11 S. 8th St., Fargo, North Dakota. County/parish: Cass.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places August 03, 1979. NRIS 79001771.
1 contributing building.Also known as:
The Masonic Block in Fargo, North Dakota, also known as Dakota Business College or Watkins Block, is an Early Commercial style building built in 1884. It was designed by Fargo architects Daniels & Proctor.
The building gets its name from the fact that one of the original tenants of the building was a local Masonic lodge. The lodge rented the third floor of the building, which it used as a meeting hall (the lodge met in the building for only four years, from 1885 to 1889).
Despite the name, the building is better known for its subsequent educational function. It housed Fargo College from 1887 to 1890, and the Dakota Business College from 1891 to 1978.
Today it is used as a purely commercial building. It is one of few commercial structures in Fargo that survived a fire in 1893.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The listing included one contributing building, on an area of less than 1 acre (0.40 ha).
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75326435