continued operating while it was moved to a different location to make room for the new brick building of J.L. Morris Dry Goods and Behrens Furniture, and the restored building now houses the Prairie Edge store. Security Savings Bank, Swander Grocery, and Sweeney Hardware showed that banking, groceries, and hardware were firmly established in the city; the bank and grocery building has been preserved, the Sweeney building was the site of a brisk hardware business and of the first library in 1879, and it burned to the ground in 1997. Library Hall, built in 1881 on land donated by John Brennan, employed first librarian Lida Mitchell at $5 a month, kept its reading room open 6 hours a week, allowed one book at a time to be checked out, and also served as Methodist and Congregational churches, a civic center, a lecture hall, a dance hall, and a place for funerals. John Brennan also built the long-lived Harney Hotel, one of the city's four stagecoach stops, and the 1903 City Hall, small but elegant in brick and arches, survives today as an office building.
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