This undated postcard, published by the Elton H. Gujer Company, promotes the Loneyville Motel at 7717 Congdon Boulevard, a half mile northeast of Brighton Beach in Duluth. It’s the present-day location of North Shore Cottages.
As society pushes ahead with some small in-person events mixed in with the ongoing virtual stuff, the PDD Calendar continues to report on the happenings.
Once a month we reach out with a beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events on Perfect Duluth Day. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account, yo.
Duluth You & Me was published in 1993. Since then Duluth has added a fifth Sister City — Rania.
Minneapolis-based musician Brian Just released a song called “Duluth” on his 2005 album Every Tree and Every Stone.
This Victorian trade card promotes E. Rose’s Boot and Shoe Bazaar, a Duluth retailer of Burt’s Fine Shoes. Info on the store isn’t easy to come by, but a pair of newspaper ads found after this post was initially published indicate the store was open from 1882 to 1886.
Five months before COVID-19 was labeled a pandemic, on a Saturday night back when people gathered together in public places to goof off, I drove from Duluth to Superior to attend an event called “Soup ’n’ Slides” at a place called “The Barbershop.” It might be helpful for me to explain both of the quotation-marked things.
The principal purpose of the event was for a fellow named Nik Nerburn to artistically project a bunch of 35mm slides he had found onto two screens while musicians Alan Sparhawk and Allen Killian-Moore sat nearby, collaborating to provide a live soundtrack to the slideshow. Three pots of soup simmered in the next room for anyone seeking nourishment. Put those elements together and we have “Soup ’n’ Slides.”
The event was held in an old barbershop on Belknap Street that was being used as a music and arts venue at the time simply because no one had been using the space to cut hair for profit. One room had about 20 folding chairs in it, assembled facing the performers who were set up against the back wall. The next room was about the same size, but acted as sort of a lobby. A considerable collection of phonograph records surrounded the small huddles of soup eaters engaged in casual discussion, so that they might at any moment flip through the assortment of albums and change the subject of conversation to the 1983 film D.C. Cab after gazing at the sneering Mr. T on the original motion picture soundtrack cover. And that’s what “The Barbershop” was all about.
This undated postcard from the V. O. Hammon Publishing Company shows the Steamer Easton in the Duluth Harbor. The image can be roughly dated between 1905 and 1917.
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: An Art and Craft Show
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
The building that has been home to the Electric Fetus music and gift store since 1987 was once a theater. From 1903 to 1911 the Bijou Theatre operated at 12 E. Superior St. until it was renamed the Empress Theatre. It burned in 1915, but the structure survived and was converted to retail.
What better time could there be for sharing grand expensive visions than during a pandemic, when Duluth and virtually all municipalities are under tremendous financial duress?
Hey, ideas are just ideas, right?
A group of designers and unofficial community planners known as the Duluth Waterfront Collective has been working on a “what-if?” project called Highway 61 Revisited. The basic task is to redesign the I-35 corridor where it splits Downtown Duluth and the Canal Park Business District.
I found your mini-guitar smashed on the railroad tracks along the St. Louis River at Mud Lake. It had a Perfect Duluth Day sticker on it. Bent Paddle Brewing Company, Earth Rider Beer and the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra were also decorating your little green guitar, along with smiley faces, hearts and what appear to be a set of puckered lips.
Was this a triumphant smashing after a performance for the geese and red-winged blackbirds? Or was the destruction out of frustration or sadness? Did hooligans steal your guitar and leave you wondering until now what became of it?
As a fan of PDD, you are sure to see this post. Or do you just like free stickers?
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Wednesday Night Sailboat Races
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Buyck is about 100 miles north of Duluth. Presumably this 1940s-era photo depicts cabins at what is the modern-day fishing and hunting camp that bears the name Gold Mine Camp.
In addition to all the songs that reference Duluth, there is also a band based out of Norway that bore the name Duluth. An album titled The Aesthetics of Drowning was released in 2002.
It’s a nearly impossible challenge to put names on people in century-old cabinet card photos, but we occasionally try nonetheless. At least in most cases we know the photographer’s name, which can lead in all sorts of directions.
