Grand Lodge of North Dakota, Ancient Order of United Workmen

The A.O.U.W. Building is significant in terms both of the history of Fargo and North Dakota and the architectural history of the region. The Ancient Order of United Workmen was itself an early North Dakota institution, one of a number of secret fraternal societies of the early post-settlement period. The first Grand Lodge of the A.O.U.W. was founded at Jamestown in 1883, but by 1907 the Fargo Lodge # 5 was the state's largest lodge with over 400 members. The fraternity met in rented quarters in several locations until 1915, when the Roberts Street building was completed. The Roberts Street location remained the home of the lodge until 1927 when the organization moved to newer facilities on North Tenth Street. The A.0.0.W. eventually ceased to be a fraternal order and became the mutual insurance company known as Pioneer Mutual Life.

For many years the A.O.U.W. Building has been associated with the Interstate Business College, which was housed there until 1978 when the school relocated to South University Avenue. Interstate Business College has been an important educational institution in the Fargo area, serving a wide region and providing quality business education for several generations of North Dakotans. Graduates of I.B.C. occupy key positions in management throughout the region.

The A.O.U.W. Building is representative of an architectural style that might be termed Commercial Classical, which is being gradually eliminated from North Dakota cities and towns. The building is handsomely proportioned and exhibits details and craftsmanship impossible to attain in contemporary construction. This building also is representative of a specialized historic building type. From the 1870s through World War I, fraternal organizations in the region typically occupied impressive structures designed with meeting halls on the upper floor and speculative commercial space on the lower floors. In Fargo only the Masonic Block or Dakota Business College (also being nominated to the National Register in June 1979), and the A.O.U.W. Building remains essentially intact as representative of this building type. Although the A.O.U..W. Building was built some thirty years after the Masonic Block, the two structures display a marked similarity in internal organization and history.

The Firm of Haxby & Gillespie, architects for the A.O.U.W. Building, was formed about 1905. The partnership continued to operate in Fargo until World War I and produced a number of important buildings throughout North Dakota. In the 1920s Gillespie ceased the architectural practice and founded Gate City Savings & Loan, one of the leading lending institutions in the state.