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The Great Scavenger Hunt of Downtown Hillyard By Markie Jones, Elaina Mayabb and Breanna Stevens, Shaw Middle School Students Hillyard - On Thursday May 31, 2007, Shaw students from Mrs. Hilbush's block classes went on a scavenger hunt in downtown Hillyard. The students split up into pairs and visited at least ten different businesses to interview the owners about Hillyard’s past. First, they learned many people contributed to Hillyard’s beginning. There was Joseph Farrow who was the first mayor of Hillyard. Leland and Kate Westfall, who platted the town and named it Hillyard after James J. Hill, the Great Northern Railroad giant who brought the train to the area.
When the students passed the bell tower at Regal Elementary, they learned that Hillyard High School shared a building with Regal Elementary. Later Hillyard High moved to a building on north Regal Street before Rogers High School was built in 1933. According to Frank Kerr whose brother Don attended the old Hillyard High School, “The Hillyard High students carried books from the old high school to the new Rogers.” The Hillyard High now is called the Martindale Apartments. Finally students visited and chatted with owners and workers in the COPS Shop, Hillyard Variety, Hillyard Mall, Ken’s Barber Shop, Al Paulsen’s Auto Licensing, B&B Antiques, Hillyard Florist, Market St. Antiques, and the former Hillyard Laundry now known as the Pilot Bookstore. At last students discovered how amazing Hillyard’s history is when they found the oldest original building in historic Hillyard-- Sheehan Boarding House built in 1893-- still standing.
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In
addition, original buildings such as the Leslie, Victor, Bell, Nebraska,
Yukon, and Alaskan still dot the streets of Market. O’Brien’s Used
Furniture was formerly the Lighthouse Café, Ayler’s Electric, and had
apartments above the main floor. United Hillyard Mall used to be
the First National Bank where Mrs. Hilbush’s late father-in-law, Arthur
Hilbush, was the bank manager in the late ‘30’s.