Why a historic building in Itasca State Park sat rotting for decades

Seven-year-old twin sisters Finley and Ollis Thimmesch-Gill posed in front of a historic building at Itasca State Park for a photo — holding their noses.

“They thought it was stinky and also weird that you would let trees grow on the roof,” said their dad, Zane Thimmesch-Gill, of Minneapolis, on a family trip to Itasca this summer.

The twins were curious about the building known as Nicollet Court, as are many of the 500,000 annual visitors passing by on the southern tip of Lake Itasca, next to Douglas Lodge.

Earlier this year, the century-old building was delisted from the National Register of Historic Places. It has sat vacant and rotting ever since it shuttered in 2000. Now the plan is to raze everything but the building’s original chimney in 2027 and replace it with a pavilion, officials say.

Some parkgoers mourn losing a piece of history they felt should have been saved. But officials said it’s not the true artifact it once was and the new pavilion will fill a need and honor the park’s history. Funding and timing affected maintenance decisions over the years.

Phil Leversedge, deputy director of the Department of Natural Resources’ parks and trails division, said the building “lived its useful life, and it had been altered so many times that it no longer represented the original architecture.”

Without a structure, there would be “a hole in the visual landscape … so we didn’t want to rush into just taking the building down.”

A fire in 1926 destroyed everything but the original cobblestone chimney. The building was resurrected the next year. More makeovers followed.

By 1998, Nicollet Court was described in the park’s management plan as “rapidly deteriorating,” and “one of the most urgent rehabilitation needs.”

But instead it sat there. In 2016, the DNR requested $3 million to reopen Nicollet Court. That never happened. Then in 2018, the state looked at turning it into a hotel, but Leversedge said a $4 million price tag derailed that plan.

The pandemic further derailed plans and made potential renovation even costlier, said Heather Funk, visitor services coordinator at Itasca.

“It is important for people to know that we are not purposely neglecting it. We have been working through phases. We hope to bring it back to a form of glory,” she said.

“Renovating historic buildings can be an expensive and complex process. Rather than tear a historic building down, sometimes the direction is to let it molder in place,” he said in an email.

The Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), per a request by the DNR, analyzed the historic designation given to Nicollet Court. It concluded in January that it doesn’t meet the designation and delisted it from the register.

Ginny Way, architectural historian with SHPO, said state and federal law require review of all changes to historic buildings, even delisted ones.

“The regulatory framework basically says … if there’s no way to avoid the demolition … what would be the best public outcome?” she said.

Park and DNR officials reject the notion that it was delisted in order to demolish it. Rather, they say it should never have been listed, because of a radical transformation in 1956.

Nicollet Court was included in the park’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The entirety of Itasca State Park — all 32,000 acres and every structure in it — is listed on the registry.

Way said ultimately the building didn’t represent the period when it was built in the 1930s and 1940s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Nicollet Court, she said, is a structure built in the 1950s around a 1922 chimney, with changes made in the 1980s.

But because the property is within a historic district, Way said, any work done to Nicollet Court will be reviewed by SHPO.

“It’s always unfortunate to see a building that can’t be reused,” she said.

Her family has been going to Itasca from Somerset, Wis., every summer since 1969 and witnessed Nicollet Court’s deterioration.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Nosbish, 58. “The beautiful historic buildings, those cabins that were built in the 1930s under the CCC. They’re just not being maintained.”

She said it saddens her to see because Itasca is near to her heart. Other parkgoers have echoed her sentiments. The lack of maintenance is an evergreen gripe on a popular Facebook group for Itasca State Park.

Funk said such comments show that people “just don’t want to see something declining ... they wanted it to get taken care of ... it’s just that that takes time.”

And funding. There is only so much to go around for Minnesota’s 75 parks and recreation areas, said Steve Hennessy, a DNR development consultant.

“The building is certainly an eyesore, and we’re really looking forward to removing it [and] building something new, something very nice for the public to use,” he said.

A pavilion will be more inviting and accessible for parkgoers, Funk said.

This summer, she watched as groups of people scattered on the lawn around Douglas Lodge, sitting on blankets and at the few picnic tables in that area.

“The amount of people that I continuously see use that space ... really does drive home to me how useful that would be to have a picnic shelter,” she said.

The 1922 chimney will be the only piece of Nicollet Court left.