Oliver Boarding House

Jessie Street, Marble

            Before 1930, nearly every Iron Range community had a number of boarding houses, which were essential to meeting the housing needs of the flood of miners who came during the Range boom of 1901-25. The Oliver Boarding House, owned by Oliver Mining and operated by a lessee, is the only known Oliver house remaining on the Western Mesabi Iron Range.

It was built in about 1909 when Marble was known as “Tent City” because of the mushrooming of miners’ housing. It is a two-story, gable-roofed frame structure on a stone foundation. The interior retains the original design: First floor with kitchen, sitting room and large dining room; and with sleeping rooms upstairs.

It ceased to be a boarding house in the 1920s and is used today as a private residence.