Fargo, North Dakota

Viking (Bison) Hotel

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The original Viking Hotel was built in 1905 at 420 Broadway by Ole C. ("Chris") Lindvig and Christ A. Losness. In 1910 Charles H. Porritt (a Fargo contractor) built a new Viking hotel and restaurant across the street, at 413 Broadway (see postcard above left). Lindvig and Losness ran the hotel until 1940, when it was sold by First Federal Savings and Loan (which gained possession following Porritt’s death) to Gomer D. Anderson and K.S. ("Sparky") Davey of Fargo. The new owners remodeled the building and reopened it as the Bison Hotel (see postcard above right).

The illustration below is taken from 1927 Viking Hotel letterhead.

In 1977, Larry Bosma of Broadway Furniture, then located at 305 Broadway, rented the main floor and basement of the old hotel. Until 1986, the second and third floors housed the Fargo-Moorhead YWCA. Bosma converted those floors into apartments. The first floor was used by Bosma for his Broadway Furniture store, which closed in the fall of 2000.

The building as it exists in 2001 (96 years after being built) is shown to the right. Although the postcard to the upper left shows "Viking" on the top, the actual headstone to this day says "The Northern." I do not know why.

Source material: In-Forum, September 26, 2000, article on Broadway Furniture closing. Research by Forum Librarian Andrea Halgrimson.

 

 

Viking Hotel (1910-1940)
Bison Hotel (1940-1972)
The Bison was sold to A.H. (Andy) Anderson in 1945 and subsequent owners of the hotel were Loehle B. Gast and Robert Gibb Jr. The postcard from Anderson below right is postmarked 1945. The hotel and restaurant closed in 1972. The following year the property was sold to Marshall and Lowell Goodman, who planned to renovate it into condominium office space. However, banks refused to consider loans for the remodeling and the tenants – a community of graphic designers, actors, architects, musicians and artists – were able to maintain their spaces. Part of the hotel became a theater for the Northwest Stage Co. The theater was closed in 1976 because of a dispute over the ownership of the building.