Lönnberg House and two smaller huts were built on Bird Island, South Georgia in January 1963 with funds granted by National Science Foundation (NSF) to Johns Hopkins University for albatross research. This was part of the United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP). The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) contributed the logistic support. The wooden building (9.9 m × 3.7 m) provided accommodation for four and was named after Einar Lönnberg of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, who, in 1909, had published the first monograph on the fauna of South Georgia. It was in harmony with its surroundings and much admired by those who lived and worked at Bird Island (Figs. 1, 2). Two seabird biologists and an entomologist wintered in 1963, and were joined at times by a sealing biologist of the Falkland Islands Government who was monitoring the burgeoning fur seal population (Tickell and others Reference Tickell, Pinder and Clagg1965).
Lönnberg House. Gable end view, the USARP crest is prominent above the name plate.
Lönnberg House. Side view.
When the base was closed and Bird Island evacuated in April 1964, USARP left all facilities to the Falkland Islands Government for the use of British and American scientists (Tickell Reference Tickell1964a, Reference Tickell1964b). The collapse of the South Georgia whaling and sealing industry in 1965 brought an end to the employment of sealing biologists and the monitoring of fur seals at Bird Island. For seven and a half years the base remained empty, from time to time visited by men, from BAS ships, who checked its condition and made essential repairs.
In 1969, the civil administration of South Georgia was withdrawn and the settlement at King Edward Point (KEP) was leased to BAS. Interest in fur seals and seabirds revived. In November 1971, three biologists were landed on Bird Island, backed up by a team of builders. Damage caused by weathering and fur seals was repaired and Lönnberg House made habitable. It was occupied for several months in each of three consecutive summer seasons. Although empty in 1974–1975, the potential of the island and its base for long-term research had been recognised. No one ever again wintered in Lönnberg House, but from 1975–1976 it was busy every summer. In ten seasons, some 25 scientists and their field assistants lived and worked there, far more than had ever been imagined in the early 1960s.
By 1982, BAS was committed to all-year occupation, for which new accommodation was built. Lönnberg House was retained, but converted into a dual-purpose powerhouse and food store. It had already been deprived of its USARP identity, now, clad overall in windowless grey metal, it lost its name. For another 22 years it remained useful, but anonymous, until an even larger station was needed. The construction workers who dismantled the building in February 2005, found nothing to inform them of USARP and no-one with fond memories of the hut would be happy with what followed. Forty-two years after it had been built, the frames and boards of Lönnberg House were shipped to the Falkland Islands where they were dumped among the garbage in Gemma's Gulch Landfill.
