In June of 1915 Fargo, North Dakota seemed a well-run modern small city. A trip through the pages of the Daily Fargo Forum newspaper reveals Fargo to be up-to-date in culture, life and metropolitan concerns.
One example comes from the new Academy Auditorium in Fargo, where six nights of Shakespeare was advertised. Hamlet would alternate nights with The Merchant of Venice. Admission was 50 cents.
And wouldn’t you like the food prices from back then? At Ricker’s, billed as “Fargo’s fastest growing store,” Dakota Pride Bacon was only 26 cents a pound, and a 15-pound bag of sugar was one dollar.
Fargo High School graduated 58 students that year and the newspaper touted various graduation activities, including a class play, sermons, readings, essays, music and prayers.
At the Fargo College Conservatory of Music, a splendid recital was planned in a program featuring 27 songs from students.
O.J. deLendrecie Co, self-billed as Fargo’s greatest store, touted a Saturday special with Middy Blouses priced from one dollar to $1.89.
Fargo’s Fine Arts Society was sponsoring a showing of paintings by St. Paul artist Nickolas Brewer. The exhibition featured both portraits and landscapes, attracting hundreds of visitors. According to the newspaper, “visitors have gathered each morning as early as 9 o’clock and continued throughout the day and evening, until sometime as late as 11:30 at night.”
That’s a touch of life from 1915.
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Stark
Source: Fargo Forum June 26, 1915
