Pieces of Marshall history get new life
Markell helps restore woodwork from former Marshall school building
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell Rural Marshall resident Dan Markell has salvaged many items from Marshall's former high school building, which was built in the 1930s. Here, Markell holds up an old sign for the principal's office.
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell A pair of double doors and a transom window from the vestibule of the former Marshall High School will become part of a renovated building in Hills, Minnesota, Markell said.
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell Among the school furnishings Markell restored over the years included a library table and a mail organizer from the school office.
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell A cabinet from the former Marshall High School wood shop now stands in Dan Markell's garage. When he salvaged it, the cabinet was painted battleship gray, Markell said.
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell Rural Marshall resident Dan Markell has salvaged many items from Marshall's former high school building, which was built in the 1930s. Here, Markell holds up an old sign for the principal's office.
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell A pair of double doors and a transom window from the vestibule of the former Marshall High School will become part of a renovated building in Hills, Minnesota, Markell said.
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell Among the school furnishings Markell restored over the years included a library table and a mail organizer from the school office.
Photo courtesy of Dan Markell A cabinet from the former Marshall High School wood shop now stands in Dan Markell's garage. When he salvaged it, the cabinet was painted battleship gray, Markell said.
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MARSHALL -- The building has been gone for roughly 20 years. But salvaged parts of Marshall's 1932 high school building are still finding new life.
"I get kind of a nostalgic feeling, I guess, knowing these will be around many, many years," said rural Marshall resident Dan Markell.
Before Marshall's 1932 high school building on North Fourth Street was demolished in 2006, Markell salvaged a wide variety of woodwork and furniture. Over the years he's restored or re-used some of the materials. Others have found new homes.
Last week, a set of double doors and a transom window from the school vestibule made the trip to Hills, Minnesota. They will be used in a building renovation project, said Kris Gagnon, of the Hills Chamber of Commerce.
"Some of the local businesses here are trying to revitalize our downtown," Gagnon said. Gagnon said he planned to give a more historical feel to a building he was renovating, with touches like the wooden school doors. "They're beautiful doors," he said.
There have been a few different sites for Marshall's public high school since the 1890s. One school building was constructed in about the same spot where Heritage Pointe Senior Living is located today, Markell said. In the 1930s, a new building that served as Marshall's high school was constructed along North Fourth Street. It later became the Marshall middle school when a new high school was built on Saratoga Street in the 1960s.
When the current Marshall High School opened in 2006, the middle school moved to the Saratoga Street school building. The old middle school building on North Fourth Street was demolished.
Markell said he bought items from the old school at auction, and also salvaged woodwork from the building before it was torn down. Some of the items included sections of the gymnasium floor and bleachers, wooden doors, library shelves and tables, and even the old sign for the principal's office.
Over the years, Markell has restored and repurposed some of the old school fixtures.
"I made a lot of blackboards," Markell said. "I made each one of my grandkids a little stool."
Markell sold other pieces of reclaimed wood from the school buildings.
"Mostly, it is people that are maybe renovating a house," Markell said. There are a few different reasons people are interested in the materials, he said. "It's quality oak. It's got a lot of character to it."
The vestibule doors Markell sold to Gagnon carried some memories, he said. As a Marshall student, he said, "I probably went through those doors 500 times."
Gagnon said he bought the Marshall High School doors from Markell to add to a building he was renovating in Hills. He said he was dividing a former hardware store into smaller commercial spaces, and he thought the wooden doors would help serve as a focal point for the building. Gagnon said he planned to separate the two doors into single doors, and possibly give them some new colored varnish. The transom window that used to be above the double doors could become a way to display a collage of historical photos from the Hills community, he said.
"We're trying to meet the new with the old," Gagnon said.
Markell said it was positive to know that he and other people were giving parts of Marshall history a new life.
"I cherish the fact I was able to use stuff that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill," Markell said.