| Because of its 1948 construction date, the brick
War Memorial Building now in place on this West Main Street lot
played no role in the turn-of-the-century transformation of West
Branch into a bustling business center. It has been included
in the Historic District as a reminder of the significance of
the building it replaced, which once housed a Quaker school for
Indian children. The Indian School building was originally located on West Main Street, just west of Enlow Public Library. A large, wood-frame building, it was constructed in 1877 as a home for the Miles, Townsend & Gill General Store. In January of 1883, the building became the Indian Industrial School, where the first class of 13 young Osage Indians had been brought from the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to be educated in West Branch by benevolent Quakers eager to instill in the Osage youngsters their pacifist beliefs. A later class would include children from the Sac, Fox and Pottawattamie tribes with names such as Grace Yellowhair, Dora Bear Robe, Bessie Red Pipe and Nellie Saucy Chief. On November 1, 1883, the school was relocated to the Lee County, Iowa, community of Salem, where it remained until it was closed after a fire in 1887. With the relocation of the Indian school, the second floor of the building was used as a roller rink, then the only place of amusement in town. In June of 1885, the building was purchased by Joseph Albin and moved to the lot on which the War Memorial Building now stands. After raising the roof five feet, the second-story hall was used for another form of entertainment: "magic lantern" shows, as early slide shows were known. The building later became a clothing store that was the site of a fatal shooting in 1897, the European Hotel, a restaurant, a box ball alley (a forerunner to bowling) and a controversial pool hall. |