GARY, Minn. — A historic telephone exchange building in the heart of Duluth’s Gary neighborhood could soon be the new home of a Gary-based company that’s looking to grow beyond the Northland but keep its roots where they are for years to come.
The building is the former Northwestern Bell Telephone Company located at 1202 101st Ave. West. The company that wants to purchase it is KornerStores, Inc.
“We currently are operating the back room of the Gary store. We have HR and accounting back there. I actually got kicked out and I had to move home for a home office. And so I think being under one roof is going to be really important moving forward,” said Derek Medved, owner of KornerStores and a former Duluth city councilor.
The historic building from the 1920s is just blocks from the former Milk House, which was Medved’s first gas station purchase at the age of around 19.
Courtesy: UMD’s Kathryn A. Martin Library
Medved told FOX 21 as his KornerStores company continues to search for more gas stations to purchase in the Upper Midwest, he said it’s important to stay in the Gary neighborhood where he grew up and where it all started while getting his administrative employees in one building.
“When you look at what Bell Telephone did back in the day, right, they built their building right in the neighborhood, their forward- facing into the neighborhood. And I think it tells a good story of what … their standards were, and you know, how we operate and we love being built in the neighborhoods because, after all, you know, we are your neighborhood store,” Medved said.
As for the history of the building, Dennis Lamkin, a well-known historic preservationist in Duluth, said keeping these types of buildings alive for decades to come is all about adaptive reuse.
“Virtually every old Northwestern Bell building that’s in the city has been adaptively reused. This one became an apartment building 25 years ago, and now it’s going kind of back to what it originally was with, you know, an apartment upstairs and for people and office space in the building,” Lamkin said.
Lamkin also explained how the building was used back in the 1900s as a telephone exchange.
“This building had equipment on the main floor. That was the switching equipment for the area, and the operators who would be on the top floor. And they would be the old plug-and-play. You know, you’d call up Sarah and she would connect you to Dan and that sort of thing,” Lamkin said.
The building has an underground garage with six spaces with an additional lot in the back, according to Medved. He said his team of four will use those spots.
There is a public hearing on the purchase happening Tuesday, June 13, at 5 p.m. at City Hall involving the approval or denial of a special use permit.
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KornerStores, Inc. Eyes Historic Telephone Exchange Building In Gary - FOX 21 Online
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