Fargo College was an institution of higher learning that existed in Fargo between 1887 and 1922.  At the time of its opening, the only other colleges in the area were Moorhead Normal School, which had also opened in 1887, and the soon to be defunct Bishop Whipple School, also in Moorhead.  It was located near Island Park and where now stands Western States Life Insurance Company, just east of 7th Street South.

The first stirrings of the college occurred within the Congregational Church in 1882, with whom the college was affiliated.  It opened its doors in 1887, when North Dakota was still Dakota Territory,  Rev. George B. Barnes was hired as its first president in the fall of 1888, and the school graduated its first class, two people, in 1896.  At its peak, Fargo College enrolled approximately 600 students, with its largest graduating class being twenty- five in 1917.  The campus would eventually comprise four buildings, Jones Hall, Dill Hall, the Conservatory of Music, and a Carnegie Library.

Low enrollment, lack of foresight on the part of the school's leadership, and ever-persistent financial problems would perennially beset the college.  World War I would also take a heavy toll on the school's student population.  Efforts to maintain the necessary funding needed to operate the school had varied success over the years.  In 1922, the college was forced to close due to insufficient financial support.  Throughout the 1920's though, efforts to raise the necessary funds to reopen the school were aggressively sought.  By 1929, almost half of the $500,000 needed had been raised.  But the stock market crash and the ensuing depression doomed any further chances of the school reopening.

In 1930, the school merged with Yankton College in Yankton, South Dakota, which was also affiliated with the Congregational Church.  In 1940, the Fargo Board of Education and Western States acquired the Fargo College property.  That same year, both Dill and Jones Hall were demolished.  The Carnegie Library remained as the home of Western States until 1964, when it too was demolished.

At its height, Fargo College was a thriving organ of classical learning in an essentially agriculturally-minded prairie area.  The alumni of the school remained very active well into the late 1960's, and the spirit of the school lived on at Yankton College, until it too closed its doors in 1985.
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Fargo College Collection  |  Education