Category
Walking Tour
Island Park Pool
A public work project the original Island Park pool was built in the late 1930’s. Designed by S. Marius Houkom the original complex included locker rooms on the main level, seating on the pool level, and diving boards, both high and low. The pool was moved to its current location which include the lone wall of the Fargo Sports Arena. The present day tennis courts are located where the original pool once was. Th
Read MoreWilliam Lemke
William Frederick Lemke, US Congressman and Union Party Candidate for President in 1936 (FDR won) William Lemke led a rather fascinating life as a fringe politician. He was affiliated with North Dakota’s Nonpartisan League, led by former Socialist party members. The NPL dominated state government by 1918 with ideas to improve state services, obtain full suffrage for women, and move towards state ownership of b
Read MoreMinnesota State Company’s Burbank Station Shop
“Burbank Station was a simple log cabin on a high bank looking over the Red River some 225 feet southwest of the present American Legion building on Moorhead’s 1st Avenue North. Just who built it and when is unclear. Local historian and artist Orabel Thortvedt interviewed many early pioneers. Most agreed that Burbank Station was built by Lewis Lewiston probably in 1860. Randolph Probstfield, Edwin Hutchinson and Adam
Read MoreSouth Engineering
South Engineering, a three-story building that was constructed in 1907, held more than the name would suggest. It stands 80 feet by 90 feet and cost around $65,000 to construct. When it was completed, it housed lectures, classrooms, laboratories for a wide variety of subjects such as Mechanical Engineering and Freehand Drawing. They did however built a special area for Lyceum of Engineers as that was the buildings m
Read MoreRiverside Cemetery
Established in 1879, Riverside Cemetery is Fargo’s oldest, and largest, cemetery with over 18,000 citizens of the dead. In 1880 Fargo’s sprawl only reached as far south as Roberts Street (now Seventh Avenue), putting the cemetery a mile and a half outside of town. Why the long trek? Before 1830 cemeteries as this one were non-existent. The dead were generally buried near the town chapel or in the town commons (places
Read MoreAndrew D. Ginakes
Andrew D. Ginakes was a greek immigrant who opened the Empire Cafe in 1932. Records show that in 1936, Ginakes applied for one of the first liquor licenses in Fargo for the Empire Cafe to sell alcohol in store. Archival records state that in 1943, Ginakes transitioned the property into the Empire Liquor Store. Ginakes sold The Empire in 1947, and the Empire Tavern is still open in it’s current location to this
Read MoreW.H. Merritt: Moorhead General Contractor and National Register of Historic Places Architect
William Henry Merritt was born in September of 1854 in Hustings, Michigan to Alexander “Alex” D. Merritt and Betsey Merritt (Davis). It appears that W.H. Merritt spent his adolescent years in Goodhue, Minnesota after moving to the area in about 1857 with his family. There is little information available regarding Merritt’s adolescent years in Minnesota. Later, however, the record indicates that in 1882 William marrie
Read MoreSlim Jim Shumway and Shang Stanton
When Moorhead was just a small tent town and before then had any law and order, there was a lot of chaos. In 1872, There was a big shootout between Slim Jim Shumway and Shang Stanton in what is now known as the home goods section in Herbergers in Moorhead. According to the Saint Cloud Journal, a “couple of desperadoes” on Thursday night had a gun fight with revolvers in Moorhead.[1] The shooting happened due t
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