Merchants National Bank Building

Merchants State Bank opened on the corner of Broadway and N.P. Avenue on July 8, 1890. The building was completely destroyed three years later in the Fargo Fire of 1893. A new bank was built on the same site and business continued as usual. In 1906, the bank's charter was changed and it was renamed the Merchants National Bank. The bank continued to grow and moved to a new location at 122 Broadway in 1921.

The bank's new location is the building that you see today. Built in 1921, it is of Commercial Colonial Revival style. The construction is brick with cream-colored glaze tile trim, a name date block, and Jacobean tabs around the windows. It was built by Fargo architect firm the Hancock Brothers who dominated the post-fire construction era in Fargo.

Merchants National Bank moved to a new construction at 505 2nd Avenue North in April of 1964.

Today the building is home to King House Chinese Buffet.

Sources:

1. Fargo Historic Preservation Commission. A Look Around Downtown: Fargo Heritage Discovery Walk. Second. Fargo, North Dakota: Fargo-Moorhead Heritage Society, 2006.
2. “Merchants National Bank | Fargo History.” Accessed December 11, 2016. https://library.ndsu.edu/fargo-history/?q=content/merchants-national-bank.

Photo Sources:

1. Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (2042.2.1)
2. Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (2023.L-10)
3. Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (2058.17.2)
4. "King House Buffet, Fargo, ND.” Google Maps. Accessed December 11, 2016.