In May 1923, Shelby was in the midst of a building boom driven by the upcoming 1923 World Heavyweight Championship Fight between Jack Dempsey and Tom Gibbons. Mayor Jim Johnson, a real estate developer, rancher, and oilman, secured the fight by advancing $100,000 of his own money and raising $200,000 more for Dempsey’s manager, then persuaded the city council, the Great Northern Railway, and local businesses to build the needed infrastructure, including a forty-thousand-seat stadium, miles of sidetrack, and the town hall. The city council hired Havre architect Frank Bossuot to design the hall in April 1923, and it was completed in time to serve as press headquarters for the July 4 fight. Although the event was a financial disaster because only a small fraction of the expected fans arrived, the fifteen-round match became part of sports history. In later years, the hall housed city offices, public meetings, and even a jail, and in the 1950s its roof gained an observation tower used from 1954 until 1959 by the Shelby Ground Observer Corps, mostly women volunteers who watched for enemy aircraft as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Operation Skywatch.