Category
Walking Tour
American Legion Building, Melvin Hearl Post No. 21: Historic Usher’s Restaurant in Moorhead, Minnesota
Usher’s House, a restaurant located in Moorhead at 700 1st Avenue North, is a site that is of historic importance to the Moorhead, Minnesota community. Originally the American Legion Building, Usher’s was a public works project constructed on May 13, 1936 under the direction of Minnesota Works Projects Administration and engineer Frank J. Plut, made possible by federal grant funding to the city of Moorhead in August
Read MoreThe Moorhead Brewery
In 1875, brothers George and Joseph Larkin of Winnipeg built a brewery near the site of today’s tennis courts in Moorhead’s Riverfront Park. After an unsuccessful business effort, the Larkin brother’s ale-making business was foreclosed and subsequently bought by a popular Moorhead Swedish immigrant John Erickson, who also happened to be a local politician, hotel and business magnate. Erickson distributed the local br
Read MoreThe Point-Moorhead’s Early Settlement
“This sharp bend in the river was Moorhead’s original residential district. In the 1870’s, Moorhead’s early elite built substantial homes on the high ground in the center of the Point. Working class families occupied modest homes on the wooded flood plain nearby. As the 1870’s drew to a close, most of the wealthy residents had moved to more fashionable (and drier) areas of the city. Victimized by repeated sprin
Read MoreThe Old Moorhead Power Plant
The old Moorhead power plant provided clean water and power to the Moorhead community for over one hundred years, through the Great Depression and times of war. In 1895, the city of Moorhead decided to build a power plant in order to ease their reliance on privately held electric companies. The power plant was filled with corruption from the start, going through superintendents rapidly in the first five years of it
Read MoreThe Watkins Building
The south wing of the historic Watkins building is located at 802 Main Avenue, Fargo. It was designed in 1884 by architect Charles Daniel. The building’s first owner, Andrew McHench had the building constructed to house Masonic Lodge Shiloh No. 8 with commercial space on the lower floor. The masons occupied the third floor of the building from 1885 to 1889. Fargo College occupied the building from 1887 to 1890,
Read MoreThe Burnham Building: Frank J. Burnham, Early Moorhead Businessman, and Pioneer
Franklin J. Burnham spent his childhood near Norwich, Vermont and served as a Lieutenant in the Union Army with the 9th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, Companies E and K, during the Civil War from 1862 until mustering out in June of 1865. Burnham served with distinction in several key engagements of the Civil War and three times was wounded and promoted. After military service, Burnham taught “five terms” in school
Read MoreMinard Hall
Originally named Science Hall, Minard was built in 1902. The building was built in three stages. The first stage housed the science departments such as biology, geology, horticulture, and mathematics. In 1918, A fourth floor was added and this was where the museum was supposed to be laid out. Finally, a third section of the building was built in 1929. This building was named in honor of Dean A. E. Minard, who spent 4
Read MoreThe Hotel Donaldson
The building at 521 1st Avenue North, now known as the Hotel Donaldson, was built in 1894 by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows as a meeting hall. It is one of the earliest post-fire buildings in Fargo. The hall provided a much needed meeting space for the community and also served as temporary office space for many regional architects who had moved to Fargo during the post-fire building boom. The laying of the cor
Read MoreClarence Putnam
Clarence Putnam was always a musician at heart, but he began his professional career on a different path. Putnam was born on September 16, 1859 in Barre, Vermont. He received his education from Barre Academy and Dartmouth College. With some convincing from his mother, Putnam then went on to attend Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago where he graduated in 1883. Through all of this, music remained an important part of
Read MoreGarrison Keillor and the Elmer brothers: The History of Prairie Home Cemetery
Under the leadership of Rev. Oscar H. Elmer and a local cemetery association, the Prairie Home Cemetery was founded in 1875. A motivating factor behind forming a cemetery association was that Rev. Elmer’s brother and pioneering Brainerd, Minnesota lawyer John Edgar had drowned in the Sheyenne River after visiting his brother in May of 1874, apparently committing suicide due to suffering from some type of “nerv
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