Preview
Identification #
OGL291-271
Description
This black-and-white photograph offers a high-angle, birdseye view of downtown during the 1930s, looking northeast toward the Red River.
The dense commercial core is characterized by multi-story brick buildings featuring prominent cornices, uniform window grids, and classic storefront awnings. Anchoring the right-center foreground is the large Grand Forks Grocery Co. building, explicitly marked by its painted exterior signage advertising wholesale groceries and fruit distribution.
Further into the background, a towering industrial smokestack releases a thick plume of dark smoke across the sky, while the faint silhouette of a steel truss bridge spans the river to connect the city with East Grand Forks, Minnesota.
Along the wide streets below, early-model automobiles are parked diagonally and parallel along the curbs, alongside tracks embedded directly into the roadway. The entire scene is framed with a white cursive postcard caption in the lower right corner reading, "Birdseye View of Grand Forks, N.D."
Places Depicted
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Organizations Depicted
Grand Forks Grocery Co.
Rights
Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks