Fargo South Residential District

The significance of the Fargo, North Dakota South Residential District is both historical and architectural. First, it represents the primarily residential area of prominent and influential businesspeople in Fargo and the upper Red River Valley in North Dakota. In some cases, residents' business acumen led to political careers and influence, which was felt statewide. Secondly, the district represents a broad range of the most popular architectural styles in the Red River Valley. Structures in the district are of high integrity and represent outstanding residential examples of revival designs by architects who practiced in Fargo between 1882 and 1940, as well as pattern book designs built by local carpenters and contractors.

The northern edge of the district is located just south of the Original Townsite, filed in 1874. It begins with the Northern Pacific Addition, filed in 1877, and the Williams S. Rentschler house at 423 8th St. S. The majority of the early turn-of-the-century homes are located in the Charles A. Roberts Addition, filed in 1884. This addition extends from 5th Ave. S. to 10th Ave. S.

Charles A. Roberts (1846-1925), one of Fargo's first settlers, helped stake out the boundaries of Fargo in 1871, during the first year of settlement. Roberts, who built the first flour mill in Fargo, ended up with vast real estate interests in the city. He originally owned 360 acres of land south of Main Ave. (then known as Front Street) where he and his wife built a large brick Italianate mansion in 1884, the year the C. A. Roberts Addition was platted. The building of the house, located at 611 8th St. S., is reported to have been supervised by Mrs. Roberts, who may have been its designer. Because of business reverses, the Roberts' sold their mansion in 1899 but continued to reside in Fargo. The house became the Eighth Street Hospital, then the Neal Institute, and in 1903 the North Dakota Sanitarium. Although the house has been used as an apartment since 1919, the exterior is virtually unchanged from its original appearance.

The Lars Christianson house at 823 8th St. S., is another early Italianate house, built in 1885, from plans by George Hancock. Lars Christianson, arriving in Fargo in 1881 during the Great Dakota Boom, started a drug store on Front Street and moved the Christianson Drug Company into more commodious quarters on Broadway downtown in 1898. Born in Norway, Lars Christianson, who was still living in his house in 1928, was one of the organizers of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and of St. Luke's hospital in Fargo.

The other early Italianate house in the district was built by Samuel G. Roberts during the 1880-1890 Great Dakota Boom. It was originally situated in downtown Fargo where the Federal Buiding now stands at 202 Roberts St., and moved in 1920 to its present location at 1115 8th St. S. in the Erskine's Addition, platted in 1899, Samuel G. Roberts, a Civil War veteran and native of Maine, fought in both Massachusetts and Minnesota regiments before settling in Fargo in 1872. Roberts filed on a quarter section of land in what became the heart of downtown Fargo and practiced law in partnership with Solomon G. Comstock of Moorhead, Minnesota for a number of years. An early Fargo pioneer, Roberts was a founder and stockholder in the First National Bank and established the Fargo Foundry and Republican Newspaper Co. As a Republican, his active political career included state, county, and local positions. He was an organizer of the Republican Party in North Dakota; served in the Territorial Legislature in 1879 and 1883 and was a member of the territorial committee in 1875 and 1876. He was the state's attorney of Cass County in 1877 and 1878; served as a county superintendent of schools in the 1870s, and was an early municipal judge in Fargo. Roberts was for three terms a member of the Fargo City Council and for three terms a city attorney. His only child, a daughter named Ruth, married Gilbert W. Haggart, son of another Fargo pioneer and state politician, John E. Haggart. Gilbert and Ruth Haggart, married in 1900, lived their lives in the S. G. Roberts house. Ruth Haggart had the house moved in two parts from downtown Fargo to its present location in 1920. At that time, a new foundation was constructed, the front porch was enclosed, and a small rear addition was constructed. Haggart Construction Company moved the house. It was passed eventually to their son, J. Roberts Haggart, and remains in the family today as the home of Margery Archer Haggart.

By the turn of the century, large Classical Revival houses were being erected on 8th St. S. by prosperous Fargo businesses and professional people. William C. Rentschler's 10-room home was built in 1899 from plans by the Hancock Brothers, Fargo architects. Rentschler was a partner in Rentschler and Schoninger, a retail and wholesale meat market in downtown Fargo. Another wholesale grocer, Frank F. Grant, hired the Hancock Brothers to design his Classical Revival house at 723 8th St. S. The Grant house, a 14-room mansion, was originally designed with a paired columned classically pedimented wrap-around front porch, removed after 1922. Across 8th Ave. S. on the same side of 8th St. S. John C. Hunter, Treasurer of the large-volume Fargo Merchantile Company, erected another Classical Revival mansion in 1898 from plans by the Hancock Brothers. Other large Classical Revival houses are: 708 8th St. S. (1899); 804 8th St. S. (1898); the E. P. Sundberg house at 901 8th St. S., by the Hancock Brothers; the G.N. Huffaker house at 1209 8th St. S. (1907); 808 8th St. S. (1915); and the F. F. Grant house mentioned earlier. The large Classical Revival homes in the district by George and Walter Hancock are the residential counterparts of some fifteen surviving commercial structures designed by this firm in downtown Fargo. The Hancock Brothers practiced in the city from 1882 until Walter Hancock's death in 1929. The majority of their work was designed in the Classical Revival style.

The city permits are not complete, but at least two other residences in the district on 8th St. S. are the work of prominent turn-of-the-century Fargo architects: the George Pirie house, 909 8th St. S. (1898) designed by Jacob Friedlander and the Frank Chin house, 1101 8th St. S. (1900) designed by Andrew J. O'Shea. George Pirie and a partner, W. R. Thomas, were co-owners of the Hub Restaurant in downtown Fargo and George owned the Pirie's Cafe and Confectioners at 72 Broadway in 1902. Pirie had sold his 7-room 2-story Homestead style house with Queen Anne details to Andrew O. Madson, proprietor of the Logan Cafe by 1910. Jacob Friedlander, the architect of the Pirie house, practiced in Fargo from 1895 until 1901 and in 1904 and 1905. He designed several extant brick commercial buildings in downtown Fargo, including the Johnson's Block (1899-1900) at 216-18 Broadway. Andrew J. O'Shea, another Fargo architect, practiced in the city from 1898 until 1922. The Frank Chin house is a 1 1/2 story Homestead style with front-facing gable, elaborately patterned shingles, lap siding, and returned eaves. O'Shea also designed the McKone Block (1905) at 206 Broadway in Classical Revival style, 619 N. P. Ave (1897), and the deLendrecie department store at 628 Main Avenue, which is listed on the National Register.

The box-like 2 story square Cube, known as the Corn Cube because of its popularity in the mid-American corn belt, and as the "American Foursquare" by the Old House Journal, did not escape the attention of Fargo residents. Scattered throughout the city, this style was as popular in Fargo as it was in other midwest cities. Many of these houses were of the pattern book variety. Homeowners purchased the plans and hired local builders or carpenters to construct them. Thirty of the houses in the district are Cubes, built between 1908 and 1927. Two outstanding concentrations of Cube-style houses occur in the district: the first in the 1100 and 1200 blocks of 7th St. S. and the second in the 1300 and 1400 blocks of 9th St. S. Both concentrations exhibit high overall architectural integrity. The 13 Cube styles in the 2-block area of 7th St. S. range in dates from 1908 to 1922, nine of which were built between 1913 and 1916. A check of the Sears and Roebuck and Co. pattern book, Modern Homes, for 1915 did not yield identification, but the 7th St. S. Cubes are very similar to plans sold by Sears, Montgomery Ward, and other distributors.

The 7th St. S. Cube styles are similar to each other and undoubtedly were taken from pattern books used locally or regionally. Unfortunately, the business records of local carpenters and lumber yards have not survived. However, two contractors and two builders in Fargo are identified with some of the Cube styles. A Mrs. C. M. Sincock (or Swicock) who, in 1911, resided at 1002 7th St. S., erected two Cube style frame 2-story houses at 1102 7th St. S. and 1106 7th St. S. on adjacent lots in 1908. She hired Stewart Wilson, a local builder, to erect these identical houses at the cost of $2,300 each. They are the earliest Cube-style houses in the district. Both houses have full porches across the front and a front-facing gable on the hipped room, inset with a round-arched dormered window with wooden hood molds and keystone. These houses differ only in that 1106 7th St. S. has been stuccoed.

From extant examples of his work, Wilson was an excellent craftsman. The Hancock Brothers hired him in 1899 to build the Frank F. Grant house at 728 8th St. S. and to build the Porterfield Block (1917) at 109-11 Roberts St. in downtown Fargo. In all, Wilson was a contractor/builder for 8 residences in the district; the others, mostly Colonial Revival or English Cottage pattern book houses dating from the early 1920s.