New Palace Hotel, Fargo, ND

The New Palace Hotel was a 2-story building at the southwest corner of 4th Avenue North and Broadway in Fargo, ND. Not the most auspicious of area hotels, it gained little recognition until its destruction February 5th, 1990. It was also known as the Schmidt Building.

Origins

Not known at this time

1950s

The 1954-1955 city directory shows the main floor of the building unoccupied, while the New Palace Hotel has the address of 324½ Broadway.

1980s

In the 1986, the building was purchased by William Powers. At that time, the hotel was known as the New Valley Hotel, catering to low-income tenants, mostly retired men.

1990

At around 7pm on February 5, 1990, Mary Lindstrom noticed smoke rising from Don's State College of Beauty, on the first floor of the New Palace Hotel building. She alerted authorities and helped the residents of the hotel to safety. Fire crews arrived quickly, but found the blaze uncontrollable. The building was an utter loss, and was razed.

Today

The area is a parking lot for the neighboring building, which was saved from destruction. The absence of the New Palace Hotel allowed an additional entry to be added to the neighbor building at 322 Broadway, on the north side, providing an entrance for upstairs offices.

References

The majority of the content came from various editions of the Fargo Forum from February, 1990, regarding the fire.