November 22, 1924: St. Luke’s nursing school moves into new building

On this day in Duluth in 1924, Duluth’s St. Luke’s School of Nursing School moved into a new facility, a five-story building constructed between Ninth and Tenth Avenues East on First Street. Construction on the building started November 1, 1922, the same day ground was broken on a new hospital building that was completed in January, 1925. The buildings were connected by a two-story wing. St. Luke’s Nursing School opened in April of 1889, only the second such institute in the state of Minnesota. Its first graduate was Minnie Gould, who completed the program in 1891. Over the years, it became a tradition for graduating students to parade along Tenth Avenue East and to “rip off” their training uniforms to symbolize their accomplishment. (They were, of course, fully clothed beneath the uniforms.) The three-year program was offered until 1986, when nursing license qualifications were changed to require a four-year college degree. When it closed, the school was the longest-running nursing school in the state’s history. A year after the program closed, St. Luke’s Hospital had the building demolished

The 1924 St. Luke’s School of Nursing. (Image: St. Luke’s Nurses Alumni Association Archives)