Courtesy the Luikarts
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
The sprawling home of Beth and Jon Luikart accommodates large family gatherings.
The long dwelling sprawls across the yard and a row of windows offers magnificent views of Lake Superior. Inside, the open common space, tailored for gatherings, serves guests drawn to Minnesota’s North Shore.
This describes the mid-1900s at the old Sullivan’s Lodge, on the lakeshore adjacent to the Sucker River about 10 miles outside of Duluth. Yet it also describes the tasteful modern house that Beth and Jon Luikart built where the lodge once stood. Past or present, the property creates a getaway haven for visitors – paying guests of the past and family and friends today.
Beth and Jon have long ties to the North Shore. Introduced to the area by their parents as children, they shared a love of the shore when they married and honeymooned on Isle Royale. Jon’s career as a top executive in the food industry moved them around the country, but they always made it back to camp with their children and visit favorite spots. In 2004, while Jon was CEO and president of Primera Foods in Cameron, Wisconsin, they got serious about finding a place by the Big Lake.
Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
Beth and Jon Luikart.
When Sullivan’s Lodge showed up on Jon’s online search, he knew exactly where it was. They’d visited on a college trip with friends, smelting on the Sucker River. They followed up immediately, arriving before the “For Sale” sign went up. Owner Gerry Compton showed them around. By the end of the weekend, it was theirs.
The river sold them. The 10-acre lot has 500 feet of frontage on Lake Superior, plus 500 feet on Sucker River. “What I love best is the river,” Jon says. “It’s always warm, and kids can swim there.” They closed in time to enjoy summer in the lodge.
“The old lodge was a really neat place,” Beth says. They spent happy weekends and two summer vacations with hopes of restoring the lodge. But time had taken its toll. The support beams were rotting, and the basement was constantly wet. An inspection by a trusted builder confirmed its tenuous state. Even with this grim reality, the quaint appeal of the lodge lingered. Beth was reluctant to replace it.
Ultimately, she agreed to give up the lodge, but not its fireplace. The large granite hearth at the end of the lodge’s common room had the year 1938 etched in its lintel. Beth insisted it had to be saved. Jon consented, and they began plans for their new home.
Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
As plans moved forward, the Luikarts researched the history of their property. They found few written details, but began to collect stories from neighbors and past owners.
They learned that the unusual fireplace dates back to Dan Mahoney, believed to have built the lodge, this stone fireplace and several others. The bachelor lived at Duluth’s Kitchi Gammi Club, and the lodge became his summer retreat. He also built the granite pillars that flank the driveway where it meets Scenic Highway 61. A granite inset on one pillar reads “THIRD AVE WEST” … the address of the American Exchange National Bank where he worked. Whenever he said he was “going to Third Avenue West,” his friends were never sure if he went to work or to his retreat.
Other longtime community members remember Dan’s old lodge. “Mahoney was very generous with letting people use his facilities,” recalls neighbor Alvera Pierson. “We had Sunday school programs there when we were kids.”
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Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
A snappy angling of the home allows a Lake view from the entry.
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Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
The home also has a Lake view from all of the great room living-dining space.
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Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
The lodge’s old sign hangs in the side room used for grandkids play and TV watching.
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Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
A floor plan shows how the home takes advantage of Lake views.
School groups, 4-H clubs and civic groups used it. In 1944, Helen Hendrickson attended her senior prom for Clover Valley High School there. “This was during the war. We did not wear formals, and there was nothing frivolous. We had a potluck dinner and used a record player and records.” Even so, she has fond memories of that night. “It was a one-of-a-kind place out there.”
Surprisingly, little is known about when it was operated as Sullivan’s Lodge. In an age when resorts were plentiful on the North Shore, it was one of many family establishments. Frank and Ann Sullivan rented lodge rooms and cabins in the ’50s and ’60s. Frank, a railroad man, spotted the property while working the passenger line between Duluth and Two Harbors. Running the lodge fell to Ann, who served breakfast to all their guests. The same families frequented year after year, as did trout stream fishermen. In 1969, Gerry and Barb Compton acquired it and moved there.
Confident that they could preserve portions of this history, Beth and Jon moved on with their plans. They developed a list of essential elements for their house, and Jon became the chief designer.
“Jon was really good with the software and design tools,” Beth says. “I just told him what I wanted.”
In creating a design, they first determined their goals for the house.
Views of the Lake topped the list. “We like water. We’ve always tried to live on water,” says Beth. “We wanted as many windows on the Lake side as possible.”
Another requirement for her was a view from the foyer. “I wanted to be able to look out on the Lake right from the front door, to have a window opposite the door.”
This desire ultimately drove their home’s unique spaces. They accomplished the foyer view with a 135-degree angle in the design. The great room parallels the shore, but the master bedroom and front door entry are oriented to the east, also affording Lake views beyond the big pine trees. Soaring windows, 54 inches square, line those east-facing walls.
Just like the former lodge owners, the Luikarts considered guests in their home plans. “We built it with visitors in mind,” says Jon. “We wanted to build it so that when people come here it’s like a retreat for them. We want them to relax and unwind here.”
This fit their own lifestyle, Beth adds. “We did not want anything formal. We are not formal people, and it didn’t suit the land.”
Before completing the design, an accident influenced them. When Beth broke her ankle, they realized such mobility challenges might be part of getting older. They decided to make the whole house accessible, on a single level with wide doorways and halls.
The fireplace played its role in the ultimate design, becoming part of a covered patio. “We knew the fireplace would never be energy efficient, so we wanted to put it outside,” Beth says.
The Luikarts knew that the odd angles and desired three-foot roof overhang would be tricky. Plans in hand, they visited Northern Trends Building and Design, where Loren Slette and Dan Merritt put them at ease. “We felt right away that they could do it.”
Northern Trends generated blueprints from the Luikarts’ design and oversaw the construction, which started at the end of September 2005. While the contractors removed the old lodge, Jon kept his promise to Beth and took charge of the old fireplace. “I cleaned each of the huge pieces of granite, and numbered them so it could be reconstructed.”
As the house took shape, Northern Trends suggested it be part of the spring Parade of Homes. “Mostly we liked the idea because we wanted the house done for the summer,” Beth recalls.
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Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
Jon, Beth and Bailey hang out by the fireplace once inside Sullivan’s Lodge.
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Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
Beth, a librarian who retired from the Spooner Area School District this year, is also a skilled quilter and examples of her work grace tables, walls and beds.
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Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
An old card catalog becomes a “wine cellar.”
The Luikarts quickly acclimated to their new home. Jon’s job took them to Illinois for six years, where Beth, a school librarian, also found work, but they spent as much time as possible on the shore. True to the spirit of the old lodge, they soon filled their dwelling with guests.
Family eager to visit easily fill the spacious 3,000 square feet and four bedrooms. With three children and seven grandchildren (infant to 6), the Luikarts are thrilled that the house comfortably accommodates all. At top count, they hosted 31 family members for four days to celebrate the 90th birthday of Jon’s mother.
“We played yard games and had tournaments out on the lawn,” Jon recalls, “and everyone loved to swim in the waterfalls on the Sucker River.”
The large great room has become the heart of their home. With its expansive windows and cozy furniture, it’s a favorite sitting area. Generous use of wood trim lends a warm feeling. The 9-foot-high ceiling features pine tongue-and-groove paneling with a clear finish, running at an angle across the room. The baseboards, 6 inches wide, keep with the grand scale of the room. The Luikarts wanted a dark slate floor to absorb the sun’s heat and to minimize the fuss of clean-up. Beth’s quilting projects lend a homey touch, color and interest to the décor.
The kitchen is part of the great room, where family and guests gather. Rustic alder cabinets, chosen for the knotty wood, line the outside walls.
A large island forms the boundary of the triangular-shaped kitchen and creates a popular sitting area. Wanting a granite top native to the area, the Luikarts picked out “Lake Superior Green” granite, quarried near Isabella, through Stonecrafter’s in St. Cloud.
The inside edge of the island mirrors the contours of the corner cabinets and hides Beth’s “queen chair,” where she can sit and visit with guests while cooking. “It also has the best view,” she boasts.
Nestled adjacent to the great room is the family room. The oddly shaped space usefully hosts the TV, where it won’t bother those in the great room. On the long wall opposite the door hangs the enormous original wooden sign for Sullivan’s Lodge that once graced Highway 61. Jon found it behind the garage, overgrown with grass. He cleaned it and gave it a prime wall spot. Beside the sign, old room keys from the lodge are framed with the Sullivan’s card and lodge brochure.
Other lodge items are tucked throughout the house, like the great room wall sconces, rewired for the new house. Each bedroom closet sports a row of door knobs from the lodge – pegs on which to hang clothes.
Beth also painstakingly removed and cleaned the original cobblestones leading to the lodge’s front door to reuse for their entry walk.
Jack Rendulich
Lodge Logic: Turning an Old Commercial Property into a Dream Retirement Home
Sconces from the original Sullivan’s Lodge add warm glow to the living space.
Outside, a towering 50-foot flagpole and a tall swing in an enormous frame, carefully restored by the Luikarts, date to Mahoney’s day. At the water’s edge, the last remaining cabin serves as home to what the Luikarts call their “environmental learning center” for the grandchildren, filled with bits of nature and other treasures they’ve collected on visits.
The biggest historical tribute came a couple years after the house was finished. The Luikarts found Eric Moshier of Solid Rock Masonry to reconstruct the fireplace onto their covered side patio, the design of which echoes state park pavilions.
“It is the feeling of having protection, under a shelter – under the shade, but outside,” Beth says.
Specializing in historical restoration, including on national landmarks, Eric was well versed in the right techniques. “I’m used to building things exactly as they were before,” Eric says. “They must be very precise in order to get historical credit for it.”
When he arrived, the numbered granite stones were on pallets. Without access to heavy equipment, he moved all the pieces, weighing a few hundred pounds each, by hand with three other men, rolling the stones across boards onto pipes for lifting. “Masons have been moving big stones for thousands of years,” Eric says simply.
It took about eight days to rebuild the fireplace. “The challenge was getting it back together with the right dimensions while adding a new fire box and smoke chamber to make it more efficient,” Eric says. The six-foot long lintel stone, a larger than usual horizontal piece, had to be split in the back to fit the new smoke chamber.
The fireplace dominates the edge of the covered patio. “The kids like to make a fire in the fireplace,” says Beth. “They sit out there even in the winter.” The patio gets frequent use for grilling and eating and just sitting for the fabulous view of the Lake.
Both retired, Jon and Beth have moved permanently to the shore. Jon is gardening and enjoying other activities along the shore. Beth has more time for quilting.
“We never think of going away in the winter,” Jon says. “There are so many things to do here.”
And, of course, there are always visitors to attend in their private welcoming lodge.
Duluth writer Molly Brewer Hoeg also enjoys warm days swimming in the Sucker River.