Editing Wimbledon, North Dakota

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox settlement
| official_name      = Wimbledon, North Dakota
| settlement_type    = [[City]]
| image_blank_emblem = WimbledonNDlogo.png
| blank_emblem_type  = Logo
| blank_emblem_size  = 125px
| nickname           = 
| motto              = <!-- Images --------------->
| image_skyline      = Wimbledon, North Dakota 6-9-2008.jpg
| imagesize          = 
| image_caption      = 3rd Avenue in Wimbledon, looking north-east.
| image_flag         = 
| image_map          = ND Barnes County Wimbledon.svg
| mapsize            = 250px
| map_caption        = Location of Wimbledon, North Dakota
| image_map1         = 
| mapsize1           = 
| map_caption1       = <!-- Location ------------->
| subdivision_type   = Country
| subdivision_name   = United States
| subdivision_type1  = [[U.S. state|State]]
| subdivision_name1  = [[North Dakota]]
| subdivision_type2  = [[List of counties in North Dakota|County]]
| subdivision_name2  = [[Barnes County, North Dakota|Barnes]]
<!-- Government ----------->| government_footnotes = 
| government_type    = 
| leader_title       = [[Mayor]]
| leader_name        = Roger Pickar
| leader_title1      = 
| leader_name1       = 
| established_title  = Founded
| established_date   = 1892
<!-- Area ----------------->| unit_pref          = Imperial
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| area_total_km2     = 1.61
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| area_water_km2     = 0.00
| area_total_sq_mi   = 0.62
| area_land_sq_mi    = 0.62
| area_water_sq_mi   = 0.00
<!-- Population ----------->| population_as_of   = [[2020 United States census|2020]]
| population_est     = 178
| pop_est_as_of      = 2022
| pop_est_footnotes  = <ref name="USCensusEst2022"/>
| population_footnotes = <ref name="2020 Census (City)"/>
| population_total   = 178
| population_density_km2 = 110.54
| population_density_sq_mi = 286.17
<!-- General information -->| timezone           = [[Central Time Zone|Central (CST)]]
| utc_offset         = -6
| timezone_DST       = CDT
| utc_offset_DST     = -5
| elevation_footnotes = 
| elevation_m        = 454
| elevation_ft       = 1490
| coordinates        = {{coord|47|10|14|N|98|27|36|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title}}
| postal_code_type   = [[ZIP code]]
| postal_code        = 58492
| area_code          = [[Area code 701|701]]
| blank_name         = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
| blank_info         = 38-86620
| blank1_name        = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
| blank1_info        = 1032841<ref name="GR3">{{cite web|url=http://geonames.usgs.gov|access-date=January 31, 2008|title=US Board on Geographic Names|publisher=[[United States Geological Survey]]|date=October 25, 2007}}</ref>
| website            = {{URL|https://wimbledonnd.com/|wimbledonnd.com}}
| footnotes          = 
}}

'''Wimbledon''' is a city in [[Pierce Township, Barnes County, North Dakota|Pierce Township]], [[Barnes County, North Dakota|Barnes County]], [[North Dakota]], United States. The population was 178 at the [[2020 United States census|2020 census]].<ref name="2020 Census (City)">{{cite web|title=Explore Census Data |url=https://data.census.gov/profile/Wimbledon_city,_North_Dakota?g=160XX00US3886620 |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=November 7, 2023}}</ref>

==Geography==
Wimbledon is located at {{coord|47|10|14|N|98|27|36|W|type:city}} (47.170662, -98.459941).<ref name="GR1">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/geo/gazetteer-files.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=April 23, 2011|date=February 12, 2011|title=US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990}}</ref>

According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the city has a total area of {{convert|0.53|sqmi|sqkm|2}}, all land.<ref name ="Gazetteer files">{{cite web|title=US Gazetteer files 2010|url=https://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/files/Gaz_places_national.txt|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=June 14, 2012}}</ref>

The city is in the south-west corner of the [[Civil township|township]], adjacent to the border with [[Stutsman County, North Dakota|Stutsman County]]. (In North Dakota, the term ''township'' refers to a six-mile square unit of territory, not to a particular settlement.)

No major highways pass through or near Wimbledon, which is just off [[List of state highways in North Dakota|State Route]] 9 from [[Melville, North Dakota|Melville]] to [[Rogers, North Dakota|Rogers]].

The nearest large settlement (by North Dakota standards) is [[Jamestown, North Dakota|Jamestown]] to the south-west, followed by [[Valley City, North Dakota|Valley City]] to the south-east, which is the county seat.

==History==
===Foundation===
Wimbledon was founded in 1892. It was named for [[Wimbledon, London]], which featured in the ancestry of John Henry Gibson, who homesteaded the land the town was built on.<ref name="NDpn">{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Mary Ann Barnes|title=Origins of North Dakota Place Names|date=1966|publisher=Bismarck Tribune|location=Bismarck, ND|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-RcUAAAAYAAJ|page=19}}</ref>

Gibson was born in 1844 of farming stock at [[East Wallingford, Vermont]], but ''went West'' as a young man and obtained title to 149 acres (60 hectares) of the local prairie in 1889. He registered this under the [[Homestead Acts|Homestead Act 1862]], indicating that he settled around 1882. Fortuitously, he did so when the [[Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad]] (always nicknamed the ''Soo Line'') was surveying a railroad on a bee-line diagonally across the future state from [[Mantador, North Dakota|Mantador]] to [[Portal, North Dakota|Portal]] to be part of a trunk route from [[Minneapolis]] to [[Vancouver, British Columbia]]. The survey line crossed his property, but initially the nearest town was pencilled in to be two miles south-east, and was to be called ''Hilltown''. However, he offered land to the railroad at a good price and so, in late 1892, Wimbledon was [[plat]]ted and a post office established in 1893.<ref name="Wimbledon History">Blinsky, K: They Planted the Roots Deep, A Wimbledon History 1893-1968 1968 p. 4</ref> Gibson's farmstead (previously named ''Gibson'' after him) had already been a mail-drop beforehand, with his being entrusted to hand on mail to his neighbors -and this would have influenced matters.<ref name="North Dakota: Counties, Towns and People">Gavett, J. L: North Dakota: Counties, Towns & People, Part 1 2008 p. 27</ref>

Wimbledon was a [[Railway town|railroad town]], and proof of this is in the layout. Instead of the original platting grid conforming to the [[Public Land Survey System]] (PLSS), as most of the state of North Dakota does, it aligned to the railroad. Initially it was seven blocks wide and six deep,<ref name="Blinsky op. cit, p. 4">Blinsky op. cit, p. 4</ref> but only three of the latter "took" -and the horizontal streets were not given numbers, but descriptions: ''Railway'', ''Center'', and ''Out''. As the town grew, its additions conformed to the PLSS, including areas originally part of the undeveloped back three strips.

===Youth===
The first of many [[grain elevator]]s, for which the town was to be famous, was set up in the year of its foundation. There were to be eight by 1908.<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 8</ref>

The nascent town prospered, and obtained three indicators of civic status before the century was out. In 1894 the ''Hotel Kline'' was founded by Frank Kline, who dealt in railroad-shipped lumber at a time when the countryside hereabouts completely lacked trees.<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 5</ref> This was important for the future, as it meant commercial travelers and business folk could visit without being gourmandized by [[Bed bug|bed-bugs]] in a [[flophouse]]. Then, in the same year, the ''Wimbledon News'' newspaper was founded.<ref name="Railroads in ND">US Department of Interior National Register of Historic Places: Railroads in North Dakota 1872-1956 p. 61</ref> Also, the first public school was set up -although it had to wait till 1906 for proper premises to be provided.<ref name="Railroads in ND">US Department of Interior National Register of Historic Places: Railroads in North Dakota 1872-1956 p. 61</ref>

Water supply was a problem in summer, but the town is on an [[Artesian aquifer|artesian basin]]. So, the railroad sank a well when the town was founded -but in winter the water pressure was uncontrollable, and the well was finally dynamited in 1916 to stop it flooding the town. The water was saline and unsuitable for drinking or locomotive boilers, anyway. However, it was good for peace of mind -because it enabled an effective fire-fighting department to be set up in 1893 (the early town buildings were all wooden, and fire was capable of burning a whole block out or worse).<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 9</ref>

The settlement was officially incorporated as a legal ''[[Village (United States)|village]]'' in 1899.<ref name="Railroads in ND">US Department of Interior National Register of Historic Places: Railroads in North Dakota 1872-1956 p. 61</ref> In North Dakota before 1967, incorporated settlements were either villages or cities (in that year, they all became cities). So, this amounted to Wimbledon becoming a town in the generally accepted sense of the term.<ref>Laws Passed at the Session of the Legislative Assembly of North Dakota 1967 p. 763</ref>

===Maturity===
Indications of the town's coming of age in the new century were the acquisition of a bank (it had two for a time), a horse racing venue and a public cemetery.

The ''First National Bank of Wimbledon'' was chartered in 1903, and issued ten and twenty dollar bills.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://antiquebanknotes.com/rare-currency/first-national-bank-wimbledon-north-dakota-6712.aspx|title=First National Bank Wimbledon North Dakota Charter 6712|access-date=February 4, 2020}}</ref> It built a two-storey brick edifice on Third and Center (122 3rd Avenue), but in 1913 faced competition when the ''Farmers & Merchants Bank of Wimbledon'' was founded. The latter was to serve the town for almost eighty years, taking over the First National's building after its rival went bankrupt in 1925.<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 16</ref> It is now (2020) a branch of ''Bank Forward'', but the old edifice has been abandoned and replaced with a single-storey layout on the opposite corner.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usbanklocations.com/farmers-merchants-bank-of-wimbledon-9424.shtml|title=Farmers & Merchants Bank of Wimbledon|access-date=February 4, 2020}}</ref>

Victory Park, to the north-east of the town, became a horse racing venue in 1906 when the ''Wimbledon Fair and Racing Association'' was organized and a half-mile track was constructed with a proper grandstand. It lasted over half a century, but is now the town recreation ground.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/ndshs-dm/id/2136|title=July 4th 1948 horse race, Wimbledon, N.D.|access-date=February 4, 2020}}</ref>

The Prairie View Cemetery was founded in 1910, and is still in use. It is on 17th Street SE, quite a way east of town (the name is apt).<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 14</ref>

The town reached peak population of 571 in the 1910 census. In 1920 it was 521, and this was an indication that the first generation of homesteaders was already making way for commercial growers of grain, who were beginning to combine farms in order to enjoy [[economies of scale]].

In 1908, the town had the following businesses and services: Four churches (three survive), a school, two banks, a post office, two hotels, two restaurants, two billiard halls, a newspaper, a telephone exchange (opened 1904), a realtor, two physicians, a dentist, a veterinary, two music instructors, two barbershops, four general stores, two butchers, a bakers, a confectioners, a drugstore, a clothes shop, a jewelers, a furniture store, two hardware stores, a [[Tack shop|harness shop]], two blacksmiths (ironworkers), two ''tin shops'' (non-ferrous metalworkers), two implement shops, two [[Livery yard|livery stables]] (horse and mule hire places), a dray line (cart hire -no motor taxis or auto hire yet), a feed supplier (ancestor of the filling station), a printer, two painters, a builder and a stonemason. Attorneys were notable by their absence (they would have been around the courthouse in Valley City, but one did hang out his shingle here by 1920) and saloons were obviously not being listed. Not all the folks who ran these establishments would have been fully professional at the time, as many of them would have been homesteading as well.<ref name="Blinsky op. cit p. 20">Blinsky op. cit p. 20</ref>

In 1914, the village board granted an ordnance to the ''Wimbledon Electric Company'' to wire up the town. The company generated its own power.<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 10</ref>

===Midland Continental Railroad===
Before 1913, Wimbledon was just one of a string of small towns along the Soo Line railroad, with [[Leal, North Dakota|Leal]] to the south-east and [[Courtenay, North Dakota|Courtenay]] to the north-west. It depended entirely on this railroad for links with the outside world, as there was no state highway system back then.

In 1908, the [[Midland Continental Railroad]] (MICO) began construction of a trunk line from [[Winnipeg]] to [[Galveston, Texas]] passing through Courtenay, [[Jamestown, North Dakota|Jamestown]] and [[Edgeley, North Dakota|Edgeley]]. It built Edgeley to Jamestown but then, fortunately for Wimbledon, ran out of money for a bridge over the [[Northern Pacific Railway]] transcontinental line at the latter place. It was forced to build east to a point where it could burrow cheaply through a fill carrying the main line, and then head north to Wimbledon instead of Courteney.<ref name="Railroads in ND">US Department of Interior National Register of Historic Places: Railroads in North Dakota 1872-1956 p. 61</ref>

The new railroad was finished in October 1913,<ref name="Railroads in ND"/> apart from a very short extension of 0.3 miles (0.5&nbsp;km) to a location called ''Frazier'' north of the Wimbledon passenger station and in open country. This was finished in December. The Wimbledon station was then to the east of downtown, on 17th Street SE.<ref name="ICC Report 1927">Strouse, L. G: Interstate Commerce Commission Reports Vol. 119 1927 p. 317ff</ref>

Frazier on 16 1/2 Avenue SE was the site of an abortive rival town project sponsored by the [[North Dakota Nonpartisan League]], and was named after a prominent member [[Lynn Frazier]] (later state governor). The MICO's intention was to go on to [[Grand Forks, North Dakota|Grand Forks]], which was dropped when the USA entered the First World War in 1917. That was the end of Frazier as a town.<ref name="Midland Continental Railway Depot">{{cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/d40e60ae-f5de-4f08-a94a-787acac89b61|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Midland Continental Railroad Depot 2000}}</ref> Instead, it became the location of an important set of grain elevators run by the ''Frazier Farmers Union Co-op'', opened in 1917.<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 18</ref>

The MICO made Wimbledon, in effect, a four-railroad town because, as well as handling its own traffic, it functioned as a terminal road for the ''Northern Pacific'' and also for the [[Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad]] at [[Edgeley, North Dakota|Edgeley]]. So, the town gained access to two transcontinental lines and this gave it an edge over its neighbors.<ref name="SPV Atlas">Walker, M: SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - Dakotas and Minnesota 2005 p. 40</ref>

===Inter-war===
In 1920 the MICO railroad moved its Wimbledon passenger station downtown from its former location on the city's eastern outskirts, on 17th Street SE. A site was chosen on the corner of Railway Street and 4th Avenue, opposite the Soo main line station, and a short spur built to it from the western junction curve to the Soo Line. The station building was jacked up off its poured concrete foundation and put on rollers for its journey down Railway Street.<ref name="Peggy Lee's Home">{{cite web|url=https://www.peggylee.com/pegleebb/read.php?3,2669|title=Peggy Lee's Home on National Register|access-date=January 30, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Railroads in ND" /><ref name="Midland Continental Railway Depot">{{cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/d40e60ae-f5de-4f08-a94a-787acac89b61|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Midland Continental Railroad Depot 2000}}</ref>

The local farmers then were growing wheat and oats in about equal quantities, with alfalfa for feed hay a smaller third. Other crops were rye, potatoes and linseed.<ref name="Gavett op. cit. p. 14">Gavett op. cit. p. 14</ref> Livestock and dairy farming did feature, as a reminder of the original self-sufficient mixed farming ideal of the homestead. A co-operative creamery was opened in 1929, and this also wholesaled the locally reared turkeys.<ref name="Blinsky op. cit p. 20"/>

The creation of the [[List of state highways in North Dakota|North Dakota State Highway System]] in 1926 put Wimbledon on the wrong side of its railroads tracks from Route 9, but marked the end of the town's complete dependence on its two railroads.

In that year the MICO ran one train each way to Jamestown but with only a twenty-minute layover, so folk could not go on a day-trip to that city. The Soo Line had two trains each way between Minneapolis and Portal, one slow and one semi-fast. The semi-fast left Wimbledon at 8:10 AM to arrive at Minneapolis at 5:45 PM, the same time as the return train left that city to arrive back at Wimbledon at 9:39 PM. These trains allowed for a full day in the county seat of Valley City, from 9:05 AM to 8:45 PM.<ref>Official Guide of the Railways February 1926 p. 1038</ref>

In 1937, the MICO railroad received permission to discontinue timetabled freight and passenger services from Jamestown to Wimbledon and to operate on ''call and demand'', meaning that carload freight customers would contact MICO Control at Jamestown to arrange pickup and delivery. Passenger service continued, but ''on an irregular basis'' and would have involved a so-called ''mixed train'' consisting of a passenger car attached to a rake of freight cars. The former would have been used for LCL (''less than-car-load'') freight items as well. The last paying passenger was recorded as travelling in 1965.<ref name="Midland Continental Railway Depot"/>

===Later 20th century===
In 1948, the village board decided to open an airport, and purchased land to the south-west for a single grass runway. The ''Wimbledon Municipal Airport'' ended up having six small hangars in total, and was especially useful as a base for crop-spraying aircraft.<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 19</ref> However, it became a private airfield between 1965 and 1983 and ceased operations between 2001 and 2003.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/ND/Airfields_ND.htm#wimbledon|title=Wimbledon Municipal Airport|access-date=February 5, 2020}}</ref> The terminal area including the hangars, on Route 9, was annexed to the city territory despite being in [[Stutsman County, North Dakota|Stutsman County]].

In 1950, the town was made a city. It was still three-quarters the size of what it had been at its peak in 1910 -population 449 compared to 571. The local farmers had taken to growing barley, which was the second crop after wheat -pushing oats into third place.<ref name="Gavett op. cit. p. 14"/>

In 1957, the ''Wimbledon News'' newspaper ceased publication.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89074284/|title=About the Wimbledon News|access-date=February 7, 2020}}</ref>

In 1968, the city had: Three churches, a school, a bank, a post office, a hotel, a restaurant, two insurance brokers, two meeting places (the ''American Legion Hall'' and the ''Wimbledon Community Building''), a barbershop, a laundromat, two general stores (one called ''Jack's Red Owl''), a hardware store (called ''Cherney's Hardware''), two implement shops, a blacksmith, two oil company outlets, a filling station, a lumber yard, two truck lines, a builder, a  home service company and a crop sprayer (based at the airport).<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 22</ref>

The NICO railroad closed down in 1969, after serious flood damage in the spring of that year. Formal abandonment took place in 1970, and the tracks were mostly torn up.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kfyrtv.com/home/headlines/Looking-Back-on-the-Midland-Continental-Railroad-339171222.html|title=Looking Back on the History of the Midland Continental Railroad|access-date=January 28, 2020}}</ref> However a stub from Frazier to Clementsville was kept on by the Soo Line to service grain elevators, and this survived until 1982.<ref>North Dakota State Rail Plan 2002 p. 78</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abandonedrails.com/Jamestown_to_Kloze|title=Jamestown to Kloze|access-date=January 30, 2020}}</ref>

The NICO Wimbledon station building was donated to the ''Wimbledon Community Museum'', which kept it on a care-and-maintenance basis for the next forty years.

The American passenger railroad business had been failing for two decades, and in response the federal government created [[Amtrak]] in 1971 and relieved railroad companies of the responsibility of running passenger trains. This was the end of the passenger train station at Wimbledon, and so of any public transport links since the city had no scheduled bus service.

===Recent times===
The city population has been falling gently but steadily over the last few decades, at about thirty a decade. By 2018, it was down to an estimated 192 -which was a third of the peak in 1910. However this compares well with neighboring settlements which have either [[Ghost town|ghosted]], or are heading that way. Of its near neighbors on the Soo Line railroad, [[Leal, North Dakota|Leal]] has twenty inhabitants, and [[Courtenay, North Dakota|Courtenay]] has forty-seven. On the MICO railroad, ''Durupt'' is now a plowed field -this was an older settlement than Wimbledon, and the latter's first Catholic church used to be here before being moved.<ref name="Blinsky op. cit p. 11">Blinsky op. cit p. 11</ref>

The economics of scale in farming continue to be applied in North Dakota, and since 2007 farm size has gone up 20% with a consequent loss of population.<ref name="What it Takes">{{cite web|url=https://civileats.com/2020/01/07/what-it-takes-to-keep-independent-grocery-stores-open-in-rural-communities/|title=What it Takes to Keep Independent Grocery Stores Open in Rural Communities|date=7 January 2020 |access-date=February 7, 2020}}</ref> On the enlarged farms locally, soybeans had displaced wheat as the number one crop with corn in third place.<ref name="Gavett op. cit. p. 14"/>

In 2012, the old MICO train station was refurbished and opened as the ''Midland Continental Depot Transportation Museum'', featuring the life of [[Peggy Lee]] as well as the railroad.

In 2014, the school closed as the result of a merger, and concentration on a more central site for the north part of the county. In 2015, the [[John Deere]] agricultural machinery dealership also shut.

As with most small American towns outside touristy areas, running an independent retail or service business here became very economically challenging towards the end of the 20th century. In response to the threat of losing its last general store after the closure of ''John Deere'', locals set up the ''Wimbledon Community Store and Café'' as a non-profit organization relying in part on volunteers to run it.<ref name="What it Takes"/>

The community has also erected a ''Veterans' Memorial'', completed in 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wimbledonnd.com/directory/veterans-memorial/|title=Veterans Memorial|access-date=February 7, 2020}}</ref>

In 2020, the city had: Three churches, a bank, a post office, a general store with small restaurant and kitchenette for rental, a bar, two insurance brokers, a sleep consultant, a child care center, two farm suppliers (one a co-op with a retail outlet and diner), a car wash and two campsites. The ''Wimbledon Newsletter'' is published monthly.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

==Topography==
===The plat===
North Dakota has a distinctive checkerboard landscape, owing to its conforming to the [[Public Land Survey System]] (PLSS) as it was developed by settlers. Hence, the property boundaries and roads are usually longitudinal (north-south) and latitudinal (east-west). Longitudinal roads are called ''avenues'', and latitudinal ones ''streets''. These are identified by number, often with a compass bearing. Hence State Route 9, which is Wimbledon's access to the outside world, enters the city from the west as 17th Street SE, parallels the railroad diagonally for a short distance (the railroad was there first) and leaves to the south as 97th Avenue SE.

However, Wimbledon is a [[Railway town|railroad town]] and was developed by a company affiliated to the [[Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad]] which built its trunk line diagonally across the state. As a result, the original [[Plat|plat grid]] did not align to the PLSS, but with the railroad. Further, the nomenclature was non-standard.<ref name="Blinsky op. cit, p. 4"/> The streets were not given numbers, but descriptions: ''Railway'', ''Center'', and ''Out''. The avenues were given numbers: 1st, 2nd, 2nd 1/2, 3rd, 3rd 1/2, 4th.

The railroad grade crossing was on 3rd Avenue, which hence became the city's main drag and was provided with extra width. It was also extended beyond the original plat to the Roman Catholic church to the north-east, with its landmark spire.

When the town was expanded, it had two large additions laid out to the north and east. These were conformed to the PLSS, with the result that the roadway nomenclature is chaotic and confusing to strangers. For example, 1st Avenue turns to heads east disjunctively, 1st Avenue N (not the same) heads north -and is paralleled by 1st Street N. Gibson Street, on the west edge of the built up area, also heads north -and has no number, because it is west of 1st Avenue N.

A third, very small town expansion of three roadways was laid out at the south-west end of 3rd Avenue, after it crosses Route 9. This remains the only residential area south of the railroad tracks.

===What is here===
The railroad remains in business. Route 9 is to the south-west, on the wrong side of it, so the city's ''Welcome'' sign is on the junction between it and 3rd Avenue and is surrounded by grain elevators and silos. The oldest of the former has a [[ghost sign]] reading ''Wimbledon Farmers Elevator Co''. The farm supply arrangements here belong to ''Agroline Limited'' by the junction, and ''Arrowwood Prairie [[History of cooperatives in the United States|Co-op]]'' further south. The latter is the largest company based in Wimbledon, with its head office here and two sets of premises. Smaller farm requisites and consumables, as well as retail fuel and a diner, are with the office and farm machinery is further on south.

Crossing the railroad grade crossing on 3rd Avenue, the first street is ''Railway''. On this to the right is the site of the original Soo Line passenger station, now occupied by a long shed. Opposite this on the east 4th Avenue corner is the old Midland Continental Railroad station, which is now the ''Midland Continental Depot Transportation Museum''. Across 4th Avenue is a former hotel building, two storeys in red brick with decorative details in the brickwork.

Continuing down 3rd Avenue, some of the buildings facing the road are former retail premises with traditional false pediments for signage. The next junction, with ''Center'', is the city hub. To the near left is the one-storey bank and post office, and facing it is the ''Wimbledon Community Store and Café''. This has an interesting paint job, including an arboreal mural for its small tea-garden. On the far right is the former bank building, two storeys in brick and with identification plaques: ''First National Bank'' and ''1905''. Slightly further on on 3rd is the town bar.

The rest of the city is mostly residential, of recent construction, although the three churches are outside the original plat. Notable is the number of trees -if farming ceased here, the land would revert to forest, not prairie. The pre-settlement prairie was treeless because of bison grazing pressure, not because of climate or soil quality -as was the case further west in the state.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Effects of Bison and Cattle on Growth, Reproduction, and Abundances of Five Tallgrass Prairie Forbs|jstor = 2446471|last1 = Damhoureyeh|first1 = Said A.|last2 = Hartnett|first2 = David C.|journal = American Journal of Botany|year = 1997|volume = 84|issue = 12|pages = 1719–1728|doi = 10.2307/2446471|pmid = 21708577|doi-access = free}}</ref>

3rd melds with 4th at St Boniface's Catholic Church, and continues as 4th. The city's water tower is just to the north of the church. Further on is the entrance drive to the ''City Park'', which used to be the ''Victory Park'' horse racing track. The ghost of the actual track is still visible in the grass.

The ''Veterans' Memorial'' is the latest addition to the city's facilities.

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
|1900= 226
|1910= 571
|1920= 521
|1930= 421
|1940= 357
|1950= 449
|1960= 402
|1970= 337
|1980= 330
|1990= 275
|2000= 237
|2010= 216
|2020= 178
|estyear=2022
|estimate=178
|estref=<ref name="USCensusEst2022">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-cities-and-towns.html|date=November 7, 2023|title=City and Town Population Totals: 2020-2022|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=November 7, 2023}}</ref>
|align-fn=center
|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|author=United States Census Bureau|author-link=United States Census Bureau|access-date=October 31, 2013}}</ref><br>2020 Census<ref name="2020 Census (City)"/>
}}

===2010 census===
As of the [[census]] of 2010, there were 216 people, 94 households, and 55 families living in the city. The [[population density]] was {{convert|407.5|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|1}}. There were 119 housing units at an average density of {{convert|224.5|/sqmi|/km2|1}}. The racial makeup of the city was 97.2% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]] and 2.8% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 0.5% of the population.

There were 94 households, of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 41.5% were non-families. 39.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.11.

The median age in the city was 40 years. 30.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 20.8% were from 25 to 44; 29.2% were from 45 to 64; and 13.4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 44.4% male and 55.6% female.

===2000 census===
As of the [[census]] of 2000, there were 237 people, 111 households, and 68 families living in the city. The population density was {{convert|512.3|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. There were 126 housing units at an average density of {{convert|272.4|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the city was 97.89% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 0.42% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], and 1.69% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 0.42% of the population, which equates to a single individual.

There were 111 households, out of which 26.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.2% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.7% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.79.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.2% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 27.0% from 25 to 44, 24.9% from 45 to 64, and 19.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $34,107, and the median income for a family was $42,000. Males had a median income of $26,875 versus $18,333 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the city was $16,493. About 5.6% of families and 6.3% of the population were below the [[poverty line]], including 8.8% of those under the age of eighteen and 8.9% of those 65 or over.

==Churches==
===St Boniface Catholic Church===
The [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] church is at 504 3rd Avenue, the opposite end of that thoroughfare from the railroad crossing.

The first, wooden, church on this site was actually erected in 1886 at ''Durupt'' (now a [[ghost town]]), five miles south. The dedication to [[Saint Boniface|St Boniface]], the Apostle to the Germans, indicates the German origins of the first worshipers. When they realised that Wimbledon was going to be more important, they jacked the church up, put it on rollers and used horse power to drag it to its new site just north of the town plat in 1895. This was chosen because it was the highest point hereabouts.

In 1907, a priest's house was under construction. Something went badly wrong, the unfinished building caught fire and the church burned to the ground, too. A new one was erected in the following year. The architect was G. R. Clausen.<ref name="Blinsky op. cit p. 11"/>

This is an impressive Gothic edifice in bright red brick with a few stone details, having a nave without aisles of five bays, a narrower sanctuary of one bay and a three-sided apse. The nave side walls each have five large pointed windows with two-light tracery, separated by buttresses each of which has two sloping steps in stone. The nave roof is steeply pitched, and the sanctuary and apse have separate pitches at a lower level.

The west front has a central tower, mostly set into the first bay of the nave and functioning also as the entrance porch. This tower has a landmark spire, flanked by the gabled tops of the four walls and four corner pinnacles which top corner buttresses. There are three storeys to the tower; the first has the single entrance, in the form of a pointed arch with step molding in brick and with a transom window fitted into the arch above the doorway. The second storey has a large Gothic window with tracery, and the third (the bell-chamber) has a large louvered aperture in each face. The top of the tower's second storey and the sloping nave rooflines on each side are embellished with little floating arcades of Gothic arches in brick.

An unusual device tops the entrance portal, in the form of an acute-angled triangular gable which obscures the large tower window.

===St John's United Methodist Church===
This church was originally founded in 1931 as a union of three worshipping communities, Presbyterian, German Reformed and Methodist, which got together to build a proper church edifice. They lacked the resources to do so otherwise.<ref name="Blinsky op. cit p. 11"/> However, the original church has been demolished and replaced by a modern structure on the west side of the city, at 100 Center Street. This is in reinforced concrete with pink brick infill, and is a low rectangular edifice with a distinctive shallow triangular apse occupying its front end flanked by vertical window strips.

===St Paul's Lutheran Church===
The Lutheran church is hidden away at 307 Gibson Street, away from downtown and set back from the street. It is a low, nondescript vernacular building with s steeply pitched roof and with no ecclesiastical features. This replaced a Gothic-style church with tower, which was built in 1909.<ref>Blinsky op. cit p. 12</ref>

==Education==
Students in the Wimbledon area attend ''Barnes County North Public School'', which is located two miles west of [[Leal, North Dakota|Leal]]. Around 300 students are enrolled in the ''Barnes County North School District''. The district covers [[Courtenay, North Dakota|Courtenay]], [[Dazey, North Dakota|Dazey]], [[Eckelson, North Dakota|Eckelson]], [[Rogers, North Dakota|Rogers]], [[Sanborn, North Dakota|Sanborn]], [[Spiritwood, North Dakota|Spiritwood]], [[Spiritwood Lake, North Dakota|Spiritwood Lake]], Urbana, [[Walum, North Dakota|Walum]] (actually in [[Griggs County, North Dakota|Griggs County]]), and Wimbledon.

Prior to 2007, there were three separate school districts: ''North Central of Barnes'' north of Rogers (K-12), ''Wimbledon-Courtenay'' in Wimbledon (K-12), and ''Spiritwood'' in Spiritwood (K-6). In 2007, the three districts merged into the Barnes County North School District. From 2007 to 2012, the three schools (North Central Campus, Wimbledon-Courtenay Campus, and Spiritwood Campus) operated as they had before the merger. In 2013, the Spiritwood Campus was closed, and the North Central Campus housed preschool through fifth grade, while the Wimbledon-Courtenay Campus housed grades 6-12. In 2014, construction of the centralized facility was completed, and the remaining two facilities were closed, and all students in the district began attending the new Barnes County North Public School.

==Notable people==
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* [[Lonnie Laffen]], politician, born in Wimbledon
* [[Peggy Lee]], singer raised in Wimbledon

==See also==
* [[KRVX]]: radio stations licensed to Wimbledon
* [https://wimbledonnd.com/ Welcome to Wimbledon, ND] -official city site
* [[Midland Continental Railroad Depot]]
* [http://themidlandcontinentaldepot.com/  Midland Continental Depot Transportation Museum] - official museum site
* [http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/ndsl-books/id/10205/ Wimbledon History online]
* [https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/d40e60ae-f5de-4f08-a94a-787acac89b61/ National Register of Historic Places, Wimbledon Depot]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Barnes County, North Dakota}}
{{North Dakota}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cities in Barnes County, North Dakota]]
[[Category:Cities in North Dakota]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1892]]