WHCPA Main Building
The main Western Hennepin County Pioneer Building is located in the former Long Lake school building in Long Lake, Minnesota. The school was built in 1917 and served the Long Lake area even after it was incorporated into the Orono Indenpendent School District in 1951. It served as a local elementary school in the Orono District (other such schools were the Stubbs Bay School, Hill School in Crystal Bay, and the Maple Plain School) until a modern elementary school building was completed in 1958. The WHCPA Museum collection started in 1958 in the basement of the Long Lake Bank from community donations and through the efforts of Roger Avery Stubbs and others. In 1968, when the opportunity to acquire the building came up, WHCPA organized to purchase the building in open bidding.
