Watson's Store, grocery and variety, is the commercial heart of Rhame today, but this building began life in 1920 as another sort of commercial establishment--Munson's Bar. The building is constructed of clay tile (a common building material of the 1920s), the exterior stuccoed, with a modest false front topped in stair-step fashion.

Around the corner and east up First Street is this interesting building, a workshop likely dating from around 1910. Back of its wood false front is a gable roof covered with sheet metal. Little is known of the early history of the building, but in the 1940s-1960s it was owned by a local farmer who did his own shop work in it and also did work for others.

In the northwest part of town stands St. Mel's Catholic Church, constructed in about 1920. It is distinguished by Neo-Classical details around the windows, which were replicated in the front entry, added in 1936, when the building also was placed on a concrete basement. The sanctuary was extended in the back in 1950, and the sacristy added on the north side. A steeple, which local people say was quite attractive and interesting, has been removed.

Just south of the church is this fine example of Gable Front architecture, one of several residences of this general design in Rhame. Gable Front--characterized, as the name indicates, by the prominent front gable--was a preferred style for new building in the region in the early twentieth century. The scalloped shingle siding under the front gable here is particuarly attractive.

Another preferred style of residential architecture at the time Bowman County was settled was the Bungalow, often, in this part of the country, of the hip-roof variety, as with the example at right. The hip dormer centered above the front porch, with leaded glass in its window, distinguishes this building near the north end of the main street of Rhame. Notice that the front porch has been enclosed.

Most Gable Front or Bungalow houses in this part of the country originally had open front porches, wonderfully social institutions facing the street and the community, but almost all of these porches were modified under the influence of the northern plains environment--were enclosed with glass windows. The Bungalow at left, however--a near neighbor to the other, at the north end of Rhame's main street--preserves the open porch facing east onto the street.

Additional sites in Rhame may be viewed in the exhibit.