In 1912, the large white house at 1001 Beltrami Avenue was the home of Charles and Lela Vandersluis, owners of the Bemidji Hardware. It next belonged to Thomas J. Burke, the president of Northern Grocery. On May 12, 1922, about fifteen friends of Mrs. Helen Burke surprised her at her home. The guests enjoyed “social conversation” and a birthday lunch was served by the guests, who also presented her with a beautiful fern as a birthday token. Mr. Burke was about 20 years older than his wife Helen. By 1930, she was widowed but she continued to live in the home with her three children, Margaret, Thomas J. Burke, Jr., and Helen into the 1930s.
This property was purchased for a nurses’ home in the summer of 1947 and occupied in August of that year. This was a large house that gave a more homelike atmosphere for nurses when off duty. Miss Pearl Engen, Supt. of the Bemidji Lutheran hospital announced on Aug 15, 1947 that ten cadet nurses had moved into the new nurses’ home at 1001 Beltrami Ave. and that other nurses would take up residence there at a later date. Mrs. Harriet was the housekeeper.
In 1959 this home was sold and a three story brick home was purchased just three doors south of the hospital, facing the lake known as Warfield Hall.
Arthur and Dorothy McLaughlin lived there in 1967. He worked for the telephone company. Nancy McLaughlin was a Nurse’s Aide at the hospital.
The house belonged to Theodore “Ted” Thorson in 1974 and 1980s. He was one of the college music people who instituted the Summer Music Camp held at Bemidji State College.