Anyone who has walked or cruised up Beltrami Avenue has surely noticed the beautiful stone house on the northeast corner of 10th Street and Beltrami Avenue. John Moberg, one of Bemidji’s most prominent loggers and logging railroad builders, contracted to have the large brick home at 1002 Beltrami built in 1908. The contractor was Thomas Johnson who had
several building projects going on at the same time. While he was building the Moberg house, he was also in charge of a new eight-room house for Earl Geil, a new home on the farm of August Berg, and a new brick building for the Hamm brewing Company. The very next year he was the contractor for the new Carnegie Library.
John Moberg owned one of the first automobiles in Bemidji, brought from North Dakota in 1908, and convinced of the future of this new vehicle built the first garage and began selling Fords. He partnered with C. W. Jewett under the firm name of Northern Automobile Company. Their firm was located at 418 Beltrami Avenue. Moberg retired from the partnership in July 1910, and the business was carried on at this location by Mr. Jewett well into the 1920s.
The Mobergs lived for a time outside of town and apparently rented out the house. Several familiar names were listed at this address after 1916. The Bemidji Pioneer noted that A. M. Hayes was hosting a Christmas party there in 1916. In the fall of 1917, Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Denu and Mr. and Mrs. Frank T. Beaver moved from their summer cottage at Lavinia to the John Moberg residence on Beltrami, and Mrs. Denu hosted a musical program for the Methodist ladies at her residence in June 1918. Mrs. Philip Gill hosted the Little Mothers Club at this address in the fall of 1921 and reported “a very pleasant social time, sewing and conversing, after which Mrs. Gill serve a dainty lunch.” In 1922, this ad appeared in the Bemidji Pioneer: To Rent: Brick residence on Beltrami Avenue and 10th street. Inquire of John Moberg, Phone 272.
In 1923 John Moberg was elected mayor and served in that capacity until leaving Bemidji to take up a logging contract in British Columbia. Morris Kaplan served out the balance of Moberg’s unexpired term. In 1924, Moberg was again elected mayor and by 1927, he was engaged in the automobile business. The Mobergs again took up residence in the house on Beltrami Avenue.
The Moberg home next became the long-time residence of Harvey and Inga Hoberg. They moved to Bemidji in February 1927, and he worked for the David Park Company for 30 years as a field manager. After the creamery closed, he operated Harvey’s Café in Nymore. He was appointed chief clerk of the State House of Representatives in 1963 and held this job at the Capitol for eight years. He worked until 1988 as a landscaper for KKBJ radio, which his son, Justin, started in 1980. Their son Duane became a member of the legislature in the 1980s. Inga Hoberg owned and operated My Ladies Dress Shoppe in Bemidji. She also prepared the baked goods during the years her husband owned Harvey’s Cafe.
When the Bemidji Hospital burned in 1929, several of the patients were taken to the Hoberg residence, as it was close and had a large number of rooms. Other patients were taken to the Poor Farm and to hotels around town. The house became the second Lutheran Parsonage in the 1970s.