Then and Now: Nopeming Sanatorium
The above aerial photo comparison shows changes spanning roughly 80 years at the 40-acre site of the Nopeming Sanatorium in Midway Township, just outside Duluth.
The sanatorium was built in 1912 to treat people with tuberculosis. It became a nursing home in the 1970s and closed in 2002. Since then it’s been mostly vacant, used occasionally as a haunted attraction until the Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s Residential Care and Lodging Team ordered the structures closed.
The 2025 aerial photo above was shot by Tomas Soderberg for Perfect Duluth Day.
The 1940s-era image is from a postcard mailed on May 31, 1947. The photo is credited as “A Russ Aerial View.” The card was sent to Mrs. Ray Stitt of Beloit, Wis. The message on the back reads:
Arrived 3-1/2 hrs late. Emma pretty good today but awfully thin. The weather is beautiful and warm today. Love, Stella.
The sanatorium presumably did well by Emma. She passed away in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 2007 at the age of 91. She was 31 years old when the postcard was sent and married to Norman Stitt. Based on another family member’s obituary, the postcard was sent by Stella Stitt, her sister-in-law, to Emma’s mother-in-law, Bertha Stitt.
From the tributes that accompany Emma’s obituary, she seems to have had quite the positive impact on the people who knew her. This might be best reflected by a care provider at her assisted living facility who wrote about an instance “when one of our residents wasn’t feeling well and Emma came into her room and played her harmonica and danced.”