The Old Armory in Williston: Built on 200 Shares of Stock

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated August 27, 2026 · How we verify

Drill practice in Williston used to happen wherever there was room: a field, an open lot, whatever the weather allowed. That changed in 1916, when the building now known as the Old Armory in Williston went up in this corner of North Dakota and gave the town’s citizen soldiers a roof, a floor and a proper place to muster. More than a century later the building is talked about less for its drill hall than for what staff and visitors say they have seen inside it.

Why “E” Company Needed a Building

Before the armory existed, the local military unit known as “E” Company trained in less formal settings, including fields and open spaces. The 1916 armory was a significant upgrade, giving the company a dedicated space for structured military exercises rather than borrowed ground. That single change, from open air to enclosed hall, is the whole reason the building exists, and it explains the plain, purposeful shape of the place.

The design came from Minot architect Robert Stacy-Judd, working to an initial budget of $27,000. As early twentieth century military architecture goes, it was a building meant to be used hard: a space for formations, inspections and the kind of routine that turns a group of local men into a unit.

Ten Thousand Dollars, a Reduced Promise, and 200 Shares of Stock

The funding story is the most human part of the armory’s record, and it is worth reading closely if you want to understand why Williston still treats the building as its own. The cost was split between the community and the government. Local people raised $10,000. The government initially promised $15,000, then later adjusted its contribution down to $5,000, which left a hole in the budget partway through the effort.

The town covered the shortfall rather than abandoning the project. Two hundred shares of stock were sold at $50 each, and an additional state loan and a $5,000 cash advance closed the gap. The result was a building financed by neighbours as much as by any military appropriation, and one that served as a central hub for both military and public events once it opened.

Moving Mannequins and Whispers in Empty Halls

None of what follows is documented fact. It is a body of reported experience, gathered from staff and visitors, and it should be read as testimony rather than record.

The accounts fall into three rough groups. The first, and the strangest, involves mannequins that people say do not stay as they were left, appearing to move on their own between one look and the next. The second is auditory: whispers heard carrying through halls that are empty at the time. The third is visual, brief figures glimpsed on the staircases and gone before anyone can look twice.

There is no concrete explanation on offer for any of it. Old buildings settle, drum and echo, and a room full of costumed figures in changing light is a gift to the human eye’s habit of finding faces and motion where there are none. What has given the armory its local reputation is not the strength of any single account but how often and how consistently the same three kinds of report come back. Whether that reflects something spectral or simply the acoustics and shadows of a 1916 hall, the stories have made this one of the most talked about buildings in Williston.

Seeing the Old Armory for Yourself

Treat the armory first as a piece of local history and second as a ghost story, and you will get more out of it either way. Access arrangements are not clearly established in the available material, so anyone planning a trip should confirm ahead of time whether the interior can be visited and under what conditions rather than turning up expecting a tour. If you do get inside, the details worth noticing are the ones the funding story explains: a hall built to a Minot architect’s plan, paid for in part with $50 shares bought by people who lived within walking distance of it.

The building’s two reputations sit oddly well together. One is a matter of ledgers and stock certificates and a promise that shrank from $15,000 to $5,000. The other is whispers on an empty landing. Only the first can be checked.

See Old Armory for Yourself

Sources

• North Dakota Fighting Hawks Men's Basketball Index
• UND officially makes the move to the Summit League, Missouri…
• Men's Basketball – University of North Dakota Athletics
• s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
• Wikipedia: North Dakota Fighting Hawks men's basketball

Address: 320 1st Ave E

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