Postcard from 18th Avenue East and London Road
This postcard was mailed 112 years ago today, Aug. 16, 1905. It depicts a scene looking east from roughly the spot where a Taco John’s sits today at 1810 London Road in Duluth’s Endion neighborhood.
This postcard was mailed 112 years ago today, Aug. 16, 1905. It depicts a scene looking east from roughly the spot where a Taco John’s sits today at 1810 London Road in Duluth’s Endion neighborhood.
This undated postcard published by Erickson Post Cards & Souvenirs shows the mighty Vista Queen inside the Duluth Harbor. The text on the back notes “the Vista Fleet can accommodate groups from 20 to 800 on an exiting two-hour tour of Lake Superior and the Duluth-Superior Harbor. Lunch, dinner and moonlight cruses available.”
As the summer winds to a close, we begin to reclaim that popular tourist destination: Canal Park. How well do you know the sculptures in Canal Park and Lake Place Park? Test your art smarts in this quiz (and look for more public art quizzes in the future)!
The next PDD quiz, reviewing August news, will be published on Aug. 27. E-mail question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Aug. 24.
This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Aug. 12, 1907. It shows Superior Street in Downtown Duluth looking east from about Sixth Avenue West.
When I moved to Duluth from San Francisco in July 2004, my fiancé Jeremy and I rented a first-floor apartment in a 100-year-old house on Third Street. The elegant flight of stairs inside our foyer was an egress for the upstairs apartment, so we had to keep the door between us unlocked. Jeremy didn’t seem worried; he had been living in Ely, where everyone leaves their keys in the ignition. Turned out our upstairs neighbors were a couple of women who rescued abandoned baby animals and nursed them with eye droppers. I stopped worrying about it, too.
From our back porch we grilled brats, drank Lake Superior Special Ale, and gazed at the brewing company’s namesake. I had never had a porch, a grill, or a view this pretty. As I looked across the blue water I felt my shoulders relax. I felt off the map, like a witness relocated: no one from my past life could find me here unless I wanted them to.
Then one morning in the window of Positively 3rd Street Bakery I saw someone from my past on a poster for the Bayfront Blues Festival: Koko Taylor. Now I was old enough to see her sing. The last time I was not, and that was a long time ago.
Any events happening in Duluth for the eclipse later this month? We have extended family who will be in town that day and are looking for a good viewing spot/party/whatever.
More from that odd board game:
1. One of the westerly townsites which later became part of Duluth had an Ojibwe name which meant “the rock from which the people sprang.” Name that townsite (and if you know whether this is accurate, let me know).
2. What nationality were the founders of the Hunter’s Park area of Duluth?
One hundred ten years ago today these gals posed on the shores of Lake Superior at Lester Park. On the left is Stella, age 17. On the right is “Miss Rhorback.” They worked at Duluth Daily Financial Record, according to notes on the back of the postcard, which was mailed to Miss Jessie Green of Excelsior, Minn.
The prime beach-going days are numbered, so if you’ve got a chance to go, you’d better go. This week in Selective Focus, we’re taking it easy, taking a look at life on #parkpoint.
What is… The Weird Thing? It can be seen bobbing up and down in the water just off Duluth’s Lakewalk, between Fitger’s and the Vietnam Memorial. Could it be… the 125-year-old ruins of Duluth’s first breakwater wall? Spoiler Alert:
Downtown Duluth’s 247-foot-tall Alworth Building has been the city’s tallest commercial high-rise since its construction in 1910. Standing at 16 stories above Michigan Street and 15 stories above its street address at 306 W. Superior St., the Alworth is also the tallest mid-block building in Minnesota. The nearby 11-story Maurices Headquarters, completed in 2016, is Duluth’s second-tallest commercial high-rise at 207 feet.
