HBH has the location correct. The proofs are piling up in my inbox. Here are a few clippings:

Nov. 29, 1910 | Duluth News Tribune



Dec. 2, 1910 | Duluth News Tribune



Dec. 11, 1910 | Duluth News Tribune



Dec. 7, 1910 | Duluth Herald



The text on the last one can't be read off the image, so here it is:

Pure Food Show is a great success
Duluth firms do themselves proud when it comes to arranging an artistic exhibition

The pure food show continues to attract large crowds to the show rooms at 222-224 West First street. The show is the best ever held here and every available foot of space is crowded with exhibits by Duluth grocers and wholesale houses. The products are all of the better class as those who have visited the booths and tasted, can truthfully testify.

The land department of the Duluth & Iron Range has an interesting exhibit showing what can be raised on St. Louis county land. The fruits on display by the Thomas Thompson company have attracted a great deal attention.

"The big fruit house" has taken a great interest in the present show.

At the booth of the Duluth Imperial Mill, hot biscuits made from Imperial flour are served the
spectator. They are good biscuits.

The Bell Coffee company serves delicious coffee at its counter. The Bell company is of Duluth,
Superior and Chicago with smaller branches located throughout the country.

The Rumford Baking Powder company has an interesting exhibit. The best feature of this brand is that it contains no alum, no tartaric acid.

The Bridgeman-Russell company has a dairy exhibition that has seldom been equaled at a show of this class. The company is featuring Primus brand outter.

The exhibits of the Boston Music company and the Twin Ports Transfer company are deserving
of mention.

Mother's Macaroni Company of Minneapolis has an interesting booth. Mother's brands are guaranteed to be a duium wheat product.

The Duluth-Edison Electric company shows how the problems of housekeeping can be made easy with electricity. The company shows electric toasters, flat irons, chafing dishes, coffee percolators, tea kettles and curling irons.

The country store is always interesting. New features are added from day to day. The store is located in the basement and should not be forgotten when the rounds of the booths are being made.

The John Wahl Candy company is allowing the public to taste Rex and Sparrow chocolates. John Wahl candy is best known as a Duluth-made product and the candy is good candy.

The Zenith Broom company which "does it for Duluth" by making brooms here, has an exhibit of this very necessary household tool.

J. B. Dye is showing the Kost gas-jet heater. It is a contrivance by which rooms may be heated. The heater is simply attached to a common gas jet and any room, it is claimed, can be heated in a few minutes.

R. R. Forward and company are represented at the show.

The lectures on cooking each afternoon by Mrs. A. Willis are very interesting and many Duluth women are taking advantage of the opportunity to learn more about how to cook.

"Mapleine" contains no maple sugar but the syrup can hardly be distinguished from the real article so well is it imitated. In the fruit line the Knudson Fruit company and the Fitzsimmons-Palmer company have interesting exhibits. These companies are wide-awake
and progressive, as is shown at their display booths.

The Wright-Clarkson Mercantile company is on the Job with a fine display of pure food products. This firm has been established in the wholesale grocery line for many years and has an enviable reputation. Shredded wheat is manufactured in a small
way at the booth operated by this company. It is a very interesting process and many linger at
this point.

The Rust-Parker-Martin company, Duluth's new wholesale grocery house, is represented. This firm is as progressive as it is young and the fact that it lost no time in getting space for an exhibition shows that it is out after the business and in the right way. They are showing what they have in an attractively furnished booth.

Mrs. B. Stofer operates a pretty booth for the Singer Sewing Machine company. The bird's eye maple machine with the lock and automatic stitch is of much interest to the women.

J. H. Boylan is in charge of the Jello booth. Jello is a delicious food and dainty samples are prepared and offered to those who visit the show.

Coleman's Cone & Candy factory at Forty-seventh avenue east and Superior street, is another pure food industry that has made rapid strides in the past year. The development of this industry has been country wide and the Coleman factory, which has doubled its capacity. Is now the largest of its kind in the United States. The Coleman Eat-a-wheat cone is an absolutely pure food product, crisp, delicious and digestible. It is acknowledged by pure food experts to be free from any of deleterious substances that have been found in the product of other factories. Among the confectioneries put out by the factory a specialty that is making a great hit at the present time is the Coleman milk chocolate with toasted almonds, a five-cent bar of deliciousness that always tastes like more. Every jobbing house at the Head of the Lakes is now handling Colemen's goods.

Much of the popularity of the show has been due to the efforts of George D. Peterson, secretary of the Duluth Retail association. D. A. Kelly designed and trimmed the booths and for his work has has received many compliments. J. E. Roos, chairman of the Duluth Retail Grocers' association, and J. W. Cummings, president, have also worked hard for the success of the show.
M. R. Bush and John Gulmore have also aided materially in pushing the exhibition and making it a splendid success.

William H. Brust had charge of the electrical installation through the building, which contract was awarded to the Northern Electric company.

According to property details on the St. Louis County website, the current building at 222 W. First St. was built in 1946. 

So the building that hosted the Pure Food Show is no more. The remaining mystery: What happened to the old building at 222-224 and what was its deal?

Don't worry. A drink of Horsford's acid phosphate will relieve any distressed feeling which might follow.

Tony Dierckins of Zenith City Online provided this postcard image of the Gowan-Lenning-Brown building circa 1915.

Tony provides this additional insight: "The building at far right (now Rustic Olive) was built in 1909 as the Buckeye Building for National biscuit, but in 1915 architect Frederick German worked it into his Gowan-Lenning-Brown building by tying them together with the low addition in between."