Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo ca 1880
The image on the right is one-half of a stereoview photograph. The photograph looks northeast from just south of the Northern Pacific Railroad tracks where they cross Broadway.
The wide dirt street running diagonally from the lower right corner of the photograph is Broadway. In the lower left is NP Park. The NP tracks run through the center of the image.
The street running across the upper third of the photograph is NP Avenue.
On the northwest corner of the Broadway and NP Avenue is the first home of the Luger Furniture Company. This 25x123 foot building was constructed in 1878 by Jasper B. Chapin. The upper floor was used as a theater and was known as Chapin Hall. It became known as the Opera House in 1883 and largely supplanted McHench Hall as Fargo's major theater. Alex Stern purchased the the hall in 1888. Seating 800, the theater gave almost 400 presentations from Shakespeare to minstrel shows. It was destroyed in the fire of 1893. A livery stable is just east (right) of that.
Another, closer photograph of corner of broadway and NP Avenue at this time can be found here.
On the northeast corner is the store of A.E. Henderson, selling hardware and stoves.
Both the southeast and southwest corners of the intersection contain empty fields. The southwest corner was where the Yerxa store was later located.