535 - Anderson Building

The International Harvester Company of Chicago built this five-story brick behemoth as its Bismarck branch warehouse in 1911. At the time, the company was the nation’s largest manufacturer of farm implements, serving the rapidly developing agricultural communities of the Midwest and facilitating the transition from horse-drawn field equipment to gas-powered machinery. The single-story building to the north served as the company’s showroom. Trucks, tractors, and household appliances that bear the International Harvester logo can be still be found on farms throughout the state, maybe even for sale in antique shops like the one housed on the building’s second floor today.
The International Harvester Company vacated the warehouse in the 1930s. In the 1950s and 60s it was the Conrad Publishing Company. Now, it’s best known as the Anderson Building, named for a later owner, Loren J. Anderson who remodeled the building in the late 1960s to create office and rental spaces, and a number of apartments. If you look up at the building’s south and east facades, you’ll see the faded letters of overlapping signs—one is for the Conrad Publishing Company, the other is the L.J. Anderson Building.


I'm the son of a third generation farmer
I've been married ten years to the farmer's daughter
I'm a God fearin' hard workin' combine driver
Hoggin' up the road on my p-p-p-p-plower
Chug a lug a luggin' five miles an hour
On my International Harvester

-lyrics of “International Harvester” by Craig Morgan