Postcard from Superior Street at 15th Avenue West

Paul Lundgren Apr 24, 2024 7 Comments

This undated postcard, published by Odin Ebbesen, shows Superior Street in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood long before the neighborhood was called Lincoln Park. The church at right is, presumably, the Second Presbyterian Church of Duluth, according to text in an appendix of surveyed properties in the city of Duluth’s Historic Resources Inventory for the Lincoln Park Neighborhood.

A modern-day photo of the location, below, shows Duluth Gospel Tabernacle in that location today. The aforementioned historic resources inventory notes that the current church building was designed by the local firm Giliuson & Ellingsen and was built by H.E. Farnam Company. “The church was constructed for the Pentecostal Assembly of God congregation, which was established in Duluth in 1916; its alternative name was the Pentecostal Assembly Duluth Gospel Tabernacle,” the inventory notes, adding that the church first appears in city directories in 1921 with the address 1515 W. Superior St.

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7 Comments

Ghist1

about 8 months ago 

News Tribune, July 6, 1920

The Second Presbyterian Church building at 1515 W. Superior St., the oldest church in Duluth, was sold this weekend to the Pentecostal Mission. A new church will be built by the congregation on Second Street between 26th and 27th avenues west for about $75,000.

From Bygones in the DNT by David Ouse in 2020.

Ghist1

about 8 months ago 

So here's a mystery ... what happened to the Second Presbyterian congregation? Was the new church ever built? Why was it called the oldest church in 1920, but now we say the First Presbyterian Church is Duluth's oldest congregation? 

There is a large building on Second Street between 26th and 27th avenues west, but the tax records list it as being a house built in 1935. The Google Earth image is blurred out. Hmmmmm.
 

Ghist1

about 8 months ago 

Above article is from Feb. 1, 1919 Duluth Herald, before the church property was sold.

Paul Lundgren

about 8 months ago 



The structure on Second Street does kind of look like it could have been an old church. But it also looks like it could have been a school or any number of other things.

The original First Presbyterian Church was built in 1870 and was replaced in 1891. So when they tore the original First Presbyterian down it must have bumped Second Presbyterian to the status of having the oldest church building while First Presbyterian still had the oldest church congregation.

Matthew James

about 8 months ago 

A DNT Bygones from March 26, 2022 describes the opening of the new building:


News Tribune, March 26, 1922

This morning, the congregation of Duluth's Second Presbyterian Church will hold its first service in the basement of the new church building, 2623 W. Second St. Second Presbyterian traces its origin to the First Presbyterian Church of Oneota, organized on May 1, 1858.

I don't know when it left, but according to the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map in the Library of Congress Archives, Second Presbyterian was still there in July of 1950.
 

Gina Temple-Rhodes

about 8 months ago 

The 1892 Polk City DIrectory lists 1869 as the year of establishment for First Presbyterian and 1873 for Second Presbyterian. There were also other Presbyterian congregations in various parts of the city in those years.

Paul Lundgren

about 8 months ago 

So here's the foundation for an Abbott & Costello routine about how Duluth's Second Presbyterian Church was its first Presbyterian church:

Duluth's first church formed in 1858, but it was in a part of Duluth that wasn't in Duluth back then. First Presbyterian Church of Oneota held its services in Oneota School, a one-room building at 42nd Avenue West in the Village of Oneota, which is now part of West Duluth.

In 1873 the church moved to 15th Avenue West and became Rice’s Point Presbyterian Church. The name was later changed to Second Presbyterian Church. It was second because First Presbyterian Church had already been established, and though Second Presbyterian was technically first, it wasn't really in Duluth at the time.  

The bell from Oneota School's tower was moved to the new Rice’s Point Presbyterian. The original Oneota school/church was replaced in 1888 with a brick building at 4420 W. First St. that, in addition to being the school, also served as the Oneota Village Council Chambers before the village became part of Duluth. Oneota School closed in 1946 and the building was demolished in 1973.

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