Universal Laboratories Building

Built in 1937. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

From the record

“The Dassel History Center & Ergot Museum, is a museum in Dassel, Minnesota, United States. The museum was established in 2006 in the historic Universal Laboratories building which is listed on the National Register for its role in the production of ergot from the mid-1930s through the late 1960s.”
Wikipedia article Dassel History Center & Ergot Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Meeker County · listed in 1996 · category: Building · built in 1937.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 901 First St. N., Dassel, 55325
When was it listed? March 1996
Category. building
Township. Dassel township
When was it built? 1937
National Register reference number. 96000191 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Universal Laboratories Building: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Nussbaum Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Meeker County

Storms near this property

53 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dassel, the town this property stands in, in 53 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 36 hail, 15 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2011	Hail	Dassel	1 hurt, $500	In addition, a driver was injured when hail the size of a baseball hit his vehicle's windshield.
September 2005	Hail	Dassel	$800,000	Hail dented cars, along with roofs and siding of many houses. Some windows broken. Property damage total is for the Dassel area on 9-21-05.
July 2008	Tornado (EF0)	Dassel	$200,000	Damage survey team reported downed trees in Meeker County. The tornado continued into Wright County, where a roof was ripped off a home and some sheds were destroyed.
August 2023	Hail	Dassel	$100,000	A photo of hail next to a ruler measured 3.75 inches with the largest stone near Hwy 15. There was damage to the siding on the west side of the house.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	$100,000	Semitrailer blown off highway 12. Estimated windspeed.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	$25,000	A large shed was damaged, including a tree that blew down on a vehicle south of Dassel.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	$10,000	70 foot HAM radio tower toppled.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	$5,000	A few large trees and power lines were blown down in Dassel.
June 2025	Hail	Dassel	-	Multiple reports of quarter sized hail south of Dassel.
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	Delayed report, time estimated from radar. Tree down across road.
August 2023	Hail	Dassel	-	A picture of hail next to a ruler on social media showed hail slightly larger than 3 inches.
July 2023	Hail	Dassel	-	Golfball size hail was reported 2 miles north of Dassel via social media.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	A tree was blown across a road north of Dassel.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	A few trees were blown down near Dassel.
June 2007	Hail	Dassel	-	Small branches felled as well.
September 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	Trees toppled.
September 2005	Hail	Dassel	-	Dime sized hail was reported on the west side of Lake Jennie.
September 2005	Hail	Dassel	-	A law enforcement officer parked on 183rd Street reported that golf ball sized hail fell for 14 minutes.
September 2005	Hail	Dassel	-	Quarter sized hail was reported 1 mile north of Lamson.
May 2004	Hail	Dassel	-	The time was estimated.
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	Several six inch diameter branches down.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	Tree down.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	Eighty foot HAM radio tower downed. Few shingles off house. Large tree toppled. Trained observer watched downburst as it approached.
September 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	Hailed on and off for 30 minutes.
July 1997	Tornado (F0)	Dassel	-	Tree blown onto house. Barn damaged.
August 2025	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
March 2017	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	no account filed
May 2015	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
August 2013	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
August 2012	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
July 2011	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
July 2011	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
July 2011	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
September 2007	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
September 2005	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
August 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
September 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
September 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
September 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
September 2002	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	no account filed
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	no account filed
August 1997	Hail	Dassel	-	no account filed
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Dassel	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Meeker County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	District No. 48 School	2.7 miles	1997

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 96000191 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Meeker County	All 10 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.