The Destruction of Ralph’s: What Was It All For?

    Despite its rough exterior, smoky atmosphere and dingy floors, Ralph’s Corner Bar in Moorhead served as a musical and social hub for years. Now, three years after its destruction, barfly hearts remain broken, many of them still devastated in its wake.

    How did a 50-year-old family business, loved by many, come to such a horrible demise? Was the City of Moorhead justified? Will Fargo-Moorhead ever be the same? Three years without Ralph’s is a long time, and many of us have forgotten what it meant to the community, and how its tragic end came to be. Even now, as people drive by the old Ralph’s site, the near-empty condos that stand there provoke some to wonder if it was worth it.

    Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland said it all began when North Dakota and Minnesota officials decided to replace and widen the Main Avenue bridge. “Consequently, we needed more space,” he said. “So, we as a city acquired the properties on the north side of Main Avenue, so that the state could come in and widen Main Avenue.”

    At the time there were rumors floating around that the City of Moorhead was threatening business owners with eminent domain to coerce them into moving. Whether or not this was true remains unproven to this day.

    “We didn’t use any eminent domain in either the north side of Main Avenue, or on either the east or west side of 4th Street,” Voxland said. “Nor did we use eminent domain on the south side of Main Ave. It was all negotiated settlements.”

    Jay Miller, who managed Ralph’s at the time of its closing, had a much different account of what happened than Mayor Voxland. “Eminent domain is something that was always lingering,” he said. “I don’t know if they necessarily threatened us with it, but if we didn’t agree to what was happening, it would’ve happened… We were forced into it. There was nothing we could do, our hands were tied.”

    Miller said the City of Moorhead first tried to shut them down by saying the building was not up to code. He said Ralph’s, being a profitable business, was ready to meet any requirements Moorhead threw at them, and that the owner was willing to pay $800,000 to completely redo the building and bring it up to code.

    “We had drawings drawn up and everything,” he said. “We were ready to move forward on redoing the whole place, with a balcony and everything in it. It was going to be a really nice place that we were going to create, and it’s just really too bad that we never got the opportunity to.”

    In Moorhead’s defense, Voxland said he worked with the Woods family, who owned Ralph’s at the time, to try and relocate them to continue with their business.

    “When Ralph’s decided that we could purchase their building,” he said, “we worked with the Woods family for quite a while, before, during and after, and again about a year and a half after to find a new location for them. We really worked and hoped that we could find something. It would be nice to have a venue for alternate music in town. We just weren’t successful, the Woods family was just not successful in finding a spot to move it.”

    John Shipley, an avid Ralph’s goer and music performer, said he rarely goes to Moorhead anymore because of what happened and his attitudes toward it. He said: “It was a clear case of a city trying to push out an established business so they could build new real estate. It came strictly down to greed on the City of Moorhead’s part.”

    “They’ve never been known to be that great on their decision-making process before,” he continued. “This is a city that built their town hall in a mall… It seemed pretty obvious that it didn’t matter what Ralph’s was going to do, they were going to push them out regardless… Just bringing it back up makes me mad. They took away the one place I really enjoyed going, and that hole hasn’t really been filled.”

    Voxland said he heard nothing but good feedback about revamping that area. “Any response I heard from people was that this was a good improvement for our area,” he said.

    While we may never know exactly how it all went down, we can at least reflect on what Ralph’s was, and what it stood for. Truth be told, it was a grimy, greasy bar with bad ventilation and a questionable clientele.

    Even so, there was nowhere else you could find such a high caliber of music, and such an eclectic audience. Only at Ralph’s could you find 50-year-old hippies, 70-year old pool sharks, and college classes being conducted in bar booths all in the same place. It had the best burgers and the best jukebox in town.

    Hundreds of bands came through Ralph’s during its tenure, from the White Stripes to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Its walls were polluted with band flyers, printed on enough neon-colored paper to induce a seizure… in a good way.

    It didn’t stop with musical acts. Ralph’s hosted live talk shows, modeling shows, an occasional fish fry, and their infamous monthly liver fry.

    Shipley said: “It was never the same every time you went. It was kind of dirty and gross, but there is nowhere I would rather have been.”

    The destruction of Ralph’s was met with melancholy and tears by many. One Ralph’s patron, who chose to remain anonymous, remembers saying his last goodbyes:

    “Me and a few friends broke into Ralph’s the night before it was bulldozed. It was really strange to be there that night, because I was expecting to see just an empty building, but instead it was completely trashed.

    “The mirrors were broken, things were torn out of the walls, the floor was covered with crap and bits of bar and rubble, basically. A lot of outsiders came in and looted the place. Everyone got their little piece of Ralph’s and ran off with it.

    “It was very somber. It was like a funeral. We didn’t even speak to each other hardly. It was really kind of depressing seeing it empty without people in it, with everything ripped out of it. It’s kind of like seeing a dying person in their last days - a shadow of what it was.”

    The near-empty condos where Ralph’s once stood are the scar of a wound that has yet to heal for many Ralph’s patrons. They’ve been vacant since their creation up until, according to Mayor Voxland, about a month ago.

    The renovation of downtown Moorhead was a vast improvement to some, while others still bear a grudge against the city for depriving them of their favorite hangout. Now that it’s all said and done, a question lingers: was it worth it?