Minnesota Home School for Girls Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

From the record

“The Minnesota Home School for Girls was a reformatory in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, United States. It was Minnesota's first single-sex reformatory for girls from its establishment in 1911 to 1967, when it switched to a coeducational model and shortened its name to the Minnesota Home School.”
Wikipedia article Minnesota Home School for Girls, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 36 National Register listings published here for Stearns County · listed in 1989 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Off MN 302, Sauk Centre, 56378
When was it listed? January 1989
Category. district
Township. Sauk Centre township
National Register reference number. 88003090 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

5,495 words

The chapter on Sauk Centre Township in History of Stearns County, Minnesota, published 1915 names Sauk Centre. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The white man who first set his foot on the spot where now rises the beautiful little city of Sauk Centre was probably a reckless adventurer inspired by wanderlust. He passed on, leaving never a trace l>ehind him, and has now ended his aimless journeyings through the world. To this nomadic class belong not the real pioneers of a country, they who build its civilization. With these latter it is a desire for the erection of homes that sends them forth to endure all the hardships and perils of a new and uninhabited country. The love of home is instinctive with them:

Passage source: History of Stearns County, Minnesota, published 1915.

The first settlement made in Sauk Centre was in the year 1856. It consisted of what was known as the "Sauk Centre -Townsite Co.," comprised of seven persons, of whom the leading spirit in the enterprise was Alexander Moore, who was then acting as agent for his mother, Rachel Moore. His arrival in this locality was probably antedated by that of W. R. James, the latter, however, after a short stay had departed to return a few years later. Although the township had not then been sub-divided, the outlines of a townsite were staked out.

Passage source: History of Stearns County, Minnesota, published 1915.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Sauk Centre Township - 5,495 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

4 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Minnesota Home School for Girls Historic District between 2004 and 2017, burning about 23 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	2
Recreation and ceremony	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
5 May 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 March 2005	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Litchfield Wetland Management District	ARCHWELDER
18 November 2011	Recreation and ceremony	21 acres	Litchfield Wetland Management District	GETTEL
1 October 2004	Recreation and ceremony	2.0 acres	Litchfield Wetland Management District	TWIN FIRE

Every fire recorded in Stearns County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Minnesota Home School for Girls Historic District: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Haskamp Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Stearns County

Storms near this property

45 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sauk Centre, the town this property stands in, in 45 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 23 hail, 13 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2000	Lightning	Sauk Centre	1 hurt	Metal trailer struck by lightning. Person standing next to trailer suffered burns.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	$500,000	The Sauk Centre City Officials noted that power was lost in the town at 1908 CST, which is when emergency sirens lost power. Several residents noted that the strong straight line winds lasted for 10 minutes. \|\|Damage occurred to approximately 200 trees in Sauk Centre which were either uprooted or snapped off with the line of storms. Tree damage was noted from Interstate 94, in the south, to the Sauk Centre Country Club to the north. \|\|The survey noted that all of the trees were laying toward the east, which was indicative of damage caused by straight line winds. Dozens of structures were also damaged in the town, though almost all of the structural damage was caused by falling trees. There was a toppled truck trailer, just over a dozen downed utility poles, and several snapped road signs.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	$25,000	Numerous trees were uprooted around the city of Sauk Centre.
June 2023	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	A report was received via social media. There was also a measured 51 mph wind gust.
May 2022	Tornado (EF0)	Sauk Centre	-	Video on social media showed a tornado moving across the southern part of Sauk Lake. A damage survey found over a dozen trees uprooted or broken in the northwest wide of Sauk Centre, just east and southeast of the Old Golf Course. After moving across the lake, it knocked down a few more trees and dissipated.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	A few trees were blown down around Sauk Centre. The Sauk Centre airport measured a wind gust of 53 MPH at 1755 CST.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	There were numerous trees blown down in the town of Sauk Centre.
May 2014	Flash Flood	Sauk Centre	-	There were numerous reports of county roads flooding between Sauk Centre and Melrose, including County Road 4 near the Sauk River, Highway 71 south of Sauk Centre, plus County Roads, 29, 186 and 169. These roads were closed during the height of the storm, and sustained damage due to debris and some erosion from the fast flowing water.
June 2013	Flash Flood	Sauk Centre	-	Very heavy rainfall began across Stearns County after 1200 AM CST, Friday, June 21st. Due to the extreme rainfall rates that continued through 130 AM CST, Friday, June 21st, several roads in the city of Sauk Centre became inundated with flood waters. The heavy rainfall tapered off after 2 AM CST, June 21st, and flood waters slowly receded during the early morning hours.
May 2013	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	Small tree limbs were also blown down during the time the quarter size hail fell.
May 2012	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	The large hail stones accumulated up to 2 inches deep in some areas of town.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	Wind gust occurred on Interstate 94 at mile post 128.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	Semi-trailer trucks blown over on Interstate 94. Roof off two buildings at car dealership, garage door blown out, softball bleacher tossed, large trees uprooted, silo collapsed onto barn.
September 2007	Heavy Rain	Sauk Centre	-	Ponding of water occured at a viaduct and at a few intersections around town. As a result, a few roads were barricaded.
August 2006	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	Hail was occasionally nickel size.
June 2005	Funnel Cloud	Sauk Centre	-	A trained spotter reported via HAM Radio that they witnessed a funnel cloud from a vantage point 7 miles south of Sauk Center.
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	Numerous trees down in Sinclair Lewis Park.
June 2002	Tornado (F0)	Sauk Centre	-	Brief touchdown in open field witnessed by broadcast meteorologist.
July 2002	Flash Flood	Sauk Centre	-	Street flooding.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	Tree down on Main Street.
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	Power lines down.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	Two farmsteads damaged by downburst winds. Several sheds destroyed. Irrigation equipment ripped into pieces. Trees blown down. Estimated windspeed.
August 2025	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2011	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2010	Funnel Cloud	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2010	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2010	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
April 2010	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
September 2007	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2007	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2007	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
August 2006	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
June 2003	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2002	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2002	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
July 2000	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Sauk Centre	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Stearns County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

3 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Palmer House Hotel	1.0 miles	1982
Original Main Street Historic District	1.0 miles	1994
Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home	1.1 miles	1968

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88003090 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Stearns County	All 36 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.