Gary-New Duluth Posts

Mystery Photo: Boy behind the wheel circa 1924

The postcard photo above is dated 1924, making it 100 years old. It shows a boy driving a car with a sign on the grill that reads “Western Steel Products Company, New Duluth, Minn.” That doesn’t technically mean the photo was shot in the New Duluth neighborhood, however, so the primary mystery of the photo’s location perhaps hinges on whether the houses in the background match any present-day Duluth homes. The identity of the people in the car is the longshot mystery to solve.

Introducing Perfect Duluth Day Geoguessr Challenges

GeoGuessr is an online game that challenges people to locate specific places in the world based on the environmental cues of Streetview. The mechanics are rather simple — you move around a Streetview environment stripped of all its informational overlays looking for clues that indicate where you are. Once you think you know, you mark the spot of your original starting location on the inset map. The closer you are, the more points you get. A game consists of five locations.

The Slice: Far West Movie Fest

The Gary New Duluth Community Center and Recreation Area is offering outdoor movies on Friday nights during the summer.

In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.

What’s the deal with the stairway at Birchwood Park that leads down into a ravine?

On the edge of Birchwood Park, a small playground park at 222 W. Heard St. in the New Duluth neighborhood, is an old stairway down to a ravine that I’m guessing runs into Sargent Creek. The existence of this stairway is probably common knowledge in New Duluth, but it is kind of tucked away so that others visiting the park are unlikely to notice. And it raises the question of what used to be down there.

Mystery Photo #53: Commonwealth Avenue?

This old photo of someone’s hot rod seems to be from the early 1970s and the scene is very likely Commonwealth Avenue in Gary-New Duluth. But if this is showing Commonwealth Avenue, where specifically?

Trophy Café open on Commonwealth Avenue

Fox 21 News reports a new café has opened in the former Vietnamese Lotus Inn location at 1314 Commonwealth Ave. in Duluth’s Gary neighborhood. The Trophy Café is owned by Mont du Lac Resort and managed by Mike Ohara.

St. Louis County records show Matt Gregg is the owner of the building. He purchased it from Steven D. and Cuc T. Allen one year ago for $40,000. The Allens were proprietors of the Lotus Inn, which they operated from 2003 to 2013, and briefly reopened in 2015 under the name VN Coffeehouse.

Vietnamese Lotus Inn is back … as VN Coffeehouse

Steve and Cuc Allen 2015

On Feb. 2, 2013, the Vietnamese Lotus Inn planned to close its doors for good. A little over two years later, owners Steve and Cuc Allen have reopened with a new name, VN Coffeehouse.

Curiosity: Mysteries Near Boy Scout Landing

I have a curiosity about the history of our town and the surrounding area, and PDD has been a great source for finding answers and discovering new things. I hope someone can solve these mini mysteries, (at least they’re a mystery to me).

Out by Boy Scout Landing, there is this wedge-shaped foundation, (Search Google Maps for: 46.654688, -92.224903). It looks as if it was some sort of industry long since gone.

Vietnamese Lotus Inn closing

The Vietnamese Lotus Inn will close on Saturday, Feb. 2. It almost lasted 10 years, having opened at 1314 Commonwealth Ave. in the summer of 2003.

Challenge: Gary-New Duluth vs. East Hillside / Chester Park

The challenge is to list the Pros and Cons of living in either location. GO TEAM GO!

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