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Fisherman’s Headquarters/Ely Folk School
E. Sheridan Properties, LLC
The Fisherman’s Headquarters building was built in 1910. A recent magazine article reported, “thousands of Boy Scouts, guides, anglers, and canoeists passed through those doors in search of items that would make their fishing and camping trips a bit more fun.”
This building is now home to the Ely Folk School and 3 loft apartments on the 2nd level. The Ely Folk School promotes and preserves Ely’s heritage through their classes and events. From ethnic cooking to basket weaving, jewelry making, furniture building, photography, fabric arts, writing, painting, dancing and canoe building, there are classes for most every interest at the Ely Folk School.
History
This spacious building at the top of the hill was first home to Bourgin’s Dry Goods and later Gordon’s Dry Goods, Clothing and Shoe Store. Around 1949 it became Fisherman’s Headquarters and Canoe Outfitters, which expanded the building to fill two lots and sold maps, fishing gear, canoes, boats and motors.
Later it was the Ely Surf Shop, a 1950s-style clothing store and restaurant, then an extension of Wintergreen’s clothing store, and in 2009 it became Toys in the Woods.
The Project
Soon after we purchased the building, we created a home for the Ely Folk School on the first floor.
Upstairs, what had been a single apartment was reworked into three: two reached from the front door and one at the back of the building.
Everything for the Trip North
A hanging sign pointed the way to Fishermen’s Headquarters, and the windows had it all: fishing licenses, sporting goods, radio service, and outboard motors for sale, service and rent. Canoe paddles leaned in the glass, ready for the Boundary Waters.
Generations of anglers, scouts and paddlers stopped here on their way to the lakes. Decades later the big Fishermen’s Headquarters sign was still watching over Sheridan Street as sled dog teams ran past in winter.
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