This undated postcard, circa 1903 to 1913, shows a tugboat next to the Steamer R. L. Ireland, which the caption indicates is “going to winter quarters, Duluth, Minn.” The Great Lakes bulk freighter was built and launched in 1903. According to the website Great Lakes Vessel History, it was twice renamed — Sirius in 1913 and Ontadoc in 1926 — and sold for scrap in 1970.
A small feature in the Jan. 10, 1925 Duluth Herald mentions the opening of the “new” Salvation Army at 118 N. Third Ave. W. The building still stands, now serving as an annex to Hostel du Nord.
Carl Holmstrom had the longest ski-jump at Chester Park during the opening event of the 1925 season, held on Jan. 4, 100 years ago today. The newspaper clip above is from the previous day’s edition of the Duluth Herald. Below is the report of the race from the Jan. 5 Herald.
Duluthian Feodor von Luerzer presumably painted this image 125 years ago; an auction listing on invaluable.com notes it is “signed and dated 1900.” The listing, however, renders the name as “Frederick von Luerzer” and lists the artist’s year of death as 1917. Feodor von Luerzer died in 1913. The landscape painter lived in Duluth from 1889 to 1909.
For more on Von Luerzer visit the zenithcity.com archive on archive.org.
As we reach the end of another year of rawk and/or roll, Perfect Duluth Day once again looks back at the posters that pimped the gigs.
Sherwood Terrace operated as a seasonal restaurant during the middle of the 20th century. Arthur and Ada Neeb were the proprietors. The location was either “on London Road” or “near Knife River,” depending on which old newspaper article is referenced.
For the fourth year in a row, Jim Richardson has dominated the top of the charts. He has authored four of the five most read Saturday Essays of 2024.
In celebration of the nasty habits of smoking and advertising, collected here are various Duluth-branded ashtrays representing a variety of establishments.
Perfect Duluth Day could not continue to be Duluth’s Duluthiest website without the support of its readers, donors and advertisers. So as another year comes to a close, we again say thanks for the love!
This undated postcard, published by Gallagher’s Studio, shows the Good Shephard Church and School at 5901 Raleigh St. in West Duluth. The building was completed in 1959 and the first mass was celebrated on Christmas Eve, 65 years ago.
This undated postcard, published by Kreiman’s Lyceum News & Bookstore, shows a portion of Duluth’s waterfront warehouse district at some point in the first half of the 20th century. The large building with “Fireproof Storage” on the side in large letters is the Northern Cold Storage & Warehouse Company.
The advertisement above is from a 1920 issue of Hardware World magazine. Apparently hardware stores were tucking a lot of merchandise into boxes and drawers back then instead of displaying as much of it as possible, so the Duluth Show Case Company emerged as an innovator in retail-store cabinet manufacturing.
This postcard was mailed Dec. 2, 1914 — 110 years ago today. It shows Duluth’s Carnegie Library at 101 W. Second St. Constructed in 1902, it was Duluth’s main library until 1980. The building has since served as an office building.
From Wikipedia: “An ice spike is an ice formation, often in the shape of an inverted icicle, that projects upwards from the surface of a body of frozen water. Ice spikes created by natural processes on the surface of small bodies of frozen water have been reported for many decades, although their occurrence is quite rare. … Natural ice spikes can grow into shapes other than a classic spike shape, and have been variously reported as ice candles, ice towers or ice vases as there is no standard nomenclature for these other forms.”
This Duluth Panaroma is from the Cliff’s Barber Shop Collection. It was likely shot in 1962, but might be from ’63 or ’64. At center is the Aerial Lift Bridge in the up position.
