Burrell Hotel

Burrell Hotel.

On May 9, 1909, the Fargo Forum announced that a new 100 room hotel was to be erected by Mrs. Delia Burrell at the corner of Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue North (403-409 4th Street). The architect was A. J. O'Shea who designed the building in a Classical Revival style with light yellow bricks trimmed in red brick and sandstone. The wooden porches are supported by Tuscan columns.

The hotel was to be three stories with a basement and have 100 rooms. The Forum article stated that the hotel would have hot and cold running water in each room. The basement was to contain a barber shop, bath rooms and laundry.

Mrs. Burrell's husband, Thomas Burrell, died in 1889 leaving her to support herself and their children. Mrs. Burrell was a very proactive woman, she began sewing and a decade later employed 25 assistants, she was the owner of a number of valuable real estate investments in Fargo, and eventually became president of the Bank of Southwest Fargo. She died in 1939.

The hotel was convenient to the Great Northern railroad station. The hotel eventually became an apartment building, but still has many of the original details including patterned stucco walls, oak woodwork, and the original speaking tubes connecting the rooms with the office.