216 Main - DMV / Dickey County Leader Office

216 Main - DMV / Dickey County Leader Office

This building, completed in late 1916, was the second home of the Dickey County Leader, Ellendale’s oldest newspaper. The original building, which was on the same site, was destroyed in the big 1916 fire that consumed all the structures on Main Street except for the First National Bank (now Starion), and wiped out nearly all the buildings on the north and south side of Main all the way to City Hall. Details about the new building and the new equipment it was supplied with are provided in the January 11, 1917 Leader: https://archive.org/details/DSC0064_201701

The Leader kept this building as its headquarters until 2003 when it moved into a space at the rear of the building that is now the Sanford Clinic (formerly the Roy and Guy Lynde Chrysler garage). The smaller space was more practical, as the paper was no longer using the bulky printing equipment that occupied most of the space in this building.

The building was then purchased by attorney Kim Radermacher, who described it as “an extraordinary building” and proudly maintained the Leader sign: “It’s part of the building’s and Ellendale’s history,” she said.

The building is now occupied by the Ellendale Branch of the Division of Motor Vehicles. The Ellendale Job Development Authority (JDA) keeps an office in the back, where strategic plans are hatched to help the town develop its many resources.