Black’s Store Costume Party, 1932

Happy Halloween from Black’s Department Store!  This wasn’t the store located in the Black Building: the photo was taken in 1932, so this ragtag bunch of costumed employees worked for the Store Without A Name, Black’s followup to his original department store.   Sure, the photo was taken in November, but you can’t always plan your […]

Red River Flood, 1952.

Click for full imageMrs. Colin Campbell would not be ousted from her home: she is standing on the roof of her back porch, after climbing out a second story window. The water is about 4 feet away from covering her feet, but she was non-plussed; in the accompanying article, she defied police attempts to evacuate […]

Red River Flood, 1897.

Click for full imageToday, Fargo-Moorhead is readying itself for an unbelievable 40ft+ crest of the Red River on Friday, and are preparing, around the clock, by filling sandbags and building dikes. Twelve years ago we had another huge flood which filled some neighborhoods with water, a hundred year flood so to speak. In fact, a […]

NDSU’s Downtown Expansion

I hadn’t realized this when I was going over NDSU’s PML Building expansion: the Y-shaped section of 9th St North directly behind the building will be adsorbed into the NDSU Downtown campus. The wedge of green houses six mailboxes (due to one-ways it allows drivers to drop their mail off out the car window), several […]

The Red River Mall

I remember the “mall” from my youth, but it barely registers that it ever actually had a name. The Red River Mall was a misguided attempt to revitalize Fargo’s downtown, which (whether directly or indirectly) led to downtown Fargo’s near-collapse in the late 80s and early 90s, and forcing the renewal plans that threaten to […]