The RLE Group Newsletter
April 2014 Volume 14, Issue 4
1926
1993
In January 1878, a group of businessmen gathered in the Headquarters Hotel in downtown
Fargo to hammer out the Articles of Association for the first public banking facility in North
Dakota, the First National Bank. The bank opened for business in March 1878 in a small one
story 12 x 16 foot wood frame building located near the southwest corner of Front Street (Main
Avenue) and Broadway. The first bank administrators were Ezra B. Eddy, president; Newton
Hubbard, vice-president; with E. C. Eddy, Evan Tyler, H. C. Stevens and Samuel Roberts on
the board of directors. The bank opened with resources totaling $75,154.47, and capital and
surplus of $63,291.18.
In 1879 the bank moved to a new two story brick building at the same location. The bank remained in this building until they moved to new quarters on the southeast corner of Broadway
and N.P. Avenue in June 1904. By this time the bank could claim nearly $2,000,000 in
resources. In 1906, the First National Bank took over the Red River Valley National Bank. In
the 1920s when many banks were closing due to the agricultural depression, the First
National Bank of Fargo remained strong. The bank acquired the lot just south of their building and in 1926 constructed a new six story building designed by the architectural firms Toltz,
King & Day of St. Paul, Minnesota, and W. F. Kurke of Fargo. The new building cost nearly
$300,000.