Pioneer Mutual Building, Fargo, ND

Pioneer Mutual Building, circa 2002.

The Pioneer Mutual Building, 203 N 10th Street in Fargo, is easily identified by an enormous sign on its roof and has been a staple of the Fargo, ND skyline for decades. The building originated as the AOUW Grand Lodge of North Dakota, until the North Dakota AOUW changed its name to Pioneer Mutual Life Insurance Company when it mutualized on November 3, 1947.

Building Origin

The Pioneer Mutual Building during the AOUW years in the 1940s.

The building was built in 1925 on the corner of 10th street and 2nd Avenue north in Fargo, ND, a plot of land known legally as Block 21, Roberts Second Addition. The building was designed by Keith and Kurke, one of the more prominent architectural firms in the Dakotas.

Cornerstones of the Pioneer Mutual Building, flanking the front doors.

The rest of the block was occupied by residential buildings. The three story building housed the offices of the North Dakota Ancient Order of United Workmen, one of the earliest of fraternal insurance companies. The AOUW provided death benefit life insurance to members, requiring a significant amount of administrative staff to keep in order. According to fargo-history.com, Supreme Recorder EJ Moore moved all insurance operations to Fargo in 1916, at that time to the previous AOUW building on Roberts Street. The new building was built in 1925, completed by 1927, and with the disbanding of most AOUW chapters through the 1920s and 1930s and the absorption of other AOUW chapters, became one of the last of the regional AOUW offices.

"Pioneer East"

Steam heat is generated for the Pioneer Mutual building by boilers located in a small brick building just to the east of the main building, with pipes running underneath the alley. "Pioneer East," probably due to the alley's position, has a separate address of 817 2nd Ave N.

Demolition of East

In late July 2007, the large smokestack on Pioneer East was knocked down during renovations.

Expansion

Early design for Pioneer Mutual Building expansion.

An early expansion design consisted of 3 additional stories added to the top of the building, continuing the federal style on the upper stories. This design was expanded further by adding on to the north as well, more than quadrupling the size of the building. This addition was added from 1952 - 1954. The final design continues the federal style on the first three stories of the north addition, while the fourth through sixth floors are a plain smooth stone facade. It appears that the materials from the original north and east walls were used for the new front / west facade, as the intricate design only spans the front, the south side, and part of the east side of the building.

Over the years, the interior of the building was modified numerous times. The first floor lobby and the staircase from the first floor to the second floor retained their original design, using copious amounts of marble and gilding. Floors with offices and work areas recieved updates depending on the tenant's needs, but many parts of the building, as of the early 2000s, still had fixtures from the 1940s and 1950s.

Pioneer Mutual - 1st Floor

Pioneer Mutual - 2nd Floor

Pioneer Mutual - 3rd Floor

Pioneer Mutual - 4th Floor

Pioneer Mutual - 5th Floor

Pioneer Mutual - 6th Floor

Tenants

AOUW float from a 1930s Armistice Day parade in downtown Fargo, ND Video

While the AOUW was the primary tenant of the building until Pioneer Mutual vacated the building in 2002, various offices have been leased to other tenants over the years.

According to the 1954 Fargo-Moorhead city directory, Pioneer Mutual had leased out a significant part of their newly expanded building. The tenants listed were:

• US Government, Social Security Administration.
• Federal Housing Administration.
• The Internal Revenue Service.
• Veteran's Employment Service
• Cull Eide (accountants, now Eide Bailly LLP).
• Deep Rock Oil Corp, District Office.
• General Motors Acceptance Corporation.
• Several insurance companies, including Anchor Casualty, Motors Insurance Co, and Fidelity Phoenix Fire Insurance; it is not clear if these are the insuror's offices or merely licensed agents.

The 1954 directory also lists a direct phone number for the Pioneer Cafeteria, located on the 6th floor.

The Pioneer Mutual Building was sold to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota around the time of their affiliation in 1991. In the years following the sale, various members of BCBS-ND's Noridian network of insurance companies were moved into the Pioneer Mutual building, occupying all floors.

First and Second floors were occupied by Northern Capital, a financial planning company that eventually was sold to the State Bank organization, and remain the only tenant in the Pioneer Mutual building as of March 2007.

Street view north of the PML building, circa 1930s; this area is now parking lot.

Lincoln Mutual, a BCBS-ND affiliate since 1989, moved into the 6th floor of the Pioneer Mutual building in 1995, vacating the Lincoln Mutual building just to the east. They occupied the 6th floor until moving to the BCBS-ND building in 2005.

Pioneer Mutual Life Insurance occupied the fourth and fifth floors during this time. Fourth floor was primarily offices and meeting rooms. Claims, underwriting, and policy services occupied the south end of the fifth floor, while actuaries, controllers, and accounting were at the north end. Master records and the mail-room were on the second floor.. Shortly after their reorganization, Pioneer Mutual reduced the number of employees and moved to much smaller offices in Pioneer Plaza, a newer office building just south of the Pioneer Mutual building. At this time, the red blinking Pioneer Mutual Insurance sign on the roof was turned off.

Mural From PML Staircase.

Future

On June 27th, 2006, the North Dakota State University Development Foundation purchased the Pioneer Mutual Building, along with the neighboring Lincoln Mutual Life Building, for a total of $3.54 million. Appropriate to the history of financial and administrative companies that have occupied the building over the past century, NDSU's College of Business plans on expanding the Pioneer Mutual building. Classes are expected to begin in 2009.

A preliminary photo released by the College of Business indicates that NDSU plans on expanding the building eastward, removing a large part of the Pioneer Mutual Building's parking lot, extending the building to the southeast corner of the block, adjacent to the Lincoln Mutual building.

Removal Of The Sign

On the morning of July 12, 2007, construction crews removed the giant, red Pioneer Mutual Life sign, altering the western skyline of Fargo. The sign was added to the building shortly after the addition was completed in the late 1950s, and blinked each word in succession at night until it was turned off with Pioneer Mutual Life's change of ownership in 2001.

• Removal of the Pioneer Mutual Life Sign
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  Hooked up to crane & guy lines.

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  View from the east; half has already been lowered.

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  A worker with a torch cut the legs attached to the building.

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  Beginning to lift the structure.

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  The structure began to rotate, nearly clipping the ledge.

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  Cleared the building, and was lowered into the east parking lot.

• More photos: (1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5)