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.
Northern News Now reports Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert is asking city councilors to rethink future plans for the Duluth Public Library.
Looking down Fifth Avenue West toward Duluth’s Spalding Hotel in 1889. University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A few weeks ago, David Beard wrote a post on the future of the plaza next to the Ordean Building, noting plans for it to be sold to a private developer in conjunction with a future housing project. I recently wrote a rather long post about Gunnar Birkerts, the architect of the Duluth Public Library, and because his firm also designed the plaza, I ended up with enough information about this project that I thought it might be worthy of a follow-up post on the history of the Fifth Avenue Mall, a name so forgotten that a 2015 Perfect Duluth Day post referencing the mall clarifies that the word ‘mall’ as used here is “not about a shopping mall, but instead something like the decorative median with trees that stands in the middle of the avenue today.”
Duluth Public Library in the November 1980 issue of Architectural Record.
Last month, an article appeared in the Duluth News Tribune about the decision to demolish the Duluth Public Library and replace it with something smaller in a shared building. The reasons provided for demolition instead of restoration mostly involve challenges to reprogramming and subdivision created by structural pillars, expensive building systems like insulation in serious need of replacement, and other issues related to years of deferred maintenance.
At one time for sale on Amazon, but now marked “currently unavailable,” is this photo labeled “Reading Room, Duluth Public Library, 1890-1930, Minnesota, MN, Chairs, People, Books.”
The Duluth Library Foundation has made a video history tour available as part of its virtual “Learning & Libations” event.
The video features authors Tom Peacock and Tony Dierckins telling stories of life at the western tip of Lake Superior before the city existed and how it came to be 150 years ago.
Gunnar Birkerts, a Latvian-born architect who extended the vocabulary of Modernism using unexpected angular forms, folding planes and ingenious, light-suffused interiors, died on Tuesday at his home in Needham, Mass. He was 92.
The Duluth Public Library is looking for local authors for Author Day on Nov. 21. In order to participate, an author must have published at least one book and have copies of the book(s) available for sale. (Self-publishing qualifies.) Preference is given to Minnesota authors or to authors with books set in northeastern Minnesota, especially Duluth.
The library will provide table space: each 2.5′ x 6′ table will be shared by two authors. Tables will be located throughout the library, in the nonfiction/reference area, in the fiction area, and in Youth Services. The transport and arrangement of book promotional materials, displays, books to sell and payment options are the responsibility of the author.
If you are interested in participating please fill out an application on the Duluth Public Library website. Please submit this application form by Nov. 13 in order to participate. Space is limited so tables will be assigned on a first-come basis. Once all tables are reserved, applications will be placed on a waiting list.
Fifty years ago — Aug. 26, 1965 — the DNT reports a Duluth woman was arraigned in municipal court on a charge of failure to return books to the library. It was the first time on record a Duluthian had been charged with the offense, a violation of city code.
Poking around the Duluth Public Library website and found this new Fine Forgiveness program. It’s a coupon worth up to 5 bucks off accrued fines. Get your library card out of hock!
Visit Duluth Public Library’s One Book, One Community page and cast your vote for a book to be selected for this reading program. My suggestion: Support, Linda Grover’s The Dance Boots. Grover is the only local author on the shortlist, and this award-winning set of stories is perfect for this honor. (You might also check out Grover’s hot-of-the-press novel The Road Back to Sweetgrass.)
