Ottery Town Hall?

This is indeed the Otrey Township Hall, which was originally the school house for District #9 (known as the Nelson School as it was near the Andrew Nelson homestead). This building was built in 1880 on the south side of section 8, about 2 miles to the northwest. The school closed in 1950 and was moved to this location by the following year. It still serves as the town hall to this day.

The old Otrey Store was located adjacent to the town hall, near the gravel parking area on the left side of the photo. The Otrey Store was open from 1939 until 1955 and was operated in turn by: Herb Hedblum, Ole Bakken, Irwin Sudbery, Russel Bradford, Ervin Thompson, and Ralph Maynerd. There is a house for the store keeper located further back from the road (it's probably there in this photo but is hidden by the trees). After the store closed, the house was owned by Elmer Thompson and then Ralph Thompson. There is still a house here today, although it may not be the original one.

There was No house near hear in 1979 when this photo was supposedly taken. I contracted with the Town Board to paint the outside of this building and do some minor repairs probably just before this photo was taken. I received $400 for labor to do this Job. I hired my sister Karen to help as well. We repainted the Name Placard above the door as a bonus.It was in bad need of scraping and painting.