The 1984 Duluth City Directory (Photo by Matthew James)

As 2024 comes to a close, this post takes a look at Duluth 40 years ago using the 1984 Polk Directory of Duluth as an example for examining the history and use of city directories. This post includes ads from the directory for five businesses that have since left Duluth and five that still remain. It then concludes with two Geogeussr challenges featuring the historical locations of these ten businesses.

In 1872, the R.L. Polk company published a directory of all the residents of Evansville, Indiana. By the 1960s, it was publishing 1,000 different directories, including listings for Duluth, Minnesota. A Polk Directory is a bit different from standard Yellow Pages (which might require its own explanation for younger readers). Polk Directories contain considerably more information than common “phone books,” organized differently, and their popularity pre-dates the widespread use of the telephone.

Explanations of what the directory contains and how it can be used

Independent local historian Gina Temple-Rhodes owns a number of city directories and shared some interesting notes from her collection. The front page of the 1959 directory included a quote from R.L. Polk himself: “The directory is the common intermediary between buyer and seller.” This reflects the role of the directory as a tool for business owners to find new clients, verify customer information, and connect with other businesses. In the 1984 directory, one section consists entirely of phone numbers arranged in numerical order as a sort of paper-based caller ID, allowing users of the directory to find someone’s name when they only have their phone number. The street directory allowed, among other things, for location-based marketing, giving not only the names of everyone on a street, but their occupation as well. The directories not only facilitated connections within cities, but between them as well. The 1959 directory lists a library at the Duluth Chamber of Commerce where business owners could consult directories from across the country.

These directories were useful resources to businesses before the development of the internet. In the present day, they are valuable tools for anyone doing historical of genealogical research, as they provide a detailed snapshot of the city in a moment in time. They list not only businesses names and addresses, but residents and their occupations. The Minnesota Digital Library has complete directories available online for 1882 and 1922. Ancestry.com has a number of digital copies available with a subscription fee. Physical copies of the directories can be found at the Duluth Public Library.

While the directories contain a wealth of information, this post limits itself to the businesses advertising within the directory as the ad copy makes for a more interesting post than lists of phone numbers. The first Geoguessr challenge features ads for five businesses that have closed since 1984 (while also recognizing that “closed” is a bit of a nebulous term as businesses can change names, owners, locations and functions over time). The second challenge features Duluth businesses still around 40 years later. I thought finding five examples from the ads would be quite easy, but most of the ads in the directory are for family businesses that seem to have closed down when the owner retired. Even for the five featured, several have either changed locations or closed some of the listed locations. All the rounds feature the location from 1984 as stated in the ad and the rounds are in the same order that the ads are presented. Because the addresses are given in the ads, these are no move challenges.

PDD Geoguessr #32 Part A: Closed businesses from the 1984 Directory

Round 1: Neon Parrot

Round 2: Mr. Pete’s

Round 3: Franklin Foods

Round 4: Tubby Checker

Round 5: Mary Lou’s Boutique (“A little bit of Oreck’s has moved up the avenue”)

PDD Geoguessr #32 Part B: 1984 businesses still in operation

Round 1: St. Germain’s – First in Glass and Paints

Round 2: Perkins

Round 3: Radisson Hotel Duluth

Round 4: Duluth News Tribune (& Herald)

Round 5: Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra

How to Play Geoguessr

GeoGuessr can be played on a laptop or desktop and on Android or IoS mobile devices with the GeoGuessr app. Just click on the link that fits how you play. You can create an account to keep track of your scores and see how you compare to other players or just click on the link above to play as a guest without having to create an account or log in.

Every game consists of five locations based on a theme chosen by the game creator. You are shown a Streetview image stripped of all the informational labels that are normally overlayed onto the image. Unless the challenge specifically restricts it, you can move around and look for clues like street signs and business names to find out where you are. The image below shows a basic overview of the Geoguessr screen layout and controls.

Once you think you know the location — or are nearly out of time — you use the inset map to place your marker where you believe the round started. After you hit “Guess,” you will see how close you were to the correct location and how many points your guess earned. The closer you are to the location, the higher your score, with a maximum score of 5,000 points. On a map that covers a small area, like the Gary-New Duluth neighborhood, being off by a few blocks will cost you a lot of points. On a map that has locations from around the world, you will get nearly all the points just for finding the right city. The maximum error for a perfect score also changes by map size, but in general if you are within 50 feet (15 meters) you will always get the full 5,000 points.

Not often, but every now and then, GeoGuessr gets a little buggy. If the underlying Streetview imagery has changed since the game was made, sometimes it repeats the last round, gives a black screen, or doesn’t allow a guess to be made. If that happens, please let me know and I’ll update the challenge.

At the end of the five rounds, an overview screen shows your score for each round in addition to your guessing time and how far off you were from the correct location. The correct locations and your guesses are also shown on a map and you can click on any of the round numbers to review the locations. Additionally, the final screen in a challenge will show how you rank compared to the top scorers of the challenge. When choosing your user name, keep in mind that your user name and score per round will be visible to other players of the challenge.

If you have feedback on this challenge or ideas for future challenges, please share them in the comments below.