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Downtown Grand Forks Expanded Walking Tour
Item 20 of 21
On this spot where a dike now stands, the old Viets Hotel was located here when it was first completed in 1876. The hotel was Grand Forks's oldest retail establishment until its destruction in the 1997 Red River Flood. The hotel over the 120 years of its existence was also known by many other names, such as the Richardson House, Hall Hotel and Hall Apartments, to name a few. Known for its vernacular Greek Revival architecture, the hotel would suffer in types of neglect before its destruction.

The Viets Hotel was an 1876 vernacular Greek Revival building in Grand Forks, North Dakota. In proceeding years it had been the Richardson House (by 1884), a subdivided residence (by 1896), the Hall Hotel (from around 1906 until at least 1938), Hotel Apartments (1940), Hall Apartments (1942–88), and Bachellor Apartments (1989–97). At times when extra rooms were needed for visitors, a building at 317 S. 3rd St. was used as overflow. 

Following six snow storms and then high temperatures soon afterwards, the Red River flooded over in 1997, the worst flooding to happen in Grand Forks since 1826. Flooding affected northern and eastern North Dakota, parts of Minnesota and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. To make matters worse, a fire then hit the city, destroying buildings, both those affected by the flooding and those left untouched by the flood. Sitting next to the Red River, the already neglected Viets Hotel was filled with mud, water and trash. Not wanting to repair the building, the city decided to demolish the building and a dike replaced it. 

*If any older photos of the hotel can be found, they should be downloaded to this page*

C. Kudzia; Norene Roberts; Joe Roberts & Gary Henrickson (September 1981). "North Dakota Cultural Resources Survey: Viets Hotel /"