This house at 738 N. Central Ave. in West Duluth was ripped down yesterday to make way for the new Laura MacArthur Elementary School. I think the new school will be great, and I have no particular reason to be sentimental about this house or any of the others on the block, but there’s something that punches me in the gut when I watch a house get smashed to bits.

I have no clue who lived there, but I imagine all sorts of nice Norman Rockwell scenes playing out over several decades. For all I know, the place holds horrible memories for someone who was abused by alcoholic parents, but for some reason I imagine happy faces around a Christmas tree.

Here’s the view from Elinor Street, looking from Memorial Park across a portion of the property the new MacArthur will be on, with the old MacArthur in the background. This corner was the site of a pretty cool looking old church that had been converted into a home.

The only memories I have of that church/home is that I noticed several years ago while walking by when the basement lights were on that there was a nice pool room (not the swimming kind, the hitting little balls with a stick kind).

Also, that property had a Ness for Mayor sign up two years ago and someone, probably the property owner, altered it to read “Mess for Mayor.” (I like Don, but I still thought that was kind of funny.)

Anyway, to check out drawings for the new Laura MacArthur Elementary School, click here and wait for the PDF to slowly upload.

I’ll probably get more sentimental when the old school bites the dust, since I have a gazillion memories of my K-6 years at MacArthur. The southern wing of the building holds additional history as it was the Denfeld High School my grandfather attended before he dropped out like all the cool kids did in the early 1920s.