Apartment Building (St. Mary’s School)

At the rear of the Cathedral of Saint Mary and Cathedral Square (CS16), Joseph E. Rosatti designed a charming Tudor Revival parochial school with cream-colored glazed terra-cotta cherubs greeting elementary school students above the ornamented entrance. Rosatti was educated at the University of Michigan before coming to Fargo, where, in partnership with Ole E. Braseth and working independently, he designed numerous schools and other buildings, many of them for Fargo’s Catholic diocese. Brick detailing and terra-cotta trim extend from the foundations to the crenellated parapet, with two projecting corner towers flanking the entrance. A recessed Tudor arch outlines the entrance and the school’s name adorns the cornice in Gothic letters along with the Latin motto “Pro Deo et Patria” (For God and Country), all trimmed in glazed terra-cotta. As part of a rehabilitation of all the buildings on the Cathedral block, this lavishly ornamented school was sensitively restored and renovated as residential apartments. The irregularly shaped Cathedral Square block containing the church, rectory, bishop’s residence, and school building is densely landscaped with large informal plantings that conceal a ground source heating system.