Waldorf Hotel

The Waldorf Hotel was built in 1899 on the site of the former Sherman House hotel. A lot that had sat vacant since it was destroyed by fire in 1885. The building was 140 x 150 feet in dimension, five stories high and cost about $75,000 for the structure and $19,000 for the furnishings. It was designed by the Hancock Brothers architectural firm of Fargo. It was the first hotel in North Dakota with an electric elevator. O.J. deLendrecie , who had a department store just to the east, put up most of the capital for the building construction, and the first owner of the building was R. R. Wise, with the N. P. Railroad. The first hotel operators who leased from Mr. Wise were Samuel Mathews and George E. Nichols. Grand opening of the hotel took place on April 12, 1899.

In 1910, the Waldorf advertised 160 rooms (80 with a private bath) for $2.25 per day and up on the American plan. When Mathews retired in 1908, R.K. Keller and W.E. Boyd ran the hotel until they, in turn, retired and Joseph Powers took over the hotel.

Over the years the hotel housed many important guests; among them was Theodore Roosevelt who gave a Labor Day address from the hotel balcony on September 05, 1910.

Powers sold the hotel in 1942 to a chain and it became the Milner Hotel (see picture right). In 1948 it was sold to Earle Milner who renamed the hotel the Earle. The Earle Hotel and the adjacent Waldorf Tavern were destroyed in a fire on December 13, 1951. Three people died in the fire.

The Fargo National Bank bought the site of the former Waldorf Hotel in 1958 and built a new bank. In 1973, the bank moved.