This morning I read a piece in the Fargo Forum about the New Urbanism movement, and how it relates to the scarcity of neighborhood stores in our present suburban, car-centric society. In short, the neighborhood store has disappeared, usurped by the supermarket and big box retailers.

While the story by Tu-Uyen Tran is interesting, and the interview with New Urbanism proponent Joe Burgum enlightening, the part that most captivated me was the accompanying map showing Fargo’s neighborhood shops from 1928 to present. The shops are color-coded by purpose, you can show or hide different overlays to represent 1928, 1948, 1968, and present day, and you can see the name and street address for each former shop.

As someone who wrote a book about how Fargo has changed from years past, and as an unrepentant map geek, I was transfixed. If you love Fargo history as much as I do, be forewarned, you’re about to lose an hour in this map. See it here.