Halgrimson: History of Fargo’s City Hall worth noting

Architects Have Varied Background In Building Design

Robert B. Cerny, Ralph Rapson and W. J. Seifert are the three architects who are drawing plans for Fargos new City Hall and auditorium building to be erected in the civic center area along 4th Street North between 1st and 3rd Avenue.

The Forum, Oct. 7, 1956

At the time that story was written, the area between Fourth Street and the river and between First Avenue and Third Avenue North had been leveled for urban renewal.

According to urban renewal records, the (land) from Fourth Street to the Red River had become a dead area for commercial development and stagnated. Deteriorated buildings, vacant lots becoming refuse dumps and general blight became a permanent part of the area.

About 50 years seems to be the life expectancy of a city hall in Fargo. After what served as Fargos City Hall was destroyed in the Great Fargo Fire of 1893, a new City Hall was built in 1906 for $17,251. It was abandoned when the current City Hall was finished in the early 1960s. The new structure cost $1,773,000.

Fargo architect Vern Hunter wrote to me suggesting that a story about the existing City Hall would spur documentation of the building so its history would not be lost. He hoped that a budget item in the building process whereby an architecture student, class, or a historian would research, write, and photograph the significant details and history of the existing building.

He added that many of the mid-century modern attributes that defined Rapson and that period of architecture, such as the barrel vault canopy over the walkway, have already been removed.

Rapson was a giant in American architecture. When he died in 2008 at the age of 93, it was considered the end of an era, according to Thomas Fisher, dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. Fisher said Rapson was one of our last living links to the first generation of Modernists

In a letter to the editor, former City Commissioner Mort Mazaheri said, The current building in combination with the library and the Civic Center received an Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects. This complex was the first contemporary design in Fargo for more than 30 years. Being 50 years old, by definition it is a historic building.

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Halgrimson: History of Fargo's City Hall worth noting