West Duluth Posts

Mysterious Masonic building seeks new owner

Apr 11, 2016 4 Comments
Real Estate agent Jim Aird in the balcony of the old Euclid Masonic Lodge in West Duluth. Aird's grandfather was a member of the fraternity and had a room named after him in the building.

Real Estate agent Jim Aird in the balcony of the old Euclid Masonic Lodge in West Duluth. Aird’s grandfather was a member of the fraternity and had a room named after him in the building.

An historic and mysterious West Duluth building has stood abandoned for a decade after an ancient fraternal organization sold the property to a developer who died before initiating a renovation.

Euclid Lodge 198 erected the boxy, brick and largely windowless building at 611 N. Central Avenue in 1909, a period of great growth for the centuries-old, international fraternity of Masons. During its almost 100 years in operation, some of the most prominent West Duluth businessmen and civic leaders of the time participated in secretive ceremonies, jovial fellowship and benevolent works inside its walls.

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The Liquid Snowstorm of 2016

Mar 16, 2016 No Comments

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The Story of Iron and Steel

Mar 15, 2016 No Comments

Loading iron ore into steamer at a Duluth ore dock 1919 sepia photogravure

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History, Photos ,

Whole Foods Co-op – Denfeld set to open March 16

Mar 10, 2016 No Comments

Denfeld WFC

Duluth’s second Whole Foods Co-op store will open March 16 at 4426 Grand Ave., a few hundred feet from Denfeld High School on the site of the former Jefferson Lines bus station.

Those familiar with shopping at the co-op’s Hillside location at 610 E. Fourth St. can expect similar whole, organic, local and regional food offerings at the West Duluth store, plus an expanded deli area with hot and cold grab-and-go foods.

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Old Eighth Street Market building’s days are numbered

Feb 15, 2016 2 Comments

Eighth Street Market 2016

The former Eighth Street Market building at 5702 W. Eighth St. is slated for demolition.

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Updated concept plan for Lake Superior Zoo

Feb 11, 2016 2 Comments
Click the image to view a PDF of the full plan.

Click the image to view a PDF of the full plan.

The latest concept plan for improvements to Fairmount Park and the Lake Superior Zoo was presented by a consultant last night at the Duluth Parks Commission meeting. The concept envisions a renewed zoo in a roughly 10-acre footprint that includes ADA accessible pathways, renewed and repurposed exhibits damaged by the 2012 flood, enhanced visitor services, and converts a portion of the existing zoo into public park space. The plan is estimated at $15 million and has $2.7 million of half-and-half funding allotted to it.

Comments can be submitted to Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division until Feb. 15 to allow the consultants to analyze them for the upcoming Feb. 22 presentation and public hearing at 5:15 p.m. in the Duluth City Council Chambers, to be followed by a Parks Commission public hearing in room 303.


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Sunshine Café reopening after owner’s recovery from injury

Jan 27, 2016 2 Comments

Young-a and Steven Clement

Sunshine Café, a 30-year-old West Duluth restaurant known for its affordable, tasty breakfasts and cheery atmosphere, will reopen Thursday after a five-month hiatus.

Owners Young-a and Steven Clement closed their café at 5719 Grand Avenue in August when Steven fell two stories from a ladder while cleaning the gutters on his home. He was in intensive care for a month and has been recovering ever since. He fractured ribs and vertebrae, damaged the orbital bone in his eye and sustained a nasty head wound.

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Duluth ups its caffeination with opening of Grand World Coffee

Jan 14, 2016 No Comments

Grand World Coffee exterior

West Duluth welcomed another neighborhood coffee shop on Jan. 4. Grand World Coffee opened in the former Subway sandwich shop space at 4918 Grand Ave., next to Vision-Pro Optical.

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Fremont Spurm

Dec 19, 2015 No Comments

FremontSpurm


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Jade Fountain closed; Gannucci’s expansion planned

Nov 11, 2015 10 Comments

Gannucci's Italian Market and Jade Fountain

Within six months of acquiring the Jade Fountain, Bill Kalligher locked the big red doors to the iconic Chinese restaurant. He reached the decision in September, fed up with a dirty kitchen he says he’s still trying to clean, alleged poor product quality from food suppliers and a box filled with bounced checks from customers.

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Gannucci’s Italian Market on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

Nov 01, 2015 2 Comments

Guy Fieri buzzed through Duluth and Superior in July 2014 to shoot four segments for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. In this clip he visits Gannucci’s Italian Market in West Duluth. (A 30-second commercial precedes the segment.)


Restaurants, Videos , ,

Four recent changes in West Duluth

Aug 05, 2015 8 Comments

Kwik Trip construction Auto Stop slab Wild West Liquor Kosta's Gyros

Spirit Valley Days are underway in West Duluth. Here are a four observed changes in the neighborhood in recent days:

  • Construction for the new Kwik Trip on Raleigh Street and Grand Avenue has kicked into high gear. The building went up late last week, making a fall opening seem likely.
  • Around the same time the Kwik Trip went up, the former Auto Stop four blocks away was demolished. It had closed roughly five years ago. Materials for the Grand Avenue reconstruction are piled on part of the property at present.
  • Wild West Liquor at 318 N. Central Ave. closed its doors at the end of July. There is a for-sale sign in the window. All four West Duluth liquor stores that operated before Super One Liquor opened in 2010 are now gone. Liberty Liquor closed when Super One acquired its building. The former Spirit Bottle Shoppe closed in 2012 and became Shake It, a nutritional protein shake and juice bar. The old Sportsman’s Liquor at 3904 Grand Ave. is now the Law Office of Jessica L. Sterle.
  • Kosta’s Gyros abandoned its operation at the Minit Mart (formerly Little Store, still brandishing the Little Store name) on Central Avenue. Word has it there’s a new Kosta’s by Menards in Hermantown.

Also, the Duluth News Tribune reports that Community Action Duluth plans to build a greenhouse at the former Westminster Church location on Grand Avenue near Denfeld High School.


News and Current Affairs

Custom Cheetos Speedboat

Jul 29, 2015 4 Comments

cheetosboat

Is Custom Cab Co. in Duluth bringing their service to the lake with this tricked out Cheetos boat or is it secretly filled with an infinite amount of Cheetos?


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Postcards from the Arrowhead Bridge

Jul 26, 2015 5 Comments

New Arrowhead Bridge 1927b

Arrowhead Bridge in the 1940s

The Arrowhead Bridge connected West Duluth to Superior’s Billing’s Park neighborhood across the St. Louis River for 57 years. Built by the Arrowhead Bridge Co., it opened on March 15, 1927. The company charged a toll to cross the bridge until 1963, when Minnesota and Wisconsin state officials paid $200,000 to make it a toll-free public bridge.

The Arrowhead Bridge was dismantled in 1985 after the opening of the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge.

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Vote Chocolate Ants

Jun 27, 2015 4 Comments

Vote Chocolate Ants

Perhaps someone can explain.


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