Preview
Creation Date
1909
Identification #
OGL291-1654
Description
A color, panoramic postcard, entitled "Bird's Eye View, Grand Forks, N.D." Postmark date on the back is from October 1909. The postcard measures 16 inches long by 3.5 inches tall.
The view faces northwest, across downtown Grand Forks toward Minnesota and the Red River.
The Columbia Hotel and Restaurant was located on 624 DeMers Avenue on the intersection with North Seventh Street (site of US Bank as of 2026). Across Demers is the Great Northern Railway Depot and train tracks. To the far right, across Seventh, is the Palace Hotel (noted in pencil).
Beyond Elliott's Steam Laundry is Nash Brothers Wholesale Grocers at Demers and Fifth Street (site of Gate City Bank in 2026). There is also the Imperial House Hotel, with its distinctive mansard roof and dormer windows. Beyond the water tower is the first court house, before the iconic domed Grand Forks County Courthouse was built a few years later.
Dominating the center left area is the St. Hilaire Retail Lumber Company, and beyond it the Swedish Lutheran Church.
The road running parallel the left half of the photo appears to be First Avenue North, then called Alpha Avenue.
Places Depicted
North Dakota--Grand Forks
Organizations Depicted
Nash Brothers Wholesale Grocers, Columbia Motel and Restaurant, Great Northern Railway
Rights
Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks