Ward County Commission Chairman John Fjeldahl and Commissioners Howard “Bucky” Anderson and Jim Rostad took a tour Wednesday of the Kenmare property that has come into county ownership through unpaid taxes. The county has been working with the Kenmare Community Development Corp. to determine how to move forward regarding the building’s demolition.

An initial attempt to acquire a state grant for demolition wasn’t successful.

“We’re hoping we can apply for it again,” Rostad said.

Demolition hasn’t been bid, but one informal quote indicated the building could be torn down for $180,000.

Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Building Inspector Aaron Rust, center, guides county commissioners Howard “Bucky” Anderson, left, and John Fjeldahl, right, on a tour Wednesday through the lobby of a former Kenmare hotel, now the property of Ward County.

The original portion of the steel and masonry structure was constructed in 1915. Terry Froseth with the KCDC said a restaurant and meeting room once existed in the basement. The former hotel, with two floors above the lobby level, had an estimated 90 rooms and sat across the street from the old depot. Froseth recalled it was being used as apartments by the 1960s. The county took possession for back taxes roughly 35 years ago, turning it over to the City of Kenmare, he said. A Kenmare native who reconnected with the community after a career out of state purchased the building with plans to develop it. Those plans never materialized, and after his death, the property passed to the county.

A snapshot of the building’s history from the Society of Architectural Historians said the former Irvin Hotel in Kenmare originally offered rooms just off the town square. It noted the building’s “cornice line and parapets are modestly ornamented in a simplified crenellated motif.” The three-story brick Irvin was a full-service hotel that, in its heyday, hosted salespersons arriving by train to offer goods to local merchants, according to the society’s account.

Wednesday’s tour of the building led by Ward County Building Inspector Aaron Rust found intruder graffiti and extensive interior damage caused by a deteriorating roof, broken windows, pigeon residency and neglect over a long period of idleness. The building has been secured to deter further human entry.

The building is the second Ward County has looked at for demolition in recent years. The county commission had ordered the demolition of another of Kenmare’s old buildings two years ago.

That building, dating to 1904 and used as a department store until converted to apartments around 1950, was demolished in 2022. It last housed tenants during the recent oil boom despite being in poor condition, and it had been vacant for nearly 10 years before its demolition, according to a Jan. 19, 2022, article in The Minot Daily News. The building also had come into county possession as the result of back taxes.

Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Building Inspector Aaron Rust looks over the damage from years of neglect on the interior of a former Kenmare hotel.

Jill Schramm/MDN A former hotel room turned apartment space that has been vacant for many years shows deterioration, including a crumbling ceiling.