With a year of construction listed as 1896, this had to be one of the oldest buildings in the area even though it was remodeled in 1953. It was first owned by E. A. Trask and Mrs. Helen Trask in 1904.
FOR RENT—Furnished room. 601 Irving avenue. (Nov 26, 1909)
Edmund J. Gould and his wife Angelina lived here for a few years from 1910-1914. He was a confectioner and clerk of the City Water Board. The home held many adult family members: Arthur N. Gould sold cigars, tobacco and Indian curios. Beatrice Gould was an employee of Miss Wallsmith (a milliner). Charles T. was a clerk for his father, the confectioner. Dana Gould was a clerk for G. A. Hanson, who sold drugs, stationery and ice cream. Edmund P. Gould was a mail clerk at the post office.
House was purchased by Albert J. Phelps of the Phelps Insurance and Real Estate Agency sometime before 1920. His wife was Augusta C. Phelps. They had children George, Louis, Viola, Lawrence, Edith, and an adopted daughter Pearl. A son Lawrence, clerk of A. J. Doran, boarded with them. He married Vivian Heberg in 1919. Mr. Phelps died in May 1934.
Other residents were:
Sidney J. Strong (1934-35)
Charles Widen (1937-38)
Henry Carlson, Alvin Clark (1939-40)
Roy Sether (1941-1942) His father Andrew lived there also. Andrew Sether died after falling down the stairs of the Vickers Café. Likely cause of death was a heart attack in 1941.
The next owners were Karl and Cora Fugli. They owned it by 1946. Mrs. Fugli moved to Bemidji while her husband worked in Alaska. After her husband’s death in 1952, she remained in Bemidji where she was a landlady, renting out rooms in her house to make ends meet. She lived here until her death in 1998. The neighborhood all knew her and her son Norman “Bob” Fugli, who was a butcher at Luekens and in Nymore. Bob gave many of us rides in his car to the high school on cold winter mornings. There was no school bus from our area and it was about a mile to walk, or we had to catch the city bus on Beltrami Avenue. He was also an avid curler at the nearby curling club. The house was removed to make way for Northland Apartments.