Clyde Park Historical Timeline

Clyde01

The Clyde Iron Works restaurant and event center at Clyde Park is now open at 29th Ave. W. & Michigan St. in Duluth’s Friendly West End. Here’s a little Clyde historical timeline.

Clyde Iron Works in Canal Park

1898 | Clyde Iron Co. (founded in 1889) moves its operations from South Lake Avenue to 29th Ave. W. & Michigan St.

1901 | Northwestern Manufacturing buys the company for $1; name changes to Clyde Iron Works. The company is restructured and sold several times in following years.

1902 | First McGiffert Log Loader sold, revolutionizing the log-handling industry by mechanizing it. Over the next three-quarters of a century, Clyde’s hoists, derricks and Whirley cranes are used in some of America’s most famous construction projects, including San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, New York’s Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall and United Nations Headquarters, Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle, and the tallest building in Texas, the Republic Bank.

1940s | Clyde’s entire facilities and its 400 workers produce Whirley cranes, cargo hoists, anchor windlasses, capstans, pile drivers, hoists and derricks for the government during World War II.

1961 | Clyde builds what is believed to be the world’s largest portable hoist, used by American Bridge Co. in building the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York’s harbor.

1986 | Clyde Iron’s Duluth operation closes and moves to St. Paul, merging with the marine division of American Hoist & Derrick to become AmClyde.

1987 | Milton M. Siegel Co. acquires the Clyde Iron property. Duluthian Jerry Siegel begins marketing it as Clyde Industrial Park.

1988 | Eight former Clyde Iron employees form the Duluth Engineering & Manufacturing Co. after striking a deal to make replacement parts for AmClyde’s custom-built cranes. DEMCO buys Clyde’s idled equipment, leases its facilities, and employs some former staff.

1996 | State of Minnesota takes over the property. The Ziegler Family Trust, based in Encino, Calif., would later acquire it. The trust retains Siegel to manage the property.

2000 | DEMCO closes, putting 39 Duluth employees out of work. Siegel purchases the DEMCO equipment, acquires the company records, and forms Iron Clyde (reversing the original name), hiring many of the former Clyde Iron/DEMCO employees. The company serves as a build-to-print contract metal fabricator and machine shop.

2001 | A skateboard park briefly occupies part of the Clyde property.

2003 | Iron Clyde closes. The 10.5-acre Lincoln Park site is purchased by Duluthian Alessandro Giuliani. The structures contain a combined 184,000 square feet of space.

2004 | Giuliani and his wife Dawn purchase the former Duluth Malting & Brewing Co. building adjacent to the Clyde properties, bringing Clyde Park’s total indoor square footage to 200,000. Later in the year, an ice resurfacing machine explodes at nearby Peterson Arena, causing a fire that would destroy western Duluth’s only indoor hockey facility.

2005 | The Duluth Heritage Sports Committee forms with intentions of rebuilding Peterson Arena, which would be located next to a planned $26-million Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center. The committee later decides there will not be enough space for the hockey arena and the Kroc Center, and chooses to build at Clyde Park instead.

2007 | Salvation Army announces it will not build a Kroc Center in Duluth. Construction begins on Heritage Sports Center.

2008 | $15.6 million Heritage Sports Center opens.

2009 | Athletic Republic, a sports training facility, opens. The Duluth Children’s Museum purchases the Duluth Malting & Brewing Co. building from the Giulianis.

2010 | Clyde Iron Works restaurant and event center opens.

ClydeRestaurant

30 Comments

Bret

about 14 years ago

Can't wait to try a wood fired pizza and a pint of ale!

c-freak

about 14 years ago

I went there Saturday for a wedding reception. Really cool. I hope they can make it work.

Ian

about 14 years ago

Was really impressed with the burger and liked the bar layout up top.

blt2lst

about 14 years ago

Does anybody know if the brewery/brewpub portion of the business was scrapped?

Steve Waller

about 14 years ago

Alessandro is a renaissance man - taking a brownfield site and not only restoring it, but transcending history and industry by handing it over to the Duluth people for its next hundred years of service. Alex's vision will be a touchstone to a new paradigm for Lincoln Park.

He's also a purist when it comes to the experience, authenticity of ingredients and presentation. The journey he's taking the West End on is just beginning.

Jude

about 14 years ago

Sounds like a great place to check out.

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago

In response to blt2lst, and anyone else curious about the brewpub aspect to this:

Plans to brew beer on site have not been scrapped, but they are indeed not brewing beer there yet.

According to Alex Giuliani, the brewing equipment has been ordered but hasn't arrived yet. 

So it might be a little while, considering that it'll take a few weeks to churn out some beer once the system is in place.

P.S.

about 14 years ago

Gushing about a guy who had a lien placed on him for not paying the workers and then borrowed half a million DEDA bucks to get by places the bar pretty low for a renaissance man.

That poorly designed ice arena is up to 19 million. He donated that space so the state, city and school district could scrape together the money for hockey so then he could open his pizza and burger joint.

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago

You're entitled to your opinion as much as the gushers, P.S., but to call the ice arena "poorly designed" is kind of a stretch. I've heard people argue it's more elaborate than it should be. The place is beautiful.

And Giuliani had plans to develop that site well before Peterson Arena burned down and a replacement was needed. Sure, he'll benefit from having the hockey crowds around his development, but he donated a considerable amount of land for the sports complex and has been hard at work on this for over five years.

Resol

about 14 years ago

Yes he's an innovative dreamer; let's hope he's successful for the sake of the West End and so he can follow through on his interesting plans to redevelop the LaFarge Cement Terminal.

I wish I would have had a chance to skate the Clyde skatepark.  From what I've heard, it sounded like a small group rippers had some massive ramps. Anyone w/ pictures or stories to share?

TimK

about 14 years ago

P.S.- it is so obvious that there isn't enough hate in the world. Why weren't you complaining about any of the Link projects? Come on! We need to do a lot more blog-bitchin' if we are going to see any progress in the community!

adam

about 14 years ago

LaFarge Cement Terminal: is that next to Bayfront?

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago

Yes, Adam. I'm not sure if skateboarders have to GTFO of there or not.

Northland's NewsCenter:
Major changes could come to Duluth's bayfront

P.S.

about 14 years ago

Beautiful does not make for a good arena. No goal judge boxes, hard to find lavoratories for the young skaters, increasing assessments, donated artificial turf not available for other sports, tight corners, bad sight lines for spectators, ice not too good, no use of newer green technology for the cooling system.

Of course the Link high end condo extravaganza was excessive. Also a decade late. 

But really the fact this business man needed more money and couldn't pay workers must be stated, not glossed over. 

Put up some good industry, like a wind turbine plant, for the working poor and middle class in town to make some decent money. That would be progress.  Attract something for Duluthians to make money rather than spend money.

P.S.

about 14 years ago

Hatred? No need to be so defensive when someone disagrees with your assessment. But remember this was the guy that said something to the effect that while he wasn't making big money with the Heritage he had to keep his family in the style to which they are accustomed.

He also boasted that he did the restaurant all by himself. 1/2 mil DEDA bucks says that ain't so. Plus if he were a renaissance man he would have given some credit to all the hard working parents that raised money, bought bricks, furnished the HS locker rooms to make the arena happen so that his restaurant could happen.

TimK

about 14 years ago

I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment, but the tone and tenor of the argument is starting to get a little "News-Tribuney," if I might be allowed the invention of a new word.

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago

I don't know if "News Tribuney" or "hatred" are fair, but there seems to be some hostility that P.S. is dealing with.

I can't comment on "said something to the effect" remarks and accusations of boasting and so on, and I certainly am not attempting to be Mr. Giuliani's PDD public relations officer, but I will say this:

No one is trying to hide that DEDA loaned Giuliani $500,000 and that Kraus Anderson Construction put a $779,000 lien against his property. Those are not secrets everyone is carefully trying to not talk about here. The guy has a multi-million dollar project in the works in the midst of a recession, and it's no surprise that he might be extending himself thin by getting into another development on the bayfront. 

Whether Giuliani is a "renaissance man" or whatever are matters of opinion, but these comments by P.S. seem malicious to me.

P.S.

about 14 years ago

Malacious is quite an overstatement but perhaps if information is not convenient then it may seem so. Perhaps by trying to insert some caution to the swooning that goes on in this city every time someone plops up a restaurant struck a wrong chord.

Some just don't get excited about it. Don't see it as progress. Will save the pom-poms for real industry, small business that create jobs with livable wages.

TimK the exasperation with nothing new, same old same old is where tone came from. But do like the News-Tribuney.

Duluth can do better. Find something cutting edge, innovative.

TimK

about 14 years ago

Like Google fiber?

adam

about 14 years ago

And fuck publicly subsidized sports.

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago

Adam, your sentiment is perhaps better targeted at Viking stadium proposals than youth sports programs, but you may apply it as you wish.

It should be noted that the vast majority of Heritage Sports Center funding has come from private donations. But yeah, $1.6 million came from the city of Duluth and $1.2 million came from the school district. Feel free to bitch.

adam

about 14 years ago

$60 (or $80 or whatever) million from the state for a bigger hockey rink at the DECC, but not the $16 million needed to prevent poop from flowing into the Lake would be a good target. Nice priorities.

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago

I think the state kicked in $36 million and the city bonded for $40 million for the DECC expansion. The city bond is being paid back with a 0.75 percent increase to the restaurant and bar sales tax. So, yeah, it's coming out of your beer money. But it's not just for a hockey rink -- other events happen at the DECC and a parking ramp is also part of the expansion. And the tax was approved by 61 percent of voters.

But this is a little off the, "hey, a restaurant opened" topic.

P.S.

about 14 years ago

The state also kicked in clean-up money at Heritage site.

The three high school hockey teams shared the DECC facilities for years. And even with their infamous Red Plan underway cutting down to two school teams they gave money to build the arena as well as expensive ice time payments.  But hey, with them threatening a 4-day school week maybe they can practice more.

The city who can't keep open libraries or repair a collapsed roof at a park pavilion gave money. Gotta add in the Holiday Station they bought out when Kroc was on the table. Grants were received for the Heritage.

But those other private donors were fed stats from a 1999 UMD study about hockey in the area. After the thing was done then the DNT published the well-known fact that hockey participation was down, like 33%. Fewer games are being played. Fewer skaters to support and sustain it.

All the kids need is a decent place to play hockey, not a Taj Mahal.

TimK

about 14 years ago

Had supper with one of the kids Friday night. Pretty tasty, if uninspired fare. He had a hamburger and I had a porketta. Excellent homemade bread. The interior is huge- of course, it used to be an iron works!

bluenewt

about 14 years ago

Checked out the new restaurant this evening. It is a cool space, airy and sunny. The only bummer is lots of TVs in the sit-down restaurant/bar section upstairs. But none in the downstairs.  

The food we had was pretty darn good. A terrific and very large salad for $6.50, and a good but not great pizza. The crust was very good, the sauce was uninspired, and the olives were those rubbery things you get in a can.

I hope they'll add a veggie hoagie to the menu. Currently all of the sandwiches have meat.

Sonya

about 14 years ago

Actually, P.S., the city has recently extended library hours:

Duluth to extend library hours

"In a statement, the city said it was able to extend the hours after offering the City Council a balanced budget overcoming a $2.4 million budget deficit caused by a cut to local government aid from the state."

Paul Lundgren

about 13 years ago

Below is a little insight into the early days of Clyde Iron, when it was located in Canal Park.

From Pen and Sunlight Sketches of Duluth, Superior and Ashland, Phoenix Publishing Co., 1892:



THE CLYDE IRON COMPANY The increase of the manufacturing interest in Duluth is a feature most salutary and one that portends a continued interest in the upbuilding of our most substantial interests. The leading concern engaged in the machine, foundry and ship chandlery business is the well known Clyde Iron Co. of this city. The business was founded about ten years ago, the company being organized by Sniveley & Craig and Cash & Williams on Oct. 15, 1889, since which time the business has increased ten-fold. It is regularly incorporated under the state laws, with ample capital, and has as its officers gentlemen who are well known as practical business men of activity and ability. The president is Chas. P. Craig, a native of Pennsylvania and vice president of the National Bank of Commerce. The vice president, M. H. Wardwell, is a native of Maine and was formerly treasurer of the Street Railway Co. of Bangor, Me. Mr. A. G. Brown has been connected with the firm for over five years and has lately been made the secretary and treasurer. The superintendent, R. A. Webster, has been a prominent lake engineer for many years and is well known and largely esteemed by all with whom he has done business. He is a member of the National Marine Beneficial Association, also the Duluth Civil and Mechanical Engineer's Club. The works are located at numbers 302, 304, 306 and 308 Lake Avenue South. The equipment is the most perfect of any similar concern in this district. Every appliance known to the business is had, so that the finest work is produced, including marine and stationary engines, mining machines, propeller wheels, columns, structural and architectural iron, blacksmith shops, machine shops, foundry, pattern shops, etc. The Clyde Iron Company also carry on a large business as jobbers and retailers of engineers' supplies and ship chandlery, in which line they carry a large stock.

Jim

about 13 years ago

Earnest congrats to Mr. Giuliani. A great facility that offers an option other than Canal Park. A new hotel going in, good music venue, good food, nice ice rink for the skaters, a boys and girls club. Very nice indeed. It's tough to put some polish on an old shoe, but it appears to be looking pretty good. I'd say visionary, with some pretty brassy balls to get it done. What will it take for the Burrito Union slipper bums to support it? Maybe the speed train could stop there, so the metro hockey teams could save a few bucks when they come up to play.

zra

about 13 years ago

LOL ... Slipper Bums. I take it Jim means trustafarians.

I haven't had a chance to make it over to Clyde, but it'll happen when finances and a sitter coincide ... especially if there's music involved.

Secret Service could take a few hints from these guys.

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