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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Red Rock Center for the Arts

church building in Fairmont, United States of America

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ5452677 ↗
Source-derived summary

Red Rock Center for the Arts is a historic structure located at 222 East Blue Earth Avenue, in Fairmont, Minnesota, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1988 as the First Church of Christ, Scientist. It is now owned by Martin County, which leases it to the Martin County Preservation Association.

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Fairmont, was organized October 1, 1891, and the church edifice, designed by noted Minnesota architect, Harry Wild Jones was completed in 1898. Sioux quartzite blocks quarried in Minnesota were used for the walls. The massive blocks are called red rocks because of their color and this gave rise to the present name of the building.

In 1937, First Church sold the building to the Christian Church of Fairmont which sold it in 1988 to a businessman.

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Fairmont, had another church building built at 205 Albion Avenue (between Tilden and Forest streets), which was designed by noted Chicago architect, Charles Draper Faulkner in the Colonial Revival style. That building is now the Lakeview Funeral Home.

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Fairmont, is no longer in existence.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Red Rock Center for the Arts” is church building in Fairmont, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Rock, Center and Arts, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1988, 1891, 1898, 1937—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Rock, Center and Arts is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “church building in Fairmont, United States of America” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5452677. Authority coordinates are 43.652, -94.459. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988, 1891, 1898 and 1937.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Red Rock Center for the Arts”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Red Rock Center for the Arts primary sources, Red Rock Center for the Arts archive and Rock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Red Rock Center for the Arts”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Red Rock Center for the Arts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.