Casselton Commercial Historic District

The first permanent white settlement at Goose Creek, the site of present-day Casselton, was made by Mike Smith in 1873; platted by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1877, lots finally began to sell the following year. The main line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and at the heart of the Red River Valley's Bonanza Farms, the community prospered, reaching a population of 376 by 1880; and nearly 1,400 by the end of the Dakota Boom in 1885. The unbounded optimism of those years brought about a rapid change from makeshift "boomtown" to a more substantial architectural appearance. Within the middle years of the 1880s, Casselton became the second largest town in the county and proudly erected a Victorian Gothic commercial center which substantially remains today.

The entrepreneurs who developed Casselton were men broadly associated with the Dakota Boom. N. K. Hubbard, for example, had come to the Territory in 1870 from Massachusetts and within five years established a chain of supply stores from Detroit Lakes to Jamestown.
Hubbard is associated with the founding of several banks (the First National Bank in Fargo, the Goose River Bank in Hillsboro, and the Cass County Bank (#3) in Casselton) as well as a number of commercial ventures, including a store formerly located immediately west of the Cass County Bank. E. S. Tyler, Hubbard's former partner, was another active speculator, as were Wallace Grosvernor and S. H. Knight, all immigrants to the area from New England. Other early merchants included H. F. Strehlow and J. F. Langer, father of North Dakota's maverick politician, "Wild Bill" Langer.

Frank Lynch may perhaps be typical of the varied interests of local capitalists. Arriving in 1882 from Minnesota, Lynch eventually came to own the Occidental Hotel, a part interest in the Masonic Block (#15), and other unidentified properties in Casselton. He served two terms as mayor and was for a time president of the Amenia and Sharon Grain Company.

With the exception of a lumber yard, grain handling, and a few hotels, most commerce was confined to the two-and-one-half block central business district. The earliest structures were of light-frame construction. A remarkable survival of that earliest period is the 1878 Ontario (now Ries) Hotel (#7), formerly located on the present Casselton State Bank (#6) site, moved to its current Langer Avenue location before 1900, and still operated as a hotel. Frequent fires destroyed similar frame buildings or they were subsequently veneered with masonry or tin. But the growth of investment after 1881 required more sophisticated architecture.