Fargo’s first house was built by Harry Moore with help from George Mann in 1869. Fargo at this time was just a city of tents in what was then Dakota Territory. In 1872 the house served as the Mann-Moore Hotel and in 1875 as a jail. The city paid rent of $15 per month for a year while the new jail was being built. The upstairs of the house was the jail. The main floor held the offices of the Sheriff and Mayor.

The house was close to the Red River, on the bank of the “slough” and what is now Island Park. This dwelling was later moved to higher ground (in the one hundred block of South Fourth Street). The house was named “Elm Tree House” and was occupied by the Moore family until 1879. The house was later purchased by Henry Hector and he lived there until his death in 1940. The “Hector House”, as it became known, is credited with being Fargo's oldest wooden structure still in existence.

In 1974, the Fargo Moorhead Board of Realtors and Multiple Listings Service donated the house to the Cass County Historical Society. Palmer Forness, a member of the Cass County Historical Society and a Fargo Fire Department Employee, did most of the restoration to the cabin. Replacing a few of the original logs and adding mixture of cement and sand to openings between the logs, the house was said to be near original condition by 1980 and can be found at Bonanzaville in West Fargo.

Images and content provided by the Cass County Historical Society and North Dakota State University Archives Library.