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Original government building
The Government Building BY WAYNE FANEBUST
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n the 1880s and the 1890s, the people of Sioux Falls would have been hard pressed to find someone more public spirited than R. F. Pettigrew. Although politics was his primary pursuit — and while serving in the U. S. Senate, he still devoted time and effort toward building and improving the city that he loved. If there had been an office entitled “Booster in Chief,” Pettigrew would have claimed it and worn it with honor and pride. In 1892, Senator Pettigrew introduced a bill in Congress for the construction of a
18 out and about |
HISTORY
public building in Sioux Falls. He had little or no trouble getting the bill passed into law, but the location of the project would prove to be problematic. Pettigrew knew exactly where he wanted it built, namely the southeast corner of 12th Street and Phillips Avenue. Other businessmen, hostile to the Senator, including Wilmot W. Brookings and John McClellan, wanted it built further to the north on Phillips Avenue where they had property and commercial interests. Brookings and McClellan were
among the first white setters in Sioux Falls and both were well-respected. Early on, the site selection was shaping up to be a hard fight. Pettigrew loved a good fight so he and his associates formed a syndicate that included out-of-state investors. They immediately went to work buying and developing property on south Phillips Avenue, while grading that street south to the railroad tracks of what was called the Omaha line. The other group of boosters was equally determined and it was said
