Board of Trade Building It’s the city’s second, and it retains its charm

By Jimmy Lovrien jlovrien@duluthnews.com

Duluth’s Board of Trade Building, at 301 W. First St., isn’t the city’s first.

The original, designed and built in 1885 by George Wirth and Oliver Traphagen, was just one block down, on 302 W. Superior St., until a fire — and frozen fire hydrants — caused the structure to collapse. Its replacement, which still stands today, was finished in 1895.

The second time around, Traphagen had a larger role, said Tony Dierckins, publisher of Zenith City Press and a local historian.

“George Wirth was Oliver Traphagen’s boss. Traphagen was his construction supervisor in Duluth, and when Wirth moved back to Germany in ’85 or ’86, that’s when Traphagen decided he was an architect,” Dierckins said. “And then he becomes the most remarkable architect in Duluth.”

Traphagen went on to design some of Duluth’s most recognizable buildings, including Central High School, Chester Terrace and Munger Terrace.

The building was built to house the Board of Trade, which controlled the Twin Ports’ grain industry, and a trading floor sits on the top floor.

As the grain industry changed, so did the building’s purpose. The Board of Trade moved out in the 1970s when the grain trade in Duluth declined, according to Dierckins. The floors were rented by other businesses, though not always fully, while restaurants, bakeries and salons filled the street-level storefronts.

The trading floor stood vacant from 1965 until 1999 when the Minnesota Ballet moved in, enjoying the space’s high ceiling and arched windows for its rehearsal space and headquarters.

Through a capital campaign, the ballet preserved the Grain Exchange’s maple hardwood floor, telephone booths and catwalk where workers once posted grain prices on a large blackboard.

But in 2018, the Minnesota Ballet moved out so the building’s new owner, Dubin Guru Group, can convert the building into 84 apartments, including studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. Some units will be offered at reduced rates to lower-income residents.

The carvings of O. George Thrana, a master stone carver who emigrated from Norway to Duluth, remain. Examples of his work can be found throughout the region, including the fountain at Glensheen Mansion and ornamentation on the Kitchi Gammi Club, Denfeld and Central high schools, the College of St. Scholastica and Holy Rosary School.

Dierckins said the building’s two-story entrance, where many of Thrana’s carvings remain, is one of the last of its kind in town. The others had been covered up in the mid-20th century with marble and other stone.

“The Board of Trade building still has that original grand entrance,” Dierckins said. “And that’s what we’re losing on some of our landmarks that are still with us on Superior Street.” u

Traders buy and sell grain on the floor of the Board of Trade Building in November 1953. Brokers used the phone booths located below the chalk commodity board to take orders and consult with clients while the exchange was operating. The trading floor closed for good in 1972. (Courtesy of UMD Kathryn