DULUTH — Longtime tenants of Lakeside Professional Building were recently informed they must vacate due to plans to demolish the structure in late spring.
The property is owned by St. Michael’s Catholic Church and occupied by Gabriel’s Used Bookstore and the Sami Cultural Center of North America, among others.
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Originally constructed as a church in 1914, additional levels were added to serve as St. Michael's School from 1923 until 1981.
Demolition will likely take place between May 1 and July 1, according to Jacob Turner, the church's business manager.
The topic of demolition has been a yearslong discussion during the church's financial meetings with its pastor, Turner indicated. Costs to bring the building up to safe structural integrity and replace the boiler would cost upward of $1 million, he said.
Although the property is currently considered within code due to legacy, any improvements would require it to meet modern requirements, Turner explained.
“The building is quite old. It was a tough decision because we know how it is valued in the community,” Turner said. “We have done our due diligence.”
An abatement survey has been completed, and a bid between $150,000 and $300,000 will soon be accepted for the demolition work. After that, St. Michael's intends to apply for a demolition permit through the city.
The space will be graded and serve as a parking lot expansion for the church, located across the street at 4901 E. Superior St.
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As a result, Gabriel's Used Bookstore will sunset its operations. The volunteer-run project has served as a fundraiser for St. Michael’s over the past 35 years, beginning in 1987 at a nearby house and transferring to the former school cafeteria and gym in 1994.
Roughly 50,000 titles were available for discovery in the 2,200-square-foot lower-level bookstore named after St. Gabriel, the archangel and patron saint of communications. Inventory will soon be liquidated through sales and donations.
Sami Cultural Center received its letter of notification from the landlord on Dec. 16. It stated the property would be demolished “after careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the building’s condition.” According to St. Michael’s, maintaining the property was no longer feasible due to escalating costs and structural challenges.
The decision came as little surprise to Marlene Wisuri, the board chair of the Sami Cultural Center of North America.
The nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to education about Sami and Sami-American history and culture, has been headquartered at the Lakeside Professional Building since August 2014. After COVID, visitation to the center has been by appointment only.
The Sami are the Indigenous People of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian Kola Peninsula. Many came to the U.S. and Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Wisuri was aware of the boiler issues at the site but thought there would be more lead time on finding a new location for the center’s office, display area, library and archives, which must be vacated by April.
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Over the years, the Sami Cultural Center has hosted many potluck dinners, movies, classes, exhibits, open houses and other community activities, in addition to national and international outreach at the location.
Locally, the organization has partnered with the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, the Kathryn A. Martin Library at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the American Indian Community Housing Organization on art exhibits.
“We collaborate with various museums nationally, and we have traveling exhibitions that have been seen everywhere from Philadelphia to Seattle to Alaska,” Wisuri said. “We also have participated in international art exhibits; the Imago Mundi project, for instance, out of Italy.”
Since receiving notice to vacate, the Sami Cultural Center has secured climate-controlled storage for its collections, which currently occupy two large classrooms in the former schoolhouse and three different storage areas within the building.
“We have probably the largest collection of Sami artifacts in the country,” Wisuri said. “The collection is pretty wide-ranging.”
The center features two vintage reindeer sleighs (polkas), rare vintage Sami cradle boards, extensive handcrafted items (duachi) such as knives, spoons, weavings, wooden items, as well as a traveling tent of the Sami people (Lavvu).
The center will hold an open house on Saturday, Feb. 8, to celebrate Sami National Day.
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“We're calling it our transition day. So it will probably be the last public event,” Wisuri said. “We're sad to be leaving what's been a wonderful space for us, but we're looking forward to some different opportunities and some new avenues opening up to us.”
As the center explores its options, the public is invited to open house visioning sessions on Feb. 22 and March 15 from 1-3 p.m.
“If we establish another physical center, we would like to stay in Duluth. That would be our preference,” Wisuri said.
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