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SHSND Home > Historic Preservation > National Register of Historic Places > Properties in North Dakota

The Archaeology & Historic Preservation File Room is open to cultural resource specialists (contractors) during the hours of 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Monday–Friday. No appointment necessary.

What properties in North Dakota are listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

The North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office does not maintain an online, searchable database of listed properties since the National Park Service maintains the National Register of Historic Places database. The official database can be accessed through the National Register of Historic Places site: nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/database-research.htm.

For more information on properties listed in the National Register of Historic places you can call the National Register Coordinator at 701.328.3576. Please have the property's street address or legal address (Township, Range, and Section) at hand.

North Dakota Properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2020:

The outside of a brick building with 5 large windows across the bottom and smaller windows above each. There is snow on the ground.

Harvey Power Plant, listed 6/5/2020, photo by Rosin Preservation

The Harvey Power Plant is at the southeastern edge of Harvey in Wells County. Completed in 1930, the facility was the first and only substantial electric power generation facility in the city. For nearly a quarter century, before the days of rural electrification, this plant provided Harvey and much of the rest of Wells County with electricity. Two outfits, Central Light & Power Company —which built the facility at considerable expense— and Otter Tail Power Company, controlled the plant at various times during its years of operation. The facility stands as a reminder of these companies' dominance over the local electricity production market, as well as the early growth and evolution of electric service in Harvey. The World War II years brought additional upgrades to the power plant and augmented its utility. The building served the Harvey area until the consolidation of electricity production facilities and the construction of larger power plants nearby made the Harvey Power Plant obsolete in 1954. "By restoring this building," its current owners say they wish "to not only provide a facility" that addresses the need for mental health services in the area, "but [also] to restore the hope in the region for those who may have felt cast aside, abandoned, and run down."

The inside of a chapel. Rows of pews can be seen on either side with, an alter with 2 candles on each side of it at the front, and stained glass windows on the sides.

Our Lady of the Annunciation Chapel at Annunciation Priory, listed 6/16/2020, photo by Cray Kennedy

Finished in 1963, Our Lady of the Annunciation Chapel at Annunciation Priory sits on the University of Mary campus near Bismarck. The chapel's significance lies in its innovative design by the world renowned Hungarian-born architect Marcel Breuer, an acolyte of the German Bauhaus school and a master of modernist architecture. (Hamilton Smith, Breuer's longtime partner, provided assistance.) Breuer designed, often in collaboration with Smith or others, approximately 100 buildings during his career, including the UNESCO Headquarters building in Paris. He called Our Lady of the Annunciation Chapel one of his favorites, dubbing it his "jewel on the prairie." The chapel's stunning appearance bears many of the signatures of Breuer's philosophy of design: varied materials to create texture, windows for light and shade, and colored glass to infuse the building with assorted colors. Breuer also linked the chapel to its location —the North Dakota prairie— by using locally sourced fieldstone in the building's construction. The architect worked closely with the Benedictine Sisters of Annunciation Priory (today the Benedictine Sisters of Annunciation Monastery) to ensure that his design honored their wishes and represented their values.

The exterior of part of a brick school. Doors are at center and windows line the sides. There is a big bush on each side of the doors, and a flag pole stands in line with the center of the doors in the sidewalk.

The exterior of part of a brick school. Doors are at center and windows line the sides.

The exterior of a brick school building with green doors in the middle and a window with a green and white canopy to the right of the doors.

The exterior of a brick school building with painted tiles of Lewis and Clark and Sakakawea along one side.

The exterior of a brick school building with a wooden sign that says Wilder Elementary School.

Grand Forks Mid-Century Modern Schools, listed 7/17/2020, photos by Susan Caraher (in order: Ben Franklin, Lewis & Clark, Valley, Viking, West, Wilder)

Ben Franklin, Lewis and Clark, Viking, West, and Wilder Elementary Schools, and Valley Junior High School (now Middle School) were constructed in Grand Forks between 1949 and 1965, at a time of unparalleled economic growth in the nation. The postwar baby boom, along with many rural Americans' relocation to towns and cities, quickly led to overcrowding in urban schools. Like other cities around the nation, Grand Forks responded by building new schools that broke sharply with the earlier multi-story school building designs. With this new efficiency-minded approach to public school building design and construction came changing ideas about education itself. A commitment to creating a more conducive environment for student learning and physical health lay at the center of this innovative philosophy of education. The new-style school buildings' sprawling, low-elevation designs included long banks of windows to allow in plenty of natural light. Augmenting the effort to connect students and teachers with the outdoors, designers installed landscaped gardens and playgrounds or ensured that students had views of nearby public parks outside of their classroom windows. The schools embody several central themes of this era of U.S. history, including post-World War II prosperity, a huge population increase, and a robust building program around the country.

The exterior of a brick building. The middle contains a second floor.

Administration Building for the City of Grand Forks at the Grand Forks Airport, listed 12/3/2020, photo by Agatha Frisby

The Administration Building for the City of Grand Forks at the Grand Forks Airport is located approximately two-and-a-half miles northwest of the city's downtown. Built between 1941 and 1943, with an addition constructed in 1949, the Administration Building functioned as the airport's terminal. It is an illustrative example of WPA (Work Projects Administration) Modern and Streamline Moderne architecture. This WPA-built airport terminal facilitated air travel that modernized and connected the community regionally and beyond as well as playing a role in military aviation training that contributed to national defense and war efforts. Although airport services were eventually transferred to a new location, and the Administration Building repurposed, the building stands as a reminder of Grand Forks' early aviation history at the site of the city's original airport. The terminal is a symbolic reminder of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's economic relief and jobs-building programs, which, in part, helped to transform American air transportation as the United States strived to dig itself out of the Great Depression and defeat fascism abroad during World War II.

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