Great Northern Depot: 425 North Broadway

The Great Northern Depot at 425 North Broadway was built in 1906 as a depot for the Great Northern Railway and was a landmark and hub for transportation in downtown Fargo. 

This depot was constructed under the directive of railroad baron James J Hill and designed by Samuel Bartlett, Saint Paul architect. Bartlett knew James J Hill, owner of the Great Northern Railway, and he built a string of Great Northern stations including the national landmark depot in Glacier National Park, Montana. The Great Northern Depot contributed enormously to the region’s cultural history and economy, by attracting European immigrants to settle the northern Great Plains.

The Great Northern Depot is a Richardsonian Romanesque one story, dark red brick building featuring a rusticated buff sandstone foundation; sandstone trim; porte cocheres at east and west ends; green tile hipped roof; bright green wood window sashes and transoms; corner piers have rusticated granite bases; voussoirs and jack-arch lintels; and a patterned zig-zag brick terrace surrounds the building. 

The Great Northern Depot’s four-faced illuminated clock tower has been a downtown orientation feature since the building’s completion. In 1935 the clock became nonfunctional, and the clock faces were replaced with large painted “Westy the Goat” logos, the advertising icon for the Great Northern. But in response to public outcry, by 1941 the railroad had restored the clocks to working order.

In 1970, the Great Northern Railway merged with the Northern Pacific to form the Burlington Northern Railroad.  In 1971, passenger operations shifted to Amtrak who operated out of the Great Northern building until 1986, at which point passenger services moved into a smaller adjacent freight house facility. The grand brick depot was boarded up and sat abandoned for nearly a decade.

By the early 1990s, the structure had fallen into deep disrepair and faced a high threat of demolition. However, its salvation served as a massive catalyst for the multi-decade revitalization of Downtown Fargo. 

The Microbrewery Boom (1995): In 1994, investors acquired the property and secured local development loans to execute a $2 million overhaul. The building reopened in late 1995 as the Great Northern Restaurant and Brewery. To meet structural seating demands, the architects enclosed the outdoor carriage areas (porte-cocheres) with glass panels and parked a vintage Great Northern boxcar on an old track spur to hold mechanical kitchen equipment. 

While the original brewery ultimately closed due to high debt, the building structure was permanently saved. It was later retrofitted again to preserve its historic woodwork, Georgia pine ceilings, and brick fireplaces. 

Today, the beautifully preserved building stands on the National Register of Historic Places and is home to the Great Northern Bicycle Company and administrative offices.  The historic ticket counter area inside Fargo's Great Northern Railway Depot has been preserved as a central architectural feature of the building's interior adaptive reuse.