Ida’s Operation
Ten-year-old Ida remembered the pigeons cooing in the tower, shelves of books in the waiting room and the ceiling fan turning as the ether took hold. She woke in a fresh bed with a view all the way to the lake.
204 E. Camp
Tanner Building/The Castle
Tanner on Camp, LLC
The Tanner Building, named after Finnish doctor Anterro Ferdinand Tanner, was built as a hospital in 1903 and served Ely’s citizens for years before becoming an apartment house. Currently the structure is a “shell” with no mechanical systems and few interior walls, but it does have a fascinating architecturally detailed exterior that captures the attention of many people.
Our goal with this historic building is to work with the State of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Interior Guidelines to restore the exterior to its original condition. This will require rebuilding the east foundation wall with the guidance of a structural engineer’s plan. This building will also have a new drain-tile system that will carry water away from the building more efficiently.
Phase one will include the foundation and drain tile work, reopening the locations where doors previously existed, filling openings that weren’t original to the building, tuck-pointing, new doors, new thermal windows that replicate the original windows, and a new roof. Phase two would provide rough electric, heating, rough-in plumbing, and interior carpentry framing and dividing of spaces. Phase three would include the interior finishes.
The use of the building will be determined by market demand, but we are inclined at this time to believe there will be a mixed use of approximately four retail stores or artist/craft studios at street level and the lower level, and possibly three or four loft-like apartments on the second floor with interior balconies and nice views. The upper level tower is intended for a commercial use so the public can enjoy the space. An undeveloped lot across Second Street has the potential for additional outdoor amenities or future development.
Tap to enlarge
National Register of Historic Places
The Hospital With the Tower
Perched on a steep corner lot, the hospital rises two and a half stories over a tall stone basement, with a brick and frame tower climbing four stories above it. Inside, a curving stair led to operating and patient rooms, and from the upper floors patients could see all the way to Shagawa Lake.
Drawing from “A Great Journey,” a history of Dr. A. F. Tanner.
- 1903Built by Dr. A. F. Tanner
- 20Patients, with a lab, dispensary and surgery
- 4Stories to the top of the tower
- 1980Listed on the National Register
History
Built in 1903 by Dr. Anterro F. Tanner, a Finnish immigrant physician, lecturer and newspaper editor, this towered hospital cared for patients in a mining town where illness and injury were common. It held up to twenty patients, with a complete lab, dispensary and surgery.
Dr. Carrol C. Carpenter took over in 1907 and the hospital served Ely into the 1930s. Later converted to apartments, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as Carpenter’s Hospital and renamed Tanner’s Hospital in 1998.
The Man Behind the Hospital
Dr. Anterro Ferdinand Tanner
Hired hand, shoemaker’s apprentice, soldier, teacher, lecturer, newspaper editor, physician and builder, Tanner was, in the words of one biographer, “a remarkable man” whose one constant was his love of new ideas.
Born in Rantasalmi, Finland, in 1868, he earned a master’s degree at the University of Helsinki and threw himself into Finland’s early labor movement. Pushed out by the backlash, he sailed for America in 1899, where he helped found what is said to be the first Finnish socialist society in the world and co-edited the newspaper Amerikan Työmies. He then finished his medical studies in Minneapolis and brought his family to Ely in 1902.
“When will that time come when we will be pleased to greet new thinking with reason?”A. F. Tanner
Ely’s Showman Doctor
The Burning Water
Tanner lectured at the temperance hall’s Opera House in black velvet knee pants and a bright vest. In one story, he handed a jar to a man in the audience, who sniffed it, studied it and even tasted it before declaring it water. Tanner passed his hand over the jar and it burst into flame.
The crowd gasped, and he used the moment to talk about the wonders of science and the need to keep asking questions. Only the pharmacist guessed the trick: a bit of potassium.
His wife, Venni, sang at the same programs, and in 1903 Tanner even printed a Finnish-language workers’ newspaper in Ely, Aatteita (“Ideas”). It lasted three months.
Stories From the Hospital
Pigeons in the Tower
Memories of Ely families who knew Dr. Tanner, as retold in “A Great Journey.”
Measure Twice
Tanner built a boat in the hospital basement for his summer place on Shagawa Lake, then found it wouldn’t fit through the door. He was seen early one morning, red-faced, tearing out part of the wall to get it out.
Light and Air
The Ely Miner praised the new building’s complete lab and dispensary, its surgery, steam heat, electric light and hot water, and rooms designed for light and ventilation.
Medicine Before Public Health
Early Iron Range towns had poor water and sewer systems, and illness was common. Private hospitals like Tanner’s filled the gap, which is why the National Register calls it a significant survival of early entrepreneurial medicine.
Camp Street, Ely
A Life of New Ideas
- 1868
Born in Finland
Anterro Ferdinand Tanner is born May 6 in Rantasalmi, the son of a fabric dyer.
- 1891–99
University and the labor movement
He studies natural sciences in Helsinki, earns his master’s degree and becomes a leading voice in the city’s labor union.
- 1899
To America
Tanner arrives in Massachusetts, lectures in Finnish communities and helps organize the Myrsky Society in Rockport.
- 1900
Editor
Amerikan Työmies goes to press in January. Tanner tours the Midwest for subscribers, then settles in Minneapolis.
- 1901
Physician
He completes his medical studies in Minneapolis and passes the physician’s exam.
- 1902
Moves to Ely
Tanner brings his family to Ely and opens a medical practice.
- 1903
The hospital rises
The Tanners buy two lots on Camp Street, and by year’s end the towered hospital, with “Hospital” lettered across the front, stands over the town.
- 1907
Dr. Carpenter takes over
On June 1, Dr. Carrol C. Carpenter assumes management. The building becomes known as Carpenter’s Hospital and treats patients into the 1930s.
- 1920
A last dream
After years back in Finland, Tanner practices in Chisholm, where he plans a sun-heated “glass house” hospital. He dies of pneumonia on November 27, before it is finished.
- 1980
National Register
By then converted to the Lakeview Apartments, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Carpenter’s Hospital.
- 1998
Tanner’s name restored
The National Register listing is officially renamed Tanner’s Hospital.
- Next
A future project
Alley A Realty plans to bring Tanner’s towered hospital into its next chapter.
Sources: “A Great Journey,” a history of Dr. A. F. Tanner; “Our First Finnish Trailblazer in America,” Työväen Kalenteri I (Hancock, Michigan, 1904), translated by Larry Saukko; National Register of Historic Places nomination for Carpenter’s Hospital (1980), reference no. 80004342, renamed Tanner’s Hospital in 1998.
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