The state fish hatchery at 6008 London Road, near the mouth of Lester River in Duluth, was constructed in 1888 and operated until 1946. The photo above, from Detroit Publishing Company, is dated by the Library of Congress as “between 1900 and 1910.”

The building was sold to the University of Minnesota in 1947, the same year Duluth State Teachers College became the University of Minnesota Duluth. UMD used the fish hatchery as a freshwater research facility. It was also used by the Lake Superior Center Authority in the years leading up to construction of the Great Lakes Aquarium, which opened in 2000.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 under the name U. S. Fisheries Station – Duluth, MN, and received an award from the Duluth Preservation Alliance in 2013 for restoration work.

More about the fish hatchery can be found on zenithcity.com.