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North House Folk School recently purchased land adjacent their headquarters. The property will allow the school to grow in the future. Photo courtesy of North House
Just over a week ago, North House Folks School confirmed that they have purchased a piece of property immediately adjacent to their campus. For two years they worked with Bruce Leng to make the purchase a reality. Greg Wright, North House’s Executive Director noted “Bruce’s leadership and collaboration was tremendously valuable. He understood right away why the parcel was of interest and wanted to help North House move forward. His leadership selling us the property at below market value really helped open the door.
“It’s important to note that this is just one of several projects North House has been moving forward that connect both to North House’s future and the future of our neighborhood and community,” Wright reported. “During the past year we sold a slice of property to the Angry Trout Restaurant so they can expand and become a year round business, we collaboratively built a shared service driveway with Angry Trout so they could use the space in front of their restaurant to build a fully accessible walkway down to their front door, we accommodated the City and MNDOT’s need to close the gravel driveway by the Yellow House as part of improving safety along Hwy 61 and rather than worrying about ‘losing a driveway’ we used it as an opportunity to increase public accessibility onto campus by building timbered stairs.”
North House closed on the property in late September. The parcel is located immediately to the west of North House’s Green building (and to the east of Birch Terrace) along 6th Ave. West and stretches from highway 61 up the hill for almost a full block, and totals approximately 1.1 acres. The closing price was $275,000.
When asked about the purchase Wright said “If you had asked me five years ago whether North House was looking for another piece of property I would have chuckled and smiled but underscored that we simply feel lucky to have a home on the Grand Marais harbor. Over the years we have made some important steps forward, securing our Green Building in 2016 and then Dockside in 2018. But our master planning efforts the past couple of years have highlighted the need for flexibility as we look to the future. So, when Bruce Leng put the property on the market we noticed right away. Selling a slice to Angry Trout helped fund the project, and the project would have been impossible without the generosity of five key individual donors who immediately stepped forward.”
At this point North House has no specific plans for how to use the new parcel, but they noted that there are key needs they want to figure out how best to address. Examples included student parking near campus, storage space for resources like drying firewood and extra timbers, and on campus living space for guest instructors who arrive on campus.
Wright confirmed that North House invested significant energy focused on due diligence prior to the purchase of the property, including reviewing maps and other info shared by the Cook County Historical Society highlighting community history and the possible presence of Indian Burial Sites in the neighborhood
“We took this important part of our community’s history very seriously and immediately reached out to the Grand Portage Band to make sure we understood if and how to move forward,” Wright said. “We want to publicly thank Chairman Deschampe for his willingness to engage, his wisdom and his honesty. Similarly, we want to thank the Grand Portage Tribal Council for their wisdom and honesty. We are honored by their endorsement of our efforts and decision to move forward with the purchase. Our goal is to be transparent in this process as we work with Grand Portage and the community and believe that doing this right can strengthen our community. While we have already completed numerous tasks as part of our due diligence – we’ve consulted with the Minnesota State Archaeologist and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, the State Archaeologist was on site twice to do testing and look for potential artifacts (an effort that we coordinated with Grand Portage), and we did a complete inventory of the property’s title and history since it was platted And, this work and our conversations with Grand Portage are still underway. North House is committed to working in a spirit of cooperation, trust and respect.”
Wright also acknowledged that like many other organizations in the world (for example universities, community colleges and churches) North House as a 501-c-3 educational nonprofit is tax exempt because of its educational mission and focus on community, a designation defined by the federal government. Wright noted “this designation is based on the key idea that these kinds of institutions bring many things of value to their home communities that reach far beyond simply paying property tax. For North House this means many things – free school programs for every 3rd, 4th and 5th grade student in Cook County, an automatic 25 percent tuition discount for all Cook County residents who participate in our coursework, year-round free public programs at our special events and thematic weekends that are entirely free, a week-long timber frame immersion for Cook County High School students that again is entirely free, a program that has also been part of building numerous structures that are now part of our community like the rec park bridge, Tofte park picnic shelter, and new outdoor timber frame at ISD 166, and growing after school and summer camp opportunities for youth that all offer an option for scholarship funding simply by checking a box. But it’s also important to note that North House does indeed pay property taxes. The exemption only applies to the property we own and use to power our educational efforts. So, North House pays property taxes and is proud to do so for the space on campus we lease to several key community businesses who we are also lucky to call neighbors – North Shore Title, Fisherman’s Daughter and North Superior Fisheries.”
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