The Gardner Hotel

The Gardner Hotel, which opened in 1909, was once considered Fargo’s premiere hotel. The hotel was completely planned, built and financed by Fargoans. It was designed by Fargo Architects the Hancock Brothers and cost $150,000 to build. The hotel included featured 150 rooms, steam heat, a public dining room, a barber’s shop and a billiard room. The hotel mostly catered to travelling salesmen but for time to time hosted celebrities and dignitaries like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Lindbergh and James J. Hill.

The Gardner went through a major renovation in 1941. In 1985, the building was converted into a 129 unit apartment complex.

The Gardner is one of the most elaborate Classical Revival buildings in downtown Fargo. Note the paired cornice and foliated metal frieze, the brick quoins, and the stone balustrade over the Roberts Street entrance. Other Classical Revival features the hotel dons are egg and dart trim at the tops of the corner piers above the first story, and stylized Corinthian capitols at the top of the pilasters.

Sources:

1. “Gardner Hotel | Fargo History.” Accessed November 28, 2016. https://library.ndsu.edu/fargo-history/?q=content/gardner-hotel.
2. Fargo Historic Preservation Commission. A Look Around Downtown: Fargo Heritage Discovery Walk. Second. Fargo, North Dakota: Fargo-Moorhead Heritage Society, 2006.
3. Tim Holzkamm, and Dean Dormanen. The History and Growth of the City of Fargo: Historic Context Study. Edited by David B. Danbom. Fargo, North Dakota: Fargo Historic Preservation Commission, 2001.
4. Troy Larson. Fargo Moorhead Lost and Found: Vintage Views and Local History from the Gateway to the West. Fargo, North Dakota: Sonic Tremor Media, 2016.

Photo Sources:

1. “The Gardner | Hegenes.” Accessed December 9, 2016. http://www.hegenes.com/gardner.
2. Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (2023.L-31)
3. Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (2054.15.206)
4. Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (2001.66.22)