Historical society takes on former U.S. Customs Building in Pembina

By Anna Jauhola
Acquiring the historic U.S. Customs Building in downtown Pembina was a quick deal at the end of December 2024, but Fort Pembina Historical Society (FPHS) was happy to save the building. And the community has completely rallied behind the venture, seeing it as a way to help keep downtown alive.
The well-known colonial revival building has been a mainstay in Pembina since 1932 when it was built. The town’s post office was also located in the building, but the rest of it provided many jobs throughout the years. When COVID hit in 2020, the building cleared out and when employees came back to work, they were sent to the Pembina Port of Entry, leaving the building empty.
Charlie Hart, president of FPHS, said the two private investors who bought the building from the Government Service Agency earlier tried to sell the building several times to no success. Eventually, they approached FPHS and gifted it to the society, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
“But they said, ‘If you want to do this, we have to have it done by Dec. 31,’” Hart said. “So we sat down and decided, ‘Well, what the heck?’”
Despite it being a big scramble to get the paperwork done over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, it was a done deal. Although the society received the building for nothing, the costs to get it inspected and up to code were more than the society could handle alone.
“We started asking for donations and the community has been very, very generous,” Hart said. “It cost almost $20,000 to … go through a fire inspection and get the boilers certified and the sprinkler system okayed and the propane tanks filled.”
They’ve also been working on grants to help fill those gaps the community hasn’t already filled.
They hit the ground running with events in the building to help raise awareness as much as money. Pop-up markets for local and area creators have been a hit, as have presentations by the society and also the Pembina County Historical Society, and others, and tours for those who have been curious about the building itself.
As the building served as office space, the society has not only set up its own offices, but rented out some spaces to local businesses too. Red Roost Motel has a business office space as does an area veterinary service. On the main floor in the former post office space, one ambitious business owner has started Coffee Thrift and Gift. Mary Lou Swicoski, a part-time registered nurse, lives in Pembina but works in Cavalier. She attended focus groups in January, February and March held by the society to determine the building’s use.
One of the ideas was a thrift store, which turned into Swicoski’s drive to create her space along with offering a place for light breakfast and lunch. In the 1,400 square foot space she currently occupies, Swicoski has one spot devoted as a mini game room for local kids, which has been a hit during the hours she’s open, which is after school 4-6 p.m. She has set up the thrift and gift portion to many accolades from the community and visitors. Her next venture is to establish a commercial kitchen to create the coffee shop portion, serving breakfast and lunch.
To make the business go, she’s relied on six volunteers to run the regular hours. For winter, she’s scaled back to Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 4-6 p.m.
“It’s been great to work with the historical society,” Swicoski said.
She has helped with the pop-up markets and also gives tours to curious visitors when her storefront is open.
The entire building has so much potential with 16,000 square feet. One of the rooms has already been dedicated as a display of Pembina’s Masonic items, which the lodge donated to the historical society. This was quite a feat, Hart said, considering the Masons are a very secret society themselves.
The historical society also has many artifacts it hasn’t had room to display since the 1990s flooding relegated the old museum’s artifacts to the state historical society. Hart said they also have several artifacts stored at the museum in Cavalier, and the goal is to get some of them on display in the Customs Building.
“One of the obstacles we have right now is that we would have to have an identified, confined space that we could lock. So we have to do some work to get that done,” Hart said. “So then our goal would be to maybe have some traveling exhibits that come in for a year or so.”
Another thought is to move the city’s library into that building for better accessibility. The library is currently combined with the North Border School Library, but access is limited due to the school’s security protocols during the day.
In the meantime, a large back room has been the site of Sunday presentations that are often well-attended. An upstairs meeting room has also been set for smaller presentations. That room in itself poses a future challenge – installing some type of elevator system.
In the meantime, Hart said the venture has well outweighed the society’s vision. They set a goal of making good use of the building by December 2026, or they’d give up.
“We want to make some of it into a museum, but yet museums don’t really make any money. So we’re renting out some space too,” he added. “That really helps keep the cash flow going. So I think we’ll make it past December 2026.”
The building manager is now Paul Carattini and Sherri Carattini has been designated the contact person. If anyone wants to visit the building, they can call Sherri at 701-451-9617. Also, visit Fort Pembina Historical Society’s Facebook Page for updates on events. Donations can be sent to P.O. Box 456, Pembina, ND 58271.

THE FORMER CUSTOMS BUILDING in downtown Pembina is now owned and operated by the Fort Pembina Historical Society. (Enterprise photo by Anna Jauhola)

CHARLIE HART, Fort Pembina Historical Society’s president, looks at just a small portion of the society’s Masonic collection. (Enterprise photo by Anna Jauhola)

THE FORT PEMBINA HISTORICAL SOCIETY also oversees the St. John’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in South Pembina. (Enterprise photo by Anna Jauhola)