FARGO — By all accounts, the site in downtown Fargo soon to be vacated by Mid America Steel holds great potential for some type of interesting development.

The location next to the Red River has had an interesting history as well, according to Mark Peihl, senior archivist with the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County.

Peihl highlighted that past Thursday, Dec. 13, during a presentation to members of the Fargo Planning Commission, which will likely play a key role in deciding how the site is developed.

The city purchased the property about two years ago as part of Fargo's overall flood mitigation efforts, and Mid America Steel expects to fully vacate the site in about two or three months as it completes a move to the company's new fabrication plant at 5101 19th Ave. N.

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According to Peihl, the riverside property Mid America sits on what was part of Fargo's earliest history, serving as a perfect spot for riverboats to tie up to in the late 1800s.

And some of Fargo's earliest residential housing sprang up along the Red River in that location, though the structures were more shanties than proper homes.

"There was tremendous, grinding poverty in the Fargo-Moorhead area, lots of poor folk," Peihl said.

The former Mid America Steel footprint has been an industrial locale going all the way back to Fargo's beginnings, having served as home to a lumber company and other businesses, including the Fargo Foundry, which eventually became Mid America Steel.

Peihl's research led him to a surprising discovery when he found a notation on a map indicating that a kindergarten school was set up in the area of what is now Mid America Steel circa 1890.

He said the school served about 50 children living in the neighborhood, most of whom were immigrants learning to speak English.

A large part of the site's history, Peihl said, is tied to the history of electric streetcars in Fargo and Moorhead.

He said the industry's first streetcar maintenance building was established in what is now the Mid America footprint and a bridge used by streetcars was nearby. That bridge stood until the early 1940s, but its pylons are at times still visible in the river.

According to Peihl, streetcars were a very desirable mode of mass transit from about 1900 until the late 1920s and early 1930s, when automobiles and buses began populating local streets.

Peihl focused on one streetcar in particular, car No. 28, which was the last street car bought in the Fargo-Moorhead area and provided service to the Concordia College area.



He said after streetcar service shutdown locally, most streetcars were scrapped or otherwise disappeared, with one exception: car No. 28.

Peihl said some years ago he became aware the streetcar was up for sale on eBay and an effort was made to buy it.

The local would-be buyers were outbid. However, it worked out fine, Peihl said, because the streetcar was purchased by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum, which is based in the Twin Cities.

That group has plans to recondition the streetcar and Peihl said it's possible the vestige of Fargo-Moorhead's early days may one day reappear in the area as a traveling display.

Peihl said that although some of the grounds of the soon-to-be vacated Mid America Steel site are prone to flooding, a good share of the land sits very high and could be used for almost anything.

"It's very exciting," he said of the possibilities.

Fargo City Commissioner Tony Grindberg, who invited Peihl to speak to the planning commission, agreed.

"It's in a premiere spot to think about the future," Grindberg said.