History
Albert Heyroth gets electricity out of air in 1921
West Duluth was the scene of windmill experiments a century ago, according to a story in the Oct. 31, 1921 Duluth Herald. Albert Herman Heyroth was hard at work at 55th Avenue West and Raleigh Street attempting to generate electricity for home energy use. (more…)
Fatal plane crash near Moorhead, 1941
A random Duluth Herald front page from 80 years ago today, Oct. 30, 1941. (more…)
I-35 tunnel at Leif Erikson Park completed 29 years ago today
The History Channel website mentions Duluth today in its “This Day in History” feature, pointing out that Duluth Mayor Gary Doty cut the ribbon opening the 1,480-foot–long Leif Erickson Tunnel on Interstate 35 on Oct. 28, 1992. (more…)
Postcard from the Ladies’ Parlor at Duluth’s Hotel St. Louis
And now, a little something for the ladies. The St. Louis Hotel was Duluth’s premier lodging establishment in the 1880s. It stood where the Medical Arts Building is today. (more…)
Postcard from Dredging in the Duluth Harbor
Keeping Duluth’s shipping channels open requires occasional dredging. This undated postcard offers a look at the process in the early 20th century.
Last Chance Liquor and the Pawnbroker, 2011/2021
Here’s a look at a pair of East Fourth Street buildings — one soon to be demolished, another already lost to history. The photos on the left in the side-by-sides above are from Oct. 22, 2011. The ones on the right are from Oct. 22, 2021. (more…)
How a Superior librarian hired and fired Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright: How one low-income client tried, and failed, to work with the architect on a house.
“I wonder how many bathrooms Mr. Wright has cleaned,” she wrote.
slate.com
An article published this week in the online magazine Slate explores the letters exchanged circa 1940 between a Superior librarian, Edith Carlson, and the staff of Frank Lloyd Wright. She wanted the famed architect to design her modest home. It got as far as preliminary sketches and building instructions. (more…)
Time Capsule Needed
What’s the proper endgame for this shirt? In my practice, bleach spillage (as is the case here) would usually qualify this shirt for a move from my Saturday pile to the rag bin. But with this being such a noteworthy piece of early Perfect Duluth Day, and for that matter Duluth history, it seems like there should be a more proper retirement. (more…)
The Scandia Fisheries, Duluth, Minn.
A friend of mine from Seattle was eating at Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse in Renton, just south of “the Emerald City,” and sent the above photo to me. At first it seemed like a manufactured novelty sign because searches only returned other copies of the same sign. But then I found a Minnesota Historical Society listing for a paper crate label from the same company from around the 1950s, so it appears to have been a real business. (more…)
Mystery Photo: Ekstrom Wedding
Here they are, Berger and Hilda Ekstrom, in their wedding duds. We know their names thanks to the scribbling on the back of the photo. And we know from the cardboard frame that the photographer is Lars Linden, the fiery Swede who had a studio at 1619 W. Superior St. in Duluth. What’s the mystery? Well, everything else. What became of ol’ Berger and Hilda? (more…)
Reading Sinclair Lewis: Country, Critiques, City Satires
The Minnesota Historical Society produced this video dramatizing excerpts from two of novelist and social critic Sinclair Lewis’ breakthrough works — Babbitt and Main Street. Lewis, of course, went on to become a Duluthian and even kind of almost coined the phrase “perfect Duluth day.”
The program is created and hosted by Craig Johnson and features actors David Beukema, Anna Leverett, Damian Leverett and Melanie Wehrmacher. It was filmed on location in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sauk Centre.
Postcard from the Jorgensons on Minnesota Point
Remember the Pettersen gals photo on Point of Rocks? Well, they’ve turned up in another old Duluth pic, this time on the beach at Minnesota Point. (more…)
Sky-Diver and Cold Turkey
Geeks will help out in the comments, but it appears what we have here is a QSL card — a postcard mailed to confirm receipt of a ham or citizens-band radio transmission. The CM 76 presumably means it was a calling card of Duluth ham radio operator Charles F. Makowski circa 1976. (more…)
Duluth considers “trackless trolley” in 1921
One century ago the Duluth Street Railway Company — predecessor to the Duluth Transit Authority — was keeping a close eye on plans for adding trolley buses in Minneapolis. How long did it take for Duluth to get it’s first “trackless trolley”? Pretty much exactly ten more years.
According to Zenith City Online, Duluth’s first trolley buses ran on Oct. 4, 1931. The Duluth Herald reported about Duluth considering trolley buses in its Oct. 6, 1921 issue, one hundred years ago today. (more…)
Postcard from Up North, 2001
This postcard appears to have never been mailed, but it has the name of a recipient on the back and is dated Oct. 3, 2001 — 20 years ago today. The card was published by Erickson Post Cards & Souvenirs in Hermantown, and the photo is credited to Benjamin Fondrik. (more…)
Condor: Duluth band in the 1970s
Condor group photo shot before a gig at Press Bar in St Cloud.
One of Duluth’s more notable bands of the mid-to-late 1970s was an act called Condor. There was very little information online about the band in 2021, when this post originated as a crowdsourcing quest to change that. Photos have since been added, along with new information at the bottom of the post. (more…)
Postcard from the Incline Railway with View of Minnesota Point
This postcard was mailed from Superior on Sept. 27, 1906 — 115 years ago today — by W. F. McMannis. The recipient was Miss Mabelle Reed of West Dover, Ohio. The image depicts the Duluth Incline Railway, showing the view from the top of the Duluth harbor and waterfront district, and of course Minnesota Point. (more…)
Duluth’s Ten Most Endangered Properties in 2021
The Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway Dock #5 has not been used since 1985. The Duluth Preservation Alliance has listed it as an endangered property. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
A slowly disappearing neighborhood rich in Native American history, a large building once home to a radical labor college and an iconic, unused iron ore dock are included in a list of places historians fear may disappear from the Duluth landscape.
The Duluth Preservation Alliance released a Top 10 Most Endangered Places list during an event outside the soon-to-be demolished Esmond Building in Lincoln Park Saturday, Sept. 25. The list, regularly compiled by the group, is designed to raise preservation awareness and encourage the reuse of historic properties. (more…)
The Pettersen Gals at Point of Rocks
And the award for best Duluth photo of 1911 pretty much has to go to this postcard image of three gals on Point of Rocks looking out over the city. And someone was smart enought to write their names on the back. Nora, Emma and Inga Pettersen posed for this shot 110 years ago. (more…)
9/11, on the 20th Anniversary of ten days after the events
It’s a week or so since 9/11, and the special issues of magazines unsold in the checkout lane are being reported unsold, stripped of their covers and reported destroyed. The television guide on my Roku is no longer choked with 9/11 documentaries and “looks back.” In fact, I can barely tell it happened.
I remember how difficult it was to return to normal after 9/11 — how many days it took before the late night shows could broadcast, for example. It feels like we snapped back awful fast this time.
Well, I didn’t. Here’s my last post on 9/11 for Perfect Duluth Day, looking at some writings, some poetry, after 9/11, talking about what life is like after. (more…)
Postcard from the Central Motel in West Duluth
This postcard of the Central Motel was mailed Sept. 20, 1956 — 65 years ago today. The address, 24 N. Central Ave., is now greenspace across Main Street from Irving Park. The land is controlled by the idled Duluth paper mill, which was sold by Verso Corporation in May to ST Paper. (more…)
Postcard from the Coal Docks in 1911
This postcard was mailed Sept. 18, 1911 — 110 years ago today. For some reason it took more than a month to reach it’s destination. It bears a second postmark of Oct. 26; indicating it took 38 days to travel about 250 miles from Duluth to Miss Martha Moe in Wood Lake. (more…)
Postcard from the College of St. Scholastica, 1931
This postcard of the College of St. Scholastica was mailed Sept. 13, 1931 — 90 years ago today. Robert Strauss of Snyder, N.Y. was the recipient. The message on the back is from his parents, who write: “Hello Boy. On our way to Seattle.” (more…)
Attack on America
It’s Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, 10:30 a.m. I’m standing in my kitchen munching on an apple. Suddenly, a huge man who looks like the professional wrestler Razor Ramon comes thundering through the front door announcing that he is an employee of the Water and Gas Department and needs to read the meter.
Without asking for identification or taking any security precautions whatsoever, I show him to the basement stairway and resume chomping on my apple. Soon, my basement housemates greet Razor Ramon and he starts talking to them about how the country is at war.
“We’re at war, dude,” I hear him say. “Haven’t you turned on the TV or the radio yet?”
I turn on the television in the living room and see a huge cloud of smoke and debris where the World Trade Center once stood. The news anchor explains that two hijacked passenger jets smashed into the towers, causing them to collapse. (more…)
9/10
I’m still talking around 9/11 as I write this series of posts. I am worried that any effort I put into converting my experience into words will diminish that experience.
Perhaps that’s what I see most of all in the Congressional records one year after 9/11. Below are bits and pieces from a joint session of Congress, held in New York, on the one-year anniversary of 9/11, where most everyone, except maybe Paul Wellstone, talks around 9/11. (more…)