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'Blizzard a rare thing'

A little over 100 years ago, railroads and Fargo land developers employed a hyperbolic sales pitch to entice immigrants and entrepreneurs to move here.

They advertised in Europe and the eastern United States, hoping to convince people to try the Red River Valley's fertile soil and wholesome lifestyle.

Consider these excerpts from an 1897 publication touting the benefits of moving to Fargo:

"One of the remarkable features is that there is not a saloon in the city. None of the hotels have bars, and none of the drug stores sell intoxicating liquors ... and there is scarcely a business building or residence in the city that is vacant."

The book goes on to say: "Winters at Fargo are generally the gayest season. Then society functions are happiest. There are but few very severe days and not as much very disagreeable weather as in a climate 800 miles south. Usually the snowfall during an entire winter does not exceed 12 inches. The blizzard is
a rare thing, almost as rare as cyclones in other climates."

"Cass County produces from 3 million to 7 million bushels of wheat annually. There are 1,960 farms (today Cass County has about half that many), with 643,706 acres under cultivation and 750,197 acres untouched by the plow. Lands are worth from $15 to $30 per acre." The book says farmers typically made $10 per acre "clear profit."

They came to learn

The sales pitches paid off. People came by train and wagon, either to claim a piece of farm land or sell lumber, flour and seed - necessities for settlers who wanted to make a start on the prairie.

By the early 1900s, Fargo was a city on the grow.

Its pull as an educational center contributed to its growth in population and stature.

In 1891 the North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University) held its first classes. In 1905, a trolley line was built to link the city to the college and by the 1920s growing neighborhoods reached the northside college, according to The Fargo Historic Context Study.

Early on, Fargo boasted two upscale housing districts, the South Side Historical District and the North Side High Style District.

The significance of the South Eighth Street area "as it relates to the growth of Fargo, lies in the political influence, business acumen, and social status of residents as well as the architecture of the area" writes Tim Holzkamm in The Fargo Historic Context Study.

The North Side High Style Residential District got its start in 1894 when Martin Hector built a home at 1103 Broadway. Hector was an early Fargo land developer and leader in developing the airport.

Shortly before 1900, Fargo had five school buildings, 32 teachers and 1,510 pupils. Teachers earned $30-$60 per month.

The daily edition of the Fargo Forum sold for $5 per year.

Street car to suburbia

The 1900-1920 period was economic boom time for Fargo. The city's populationgrew and manufacturing, retail and wholesale businesses expanded. However, it was the beginning of population decline for the state as a whole.

During this time street car lines were laid on Fourth Street, Seventh Street, 12th Avenue North and Broadway. Street cars made it easier for people to move about and resulted in the emergence of the northside suburban area.

In the early 1900s, two developments improved residents' overall health. First, the city built a water treatment plant and improved sewage handling practices. Both improvements helped curb diseases spread by drinking impure Red River water and by backyard sewage discharges.

Second, Catholics built St. John's Hospital (now owned by Dakota Heartland Health System) in 1904 near Island Park and Lutherans built St. Luke's Hospital (now MeritCare) in 1909.

Chain stores and garages

The period 1920-40 saw chain stores and national retailers set up shop in Fargo. J.C. Penney Co. was first, establishing a store at 3 Broadway in 1930. Sears Roebuck was next, opening a store in the Black Building in 1931.

The housing growth area of this era was in the 1200 and 1300 blocks of north Second, Third and Fourth streets. Here, professionals, managers and salesmen built new homes. Since America was beginning its love affair with the automobile, the new neighborhood became one of Fargo's first to include
garages.

If you like Fargo trivia, consider this tidbit from the era. Fargo was home, from 1935 to 1942, to the largest ski-jump scaffold in the United States. The 140-foot tower was west of Trollwood Park. It drew regional ski-jump contests but was dismantled in 1942 because it was a threat to aircraft.

West Acres rules

On April 21, 1971, the first shovel of dirt was turned to build West Acres Regional Shopping Center. That shovelful profoundly changed the face and
fortune of Fargo.

Almost overnight, an open field on the southwest fringe of town became the new center of commerce, entertainment and socializing.

Sears moved into West Acres in April 1972. That autumn, space for 80 more stores was complete, including deLendrecie's, which had been downtown since 1879.

Fast-food restaurants, banks, bars and strip malls followed West Acres. Soon, housing developments and schools sprang up even further south. A hundred years ago, Main Avenue was the north-south center of the city. Today, with Fargo's southward growth, the north-south halfway point is more like 13th Avenue South.

Hoping to compete, remaining downtown business owners and city leaders decided to create a different sort of "mall" on Broadway. The Red River Mall - a canopy, planters and a twisting streetscape - was intended to make downtown more appealing to shoppers.

Construction of the Red River Mall started in 1974. Then, clothing and department stores lined Broadway and its side streets - J.C. Penney, Straus, Herbst, Black's, Scheel's, Sgutt's, Siegel Clothing, Osco Drug, Kinney shoes and Tradehome shoes.

By 1986, it was apparent the Red River Mall had not saved downtown's retail sector. Most Broadway business owners wanted the mall's twisty street and planters removed. In its place they wanted the return of 55 parking spaces. Today, all the clothing and department stores have closed or moved to West Acres.

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Foss Associates Architecture and Interiors traces its roots to Andrew H. Foss, who came from Christina, Norway, at age 19 and settled in Grand Forks, N.D., with his parents.

When he was 22, Andrew H. Foss set up shop in Winona, Minn., and began
building houses, train depots and commercial buildings.

Today, 72-year-old Mark Foss still serves as senior principal emeritus for the firm that was founded by his grandfather and built into a regional architectural powerhouse by his father.

Foss president Bill Cowman says Foss Associates has thrived because of the
solid foundation they laid for the business.

"This firm has simply held on to those values that they established early," Cowman says.

Andrew Foss moved his construction and architectural firm to Elbow Lake, Minn., in 1910. In 1919, the firm moved to St. Cloud, Minn. M.O. Foss, his oldest son, joined the firm as fellow principal architect and the business became Foss and Foss. A younger son, Alonzo, joined as a draftsman while daughter Eva became the company stenographer.

When Andrew Foss died in 1921 at the age of 45, M.O. Foss took over. The business moved to Minneapolis in 1922 and became Prinz and Foss and later Jensen and Foss.

The business moved to Fergus Falls, Minn., where it was Broaten and Foss and later Foss and Co., in 1928. It closed during WWII - while M.O. Foss served as an officer with a U.S. Navy construction battalion ("Seabees") - but reopened in Moorhead in 1946.

"He always knew there were more prospects for work in Fargo-Moorhead," Mark Foss says of his father.

M.O. Foss early on recognized that an architectural firm, to survive in a relatively sparsely populated area, would have to get out and sell its services.

Rather than waiting for clients to come through the office door, M.O. Foss actively marketed his firm's architectural services throughout the region.

"The rule of marketing was always: Get the job, get the job, get the job," Mark Foss says. "It wasn't three rules: It was one."

M.O. "Mac" Foss Jr. - Mark's older brother, who died earlier this year - joined the firm in 1946 as a designer.

One of his first projects as a partner was the Frederick Martin (FM) Hotel on Center Avenue in Moorhead. The hotel, with its Tree Top restaurant, was featured in Newsweek magazine.

John Foss designed the Frederick Martin Hotel building - shown underconstruction here in 1949 - which has become a landmark in downtownFargo-Moorhead. Special to the Forum.

Mark Foss, who earned a master's degree in engineering from the University of North Dakota, joined the firm in 1955.

Over the years the business has established a regional reputation. Schools, banks, courthouses, office buildings, hospitals and university buildings the firm designed are found throughout North Dakota and western Minnesota.

The firm remained extremely busy in the bricks-and-mortar building boom of the
'50s, '60s and '70s. Leading the firm in those years were Mark Foss, M.O. Foss Jr., their younger brother, John Foss, Robert Engelstad and Willis Stelter.

Between 1962 and 1986 the firm was known as Foss Engelstad and Foss.

During the 1960s, the firm pioneered the use of "lift-slab" construction in the area, using the method in construction of the high rise apartment buildings in
Fargo and Moorhead - Foss Engelstad and Foss was the consulting engineer firm on the Fargo high rise for a St. Paul architectural firm - Nelson Hall and
Neumaier Hall dormitories on the Moorhead State University campus, and Park Towers apartments Bethany Towers in Fargo.

The Foss firm pioneered the use of "lift-slab" construction in the region. The method was used in constructing the Fargo high rise building east of Island Park. Special to the Forum

With lift-slab construction, reinforced concrete floors and roof slabs poured on the ground, stacked and then successively lifted into place with a system of hydraulic jacks and tension rods.

Mark Foss recalls that the Moorhead high rise floors were lifted in January - with similar temperatures to what we've been experiencing - and that the workers
could only stay up one-half hour at a time. At one time, the Fargo high rise was the tallest lift-slab building in the world.

The size of the Foss firm has fluctuated with the availability of large public projects.

When Cowman came aboard in 1965 as an architectural project designer, the Foss firm had 18 employees. When he became president in 1986, it employed 85 employees and partners, and had offices in Fargo, Moorhead, Bismarck,
N.D., and Billings, Mont., and operated as an architectural and engineering firm.

As the number of major available projects tapered off in the '80s, the firm scaled back. Today, it once again has 18 employees and partners. John Foss in 1986
spun his engineering firm off and operates as John E. Foss Engineering in Moorhead.

"I've been through the whole cycle and I think this is a good size for us," Cowman says.

Numerous local architects and engineers in other firms - and in firms in the Twin Cities and elsewhere - got their starts with the Foss firm.

Cowman says the firm has always tried to pry the top talent graduating from NDSU's College of Engineering and Architecture.

"When these people move on to establish their own firms, we view that as a positive, because it tells us that we're hiring good people," Cowman says.

Mark Foss says the Foss firm teams up with many of its former architects, and has formed at least 80 associations on projects with other architectural firms in the region.

Today the firm is led by four principal architects: Cowman, Joel Davy, Rick Hoganson and Robert Ames.

The Foss firm retains its regional focus. Today the firm has jobs going as far north as Roseau, Minn., as far south as St. Cloud, Minn., as far east as Walker,
Minn., and as far west as Bismarck, N.D.

Locally, Foss is developing plans for a new Cass County jail, in association with Kimme Associates of Champaign, Ill.

Cowman says the firm is well positioned - and making plans to expand - for its next hundred years.

"When we take on a job, we see a client, not a product," Cowman says. "That's a philosophy we still maintain. We'll continue to build the relationships we have. We'll seek new clients, not new projects."

Those client relationships are the key to firm's survival as well as success, he says. Consider that 60 percent of all the jobs they take on are for clients they've worked with before.

"To stay in business you need to maintain good client relationships, and we'll expand services to meet the needs of our clients and future clients," Cowman
says. "We need to be flexible in the marketplace as we move into the 21st Century."