Bob Lind column: Fargo once had own claim as Motor City

Fargo never quite replaced Detroit as a car manufacturing center, but it had its niche. Because Ford used to assemble cars in Fargo.

This comes up because of an inquiry from a reader: Was there a plant in Fargo at one time that actually turned out cars?

Sure was. And the building is still there, at 503 Broadway, just north of the old Great Northern railroad tracks.

Kaye's Printing is there now, cranking out, logically enough, printing. But when the structure was built in 1915, it cranked out cars. Hand-cranked cars.

The Ford Motor Co. built it just seven years after Henry Ford started the company.

Parts were manufactured elsewhere and shipped to the Fargo plant where the cars were assembled.

The building also housed Ford's district office, parts depot and a service repair department which served Ford owners and trained dealers.

It was in this building where Helmer Hanson, Fargo, began his 40-year career with Ford. He got a job there in 1940 as a secretary, one of three male secretaries in the office.

He moved on to do "a lot of things," Helmer says, assuming a number of management duties.

When Ford first began setting up offices in Fargo, it was located on Broadway between NP Avenue and Front Street, now called Main Avenue. It later moved to 209 NP Ave.

Construction on the new building on Broadway began in 1914. It was formally dedicated Jan. 12, 1916. An advertisement in The Forum said at the time that the Ford company "would be happy to send one of its newest cars to bring you to inspect the new plant."

Helmer says World War II all but closed the Fargo offices. "Maybe 10 or 15 people worked there during that time," he says. Most of the sales personnel were shifted to other types of work with Ford or to other defense industries.

But after the war, its Fargo staff grew. The district sales office employed more than 30 and its parts depot employed 50. The sales office delivered its first post-war car in July 1946.

The building was sold to the F.C. Hayer Co., a wholesale appliance firm, in 1955. Hayer took it over in 1956. Now Kaye's has the building. Ford eliminated its district office in Fargo in 1968.

Neighbors has been unable to determine exactly when the last car was turned out in Fargo; the Ford office in St. Paul didn't know, either. But apparently it was about 1933, as news clippings about the Fargo Ford offices from then on make no mention of the manufacturing end of the operation. Helmer says there were no cars coming out of the plant when he began working there in 1940.

Today another brand of cars is being manufactured in Fargo, by GEM.

But they are electric.

Would Henry Ford believe it?

If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, N.D. 58107; fax it to 241-5487; or e-mail rlind@forumcomm.com