Cass Gilbert
Commercial Buildings

Great Northern Pacific Railroad Depot - Grand Forks, ND
Image: Minnesota Historical Society

Great Northern Depot (1891) Grand Forks, North Dakota

The Grand Forks Depot is the largest of the three Great Northern depots that Gilbert designed in 1891. Unlike the Willmar Depot design that features a two-story center block with one-story wings, the Grand Forks Depot is essentially a two-story building, featuring powerful stone walls with mitered corners, an expansive hip roof, and a Norman-influenced, central clock tower capped with a pyramidal roof. The design is not clearly derived from a single source, although it exhibits a Richardsonian influence. The building still exists, but the tower has been modified.