Support the Timberjay by making a donation.

Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

TSHS receives $30,000 to restore Tower’s Historic Fire Hall

Posted 7/7/21

TOWER- The Tower-Soudan Historical Society has received grant funding to replace the roof on the Tower Historic Fire Hall on Main Street. This was the first fire hall built on the Iron Range, in …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

TSHS receives $30,000 to restore Tower’s Historic Fire Hall

Posted

TOWER- The Tower-Soudan Historical Society has received grant funding to replace the roof on the Tower Historic Fire Hall on Main Street. This was the first fire hall built on the Iron Range, in 1895, and is the oldest existing public building north of Duluth.
A $20,000 grant was made from the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Culture and Tourism Program through taxes paid by Minnesota’s mining industry, and a $10,000 grant was made from the State of Minnesota from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society. The roof replacement will eliminate water infiltration and deter further building deterioration.
The roof replacement project is Phase 2 of the rehabilitation plan. Original doors and windows were restored as Phase 1 in 2019. Phase 3 will rehabilitate and repair the exterior masonry, planned for 2023. A $100,000 grant was recently awarded for Phase 3. An additional $40,000 is needed as additional match to a Minnesota Historical Society exterior masonry grant request due in September. Your donation of any size would be appreciated.
Please contact the Tower-Soudan Historical Society campaign co-chairs, Louise Gately at 515-229-8757, or Nancy Larson at 218-750-7514, with any questions. Donations can be mailed to the Tower-Soudan Historical Society, PO Box 465, Tower, MN 55790. TSHS is a 501(c)(3) organization. You can learn more at www.towersoudanhs.org. You can also fill out and mail the donation form printed below.
Tower’s Historic Fire Hall tells the story of Tower as the first mining town on the Iron Range and offers the community a look into the social history of early iron ore mining in Minnesota. The hall was built in 1895 and included a cistern that held 30,000 gallons of water, filled using a pipe that extended from the building to the East Two River.
The building housed the city hall and jail, in addition to the fire department. It was used as a community center for social activities for many years after city hall and the jail were relocated in 1935. It was sold to a private party and leased to businesses after the civic center was built in the 1970s. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance in the theme of social history.
The building, vacant from 2008 until 2015, was purchased by the Tower-Soudan Historical Society with support from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation. Its unique features tell a story of the early years of Tower’s development as the first mining boom town, when wooden structures were built on crowded lots in a city without water and plumbing infrastructure. After a series of dangerous fires in 1891, city officials purchased a horse-drawn steam-powered fire engine built by the Ahrens Manufacturing Co. The steam fire engine, the “James Tippet”, named after the Tower mayor, served Tower and the surrounding area until it was retired in 1928.
The “Tippet” continued to be the featured attraction in Tower’s Fourth of July parade for many decades and will be the featured centerpiece in the restored historic fire hall.
The restored fire hall will serve as a museum to tell the story of the early days when the Tower Harbor was a transportation hub and bustling commercial center with a hotel, outfitters, and a boat builder. Steamboats ferried train passengers to logging camps and resorts which were only accessible by water, thus pioneering Minnesota’s resort and tourism industry on Lake Vermilion in the early part of the 20th century, several decades before tourism became an important industry throughout the state of Minnesota.