Jamee Larson
Larja72@hotmail.com
Ask area residents to identify what makes the city of Moorhead great and you will likely hear about the Hjemkomst Center. The center opened in1985 and is home to the renowned Hjemkomst Viking Ship and the visually stunning Hopperstad Stave Church replica. In 2009, the Clay County Historical Society (which was founded in 1932) and the Hjemkomst Center merged to form the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. Together, their mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the history and culture of Clay County, Minnesota.
The Hjemkomst Center also contains permanent and quarterly museum exhibits. The Red River Valley exhibit is a permanent display highlighting the geologic and cultural history of the valley and its settlers. Moorhead has a rich and varied history, much of which can be found inside the center. Of particular interest is the Heritage Snack Shack, soon to be known as the Rex Café.
According to Archivist Mark Peihl, the history of the Rex Café / Hotel dates back all the way to 1910 when the hotel was built at 202 1st Ave. N. in Moorhead. “Home to a saloon and pool hall on the first floor and a hotel above, it soon became one of Moorhead’s most notorious trouble spots,” Peihl explained. “Police regularly busted the place for illegal Sunday liquor sales, gambling, and prostitution.” After Clay County went dry in 1915, the cigar storesandconfectionary shops on the hotel’s first floor served as fronts for bootleggers.
In the mid-1950s, Kenneth Seaburg took over the Cafe. “He cleaned it up and turned it into one of Moorhead’s best restaurants,” Peihl began. “If was famous for its hash browned potatoes.” Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the hotel and café building in November of 1961. Undeterred, Seaburg reopened the Rex Café at 424 Center Avenue, where it remained until 1973 when it fell victim to Moorhead’s Urban Renewal project.
The Hjemkomst Center currently sits at 202 1st Ave. N., the site of the original Rex Hotel. It seems fitting that the center’s café be renamed to pay homage to the original business. The name change is part of a conscious rebranding campaign that is currently taking place throughout the center. “We took a look at improving our visitors’ experiences and ways we thought we could accomplish that was in terms of physical surroundings and marketing,” explained Executive Director Maureen Kelly Jonason. “We wanted to get away from the total casualness and go to something more interesting.”
As the staff at the Hjemkomst Center were discussing their rebranding efforts, the historians at the center were discovering interesting details about the Rex Café. When current Retail/Food Service Manager Kelly Wambach revealed that his ancestors owned the original café, changing the name from the Snack Shack back to the Rex Café seemed like an easy decision.
Wambach, who has an impressive culinary resume, opened the Snack Shack in 2013. His restaurant experience quickly transformed the new business into a success. “It’s kind of semi-homemade,” Wambach said. “I do as much of it from scratch as I can.” Wambach describes the menu as a “combination of anything and everything.”
Wambach also says that his love of cooking is the product of several generations of saloon and café owners. The Wambach name is scattered across much of the history of Moorhead and Clay County. In fact, Kelly’s great-great grandfather, Jacob Wambach, was one of the earliest settlers of the area. In addition, Jacob’s son Matthew owned the Rex Saloon in the early 1900s. Matthew Wambach also owned the Palm Saloon in Georgetown. Interestingly, Kelly’s grandfather, Roland, was born above the Palm Saloon.
Other members of the Wambach family owned a bar in Sabin; while Kelly’s grandmother worked for the Adam Stein family, a founding family of Clay County. It is safe to say that the Wambach clan has their fingerprints over much of the area’s history, including the Rex Café. Returning the café to its original name has allowed the business to come full-circle.
Visitors to the Hjemkomst Center and the Rex Café will be pleasantly surprised by the staff’s improvements. “We hope to upgrade the look in the hallways outside the gift shop and plan to polish up the shop and gallery exhibits,” Jonason explained. “We are also working on getting matching t-shirts for the upstairs staff.” The ultimate goal of both the renaming of the café and the general improvements around the center are to give visitors the best possible experience. Stop on by and give it a look; a visit will be well worth your time.
More information about the Hjemkomst Center or the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County can be obtained at http://www.hcscconline.org.
