Duluth Family Sauna remains a vital haven for generations of workers

Duluth Family Sauna, at 18 N. 1st Ave. E. in downtown Duluth, is one of the few places in the Upper Midwest where a customer can still pay for a steam bath built around the old communal tradition. The business, which dates to the 1920s and once served Swedish and Finnish immigrant workers, remains open as Minneapolis revisits whether adult bathhouses should be allowed and regulated instead of banned.

The building was bought in 1969 by Herb Jensen, who is widely credited with saving it from demolition when the former Duluth Steam Baths was failing. Jensen kept it in family hands for decades, and after his death on Jan. 4, 2013, the business stayed with the Jensen family. Denise Jensen is now identified as the owner, and she has cast the sauna as a place where patrons are safe and welcome. “It’s none of my business what goes on behind closed doors, unless somebody is yelling, ‘Help,’” she said in a recent profile.

Inside, the operation is split between private rooms on the main level, each with its own small steam room and adjacent resting and dressing cabin, and a men-only communal basement area known as the Bullpen. The sauna lists hours of noon to 10 p.m., daily, and says it is cash-only. It also posts a phone number, 218-726-1388, and an email address, duluthsauna@gmail.com.

The customer base is not limited to one generation or one neighborhood. Reporting on the business describes a cross-section that runs from college-aged patrons to seniors, with many stopping in for relaxation and spa use. In a city where many similar bathhouses disappeared decades ago, the Duluth sauna still fills a role that cannot be replaced by a standard gym, hotel spa or city program: it offers an enduring place for bathing, privacy and communal steam under one roof.

That is why the sauna has become part of a larger policy debate. During the AIDS crisis, cities including San Francisco and Minneapolis shut down or banned bathhouses in the 1980s, and Minneapolis’ 1988 ordinance effectively ended in-city bathhouses there. Now Minneapolis is considering whether to write rules that would allow and regulate adult bathhouses, with staff research noting that only a small number of U.S. cities, including Duluth, allow them under general business rules.

Public-health research has long shown that regulated bathhouses can be used for HIV and STI prevention outreach, including condom distribution and testing. Duluth Family Sauna’s survival shows what can remain when a city leaves room for that model, and what disappears when it does not.