German Russian Architecture

Exhibit courtesy of the Traveling Exhibits Program of the State Historical Society, Bismarck. The J.A. Wing Farm, Flasher, Morton County, North Dakota, ca. 1905.	Photographs of types of construction including stone with native mortar, sun-dried bricks with clay mortar, and puddle clay.
Eureka, South Dakota, 1888. Eureka, at the end of the railroad line, became a center of Germans from Russia immigration that would last for more than half a century.	The August Mantz home near Center, Oliver County, North Dakota, ca. 1903.
The David and Elizabeth Mueller homestead near Kulm, LaMoure County, North Dakota, ca. 1894, exhibits many German-Russian architectural traditions.	Traditional house-barn near Wishek, McIntosh County, North Dakota, ca. 1885. Many of the earlier houses were built with the family living quarters and the barn as one structure.
Blocks were the right mixture of clay and sand with straw, manure, or grass as the binder; the use of a binder was necessary to prevent expansion cracks in the surface due to climate changes, and added overall strength to the bricks.