DULUTH — If you walked through the St. Louis County Depot in mid-July and noticed the scent and sights of a recent flood affecting multiple floors, you might reasonably have assumed it was yet another result of this summer's extraordinarily wet weather.
In fact, rainfall wasn't to blame.
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"There's only so much we can comment in regards to that," said Nicholas Jensen, executive director of the St. Louis County Historical Society. "We're very lucky for the fact that Minnesota Ballet had a board meeting that evening and was able to inform the Depot, and Depot management then inform us, of the water incursion."
"We had an incident with a sink overflowing," explained Depot director Mary Tennis. "We don't have cameras on the fourth floor, so I can't say with 100% certainty what happened, but we do know that it came from a sink up there."
Whatever — or whomever — might have caused the sink to overflow, the results were devastating for the displays in Veterans Memorial Hall. The third-floor gallery, located just off the Depot's Great Hall, saw indoor rain that accumulated in standing water throughout the space.
"We're very fortunate that the historic artifacts that have been entrusted into our care came out unscathed from this incident," said Jensen, standing last week in a largely empty Veterans Memorial Hall. The gallery has been closed indefinitely while the historical society works to repair damaged flooring and install new displays.
"Everything that we had on display here was within an exhibit case," said Jensen. "The cases protected the artifacts as they should. Even within our research space, we had (only) one piece of paper that was damaged during (the incident) and we managed to make photocopies of that."
The Albert J. Amatuzio Research Center, located below Veterans Memorial Hall, contained rolling racks of archival storage boxes with records from Northeastern Minnesota veterans. Water penetrated into that space as well, but the boxes protected their contents and the racks have now been temporarily removed.
Historical society staff were able to remove that material quickly because of lessons they learned from a water incursion four years ago.
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"It wasn't vandalism — it was just a case of a plugged drain," Veterans Memorial Hall program manager Jay Hagen said about that earlier incident. Water "ended up cascading into our research center."
After the prior incident, staff moved the archival materials to rolling racks that could fit through the research center door. "We don't want to be calling ourselves veterans of it," said Hagen, "but what we learned that first (time) came in handy here."
The July incident came less than a year into the term of Jensen, who was brought on in fall 2023 as the historical society's first new director in over three decades. Jensen replaced JoAnne Coombe, who retired after 32 years leading the organization.
"It's definitely been an interesting year," said Jensen. He said he's been focused on finding "ways to connect people with the society, get out into the community, and get folks coming into our spaces as well."
Along with the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, the St. Louis County Historical Society is one of two remaining organizations that have maintained continuous tenancy at the Depot since it opened in 1973 as an arts and cultural heritage center.
St. Louis County's first memorial hall for veterans opened at the county courthouse in 1907. The program later came under the management of the historical society, but the version that opened at the Depot in 1973 was underwhelming.
"It had a cheesy brass plaque that said, 'Veterans Memorial Hall,' but when you opened the door it looked more like a lunch room inside," Coombe told the News Tribune in 1998 during a fundraising effort for the new hall. The hall's latest incarnation opened in 1999 and was redesigned in 2017.
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Another redesign has been underway, but while the water damage may accelerate parts of that process, Hagen said he wished the organization's hand hadn't been forced.
"I view it as a phased approach," said Hagen. "We were actively working on phase one, which was to revitalize the Medal of Honor Row, but now, that's going to probably slide back into phase six or seven."
In the short term, said Tennis, "the historical society has done this incredible job of pivoting, of taking artifacts that were in Veterans Memorial Hall and sprinkling them throughout the building, so people can still come in and enjoy some of the artifacts that were in Veterans Memorial Hall."
An advisory committee is weighing options, but Hagen doesn't believe the society is likely to opt for a complete reinvention of the space in the immediate future. "Otherwise we're going to be years closed," he said, "and we want to get people back in there as quickly as possible."
When the hall reopens, the most visible difference is likely to involve the central space formerly occupied by a replica of a mining tunnel.
That "was our means of connecting the home front," explained Jensen, "making sure that we recognize the contributions of everyone who was supporting (America's war efforts), not just the folks on the front lines."
The mine model took up a lot of space, and some of that may instead be devoted to a display — "possibly a micro-theater," said Hagen — highlighting the contributions of non-combatants such as Shirley Hedin.
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Born and raised in Duluth, Hedin achieved national celebrity in 1943 when she was pictured on the cover of Life magazine for a feature story on the Women's Land Army of farm workers.
Jensen said that insurance claims are moving forward regarding the damage, which affected both historical society displays and some of the Depot's common areas. Ron Hein, the historical society's treasurer, estimates that "we're looking at a minimum of $35,000, just to bring (Veterans Memorial Hall) back to solid walls, electrical system, display cases, the carpeting."
In the meantime, the historical society is asking supporters to pitch in with financial contributions. That ask comes amid an ongoing push for funding to decrease the organization's reliance on the county. Before Jensen's appointment, the organization faced scrutiny over a requested funding increase.
"The county has always been far and away the greatest percentage of funding for the historical society," said Hein. "There has been, certainly, in the last three, four or five years an emphasis by the county on having the society lighten the load on the county and find additional sources of revenue."
Public concern regarding a rash of resignations is now in the past, said Jensen, with the society maintaining "seven to eight staff," including recently hired curator Jacob Esselstrom — "an excellent, instrumental individual to come into the society in terms of working with our collections, brainstorming what we put together in the future and of course rolling with the punches in the case of (the recent water damage)."
The historical society recently hosted a temporary exhibit, "The Views of Duluth," in the fourth-floor gallery space formerly occupied by the Duluth Art Institute.
Tennis said "we do have a lot of organizations that really want all or part of the space," but the Depot can't accept proposals for tenancy there until they have a firmer timeline on the completion of necessary heating, ventilation and air conditioning work. That work will take at least through this calendar year, with Jan. 1 being "a great goal" to be able to open at least part of the fourth floor for use proposals, said Tennis.
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The Veterans Memorial Hall project, including Medal of Honor Row (celebrating the area's five Medal of Honor recipients) and Wall of Remembrance (listing those from the area who lost their lives in service), is personal for Hein, a retired Army National Guard brigadier general.
"We want to have people understand the sacrifice that some people have made," said Hein, moved to tears as he spoke. "What kind of a person is that, that's willing to put themselves in harm's way, fully understanding that they probably will not survive?"
"We owe it to the veterans," said Hagen, "to have that gallery on display to the public."
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