National Register Listing

Downtown Fargo District

a.k.a. N.R. Control Nos. 0911792158;0913822518;0717791722;062579151

Roughly Roberts St., from S. 1st Ave. to 5th Ave. N., and Main Ave., Fargo, ND

The significance of the downtown Fargo district lies in its unusually large concentration of diverse architectural styles, and in the extent to which Fargo's business district became the premier service, commercial, and distribution hub for a region extending from northwestern Minnesota through eastern North Dakota, including a major portion of the Red River Valley. The district represents a complete catalog of architectural styles fashionable in commercial construction from 1878 Italianate through 1930-40 Art Moderne. For over 50 years, the district was identified with large volume service and retail establishments and agricultural implement dealerships, the results of excellent rail connections in the cardinal directions.

In 1872, Fargo became the North Dakota entry point for the Northern Pacific Railroad. The railroad completed construction to Bismarck on the Missouri River before its i financial collapse precipitated the Panic of 1873. The reorganization of the NP and resumption of construction to the Pacific in 1879 marks the date that Fargo began to achieve significance architecturally and historically. By 1883, the NP was completed to the West Coast and Fargo had been made a division headquarters for the railroad. Birdseye views and photographs from 1880 show that the 500 and 600 blocks on the south side of Main Ave. (then Front St.), near the NP's Headquarters Hotel, were developed with solid business fronts, albeit many were frame buildings that were gradually replaced by masonry during the 1879-86 Great Dakota Boom. Of this early period, the only intact business block today is the 600 block of Main Ave. Similar early structures between 6th St. South and the Red River of the North were cleared for urban renewal in the 1960s.

Several important early structures on the south side of Main Ave. and vicinity represent the Great Dakota Boom period which led to statehood in 1889. The first Luger Furniture Store (#85) at 716 Main Ave. is a brick commercial Victorian Gothic store built in 1882 from plans by Proctor and Daniels, an early local architectural firm. Around the corner at 9-11 8th St. S. (#4), the same architects built the Masonic Block in 1884 in a similar style. These two buildings are the best surviving examples of this style in North Dakota, and the Masonic Block has been listed on the National Register since 1975. Like many of Fargo's early architects, both Charles N. Daniels, who had worked in Minneapolis before moving to Fargo and John N. Proctor moved to the Pacific Northwest to find new work in the late 1880s.

Fargo's greatest surviving concentration of Italianate commercial structures built during the Great Dakota Boom can be found fronting Main Avenue between 602 and 618 Main Ave. Before the Fargo Fire destroyed 90 percent of the city center in 1893, Italianate features, such as paired bracketed cornices, arched windows, hood molds, and drip molds, could be seen on the majority of downtown Fargo business blocks. The Italianate style, popular in earlier decades farther east, is the earliest commercial high style found in North Dakota. It quickly became eclipsed in the region after 1890, and few good examples are found in the state today.

Local significance of the district:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.