Structure originated as a fish hatchery

By Adelie Bergstrom abergstrom@duluthnews.com

The University of Minnesota Duluth’s Limnology building is a familiar sight to anyone traveling between Duluth and the North Shore.

The Victorian house-styled building at 6008 London Road began its life as the Lester River Fish Hatchery, perched on Lake Superior at the mouth of the Lester River.

The building, completed in 1888, was designed by Dr. Robert Ormsby Sweeny, a noted fish expert, artist and pharmacist, who was president of the Minnesota Fisheries Association at the time, according to Duluth historian Tony Dierckins’ Zenith City Press website. When the hatchery was finished, Sweeny became its first superintendent.

In its prime, the hatchery produced 150 million fish eggs each year. The eggs came from mostly whitefish, trout and walleye, which typically were then returned to the mouths of rivers and streams along Lake Superior.

The University of Minnesota Duluth’s Limnology building started life as a U.S. fish hatchery when it was built in 1888.

The “gingerbread house,” as it’s known colloquially, features scalloped trim edges, ridge cresting, decorative gable cutouts and a weather vane featuring a large fish.

The U.S. government closed the hatchery in 1946, and the building was sold to UMD the next year, when it started a new chapter as a freshwater research facility.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, though the building fell into disrepair in the decades that followed.

In 2012, UMD began to restore the limnology building, using old photographs to replace ornamental pieces from scratch and to match the building’s original paint colors. The effort earned UMD an award from the Duluth Preservation Alliance in 2013.

In recent years, limnology research moved to UMD’s Large Lakes Observatory, and today the building’s main level is used for meetings. The school’s Recreational Sports and Outdoor Program also uses the site. Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory and Sugarloaf, a North Shore stewardship association, rent space upstairs. u