Old Duluth Photos on Shorpy - Perfect Duluth Day

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Old Duluth Photos on Shorpy

Tony Rogers Mar 06, 2013 26 Comments

While watching Lost Duluth 2 on WDSE-TV (great show!), I wanted to pass along some awesome old photos that have been scanned in very high resolution and submitted to the wonderful archive site shorpy.com. Anyone who likes looking at good historic photos of Duluth will love these large images. Most of these were taken in 1905 and were published by the Detroit Publishing Co. using glass negatives.

Below are the various individual links. Note that you can go to shorpy.com and enter “Duluth” in the search at the top right search box to find even more that are indexed there. When you open them, you can save them locally by right-clicking and “save image as.”

Please be copyright respectful and don’t use them without credit if you republish them elsewhere.

They are fascinating to look at in their full resolution.

Photos:

1905 Incline Railway

1905 Duluth Panorama

1907 Duluth – Incline Saloon

1909 Duluth – West Superior Street

Recommended Links:

History, Photos Detroit Publishing Company

26 Comments

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago

Shorpy has come up a few times before on PDD, but the photos are so awesome it bears repeating.

Previous posts:
More Vintage Photos of Duluth
Historic Lift Bridge featured on Shorpy

emmadogs

about 11 years ago

These are totally cool.  Thanks for posting the link.  Really, really neat.

emmadogs

about 11 years ago

...and I see that, even in the old days, as in the 1905 city panorama, people had issues with improper use of punctuation, e.g. "Wine Merchants PERIOD"  "First National Bank Building PERIOD" "Furniture and Carpets PERIOD".

Although nice catch with "Stationery and Printer-s-apostrophe (yes!correct!) Stock PERIOD (oh well)".

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago



These guys under the Duluth Beer sign make me wonder if I'll ever attain even one-tenth of their awesomeness.

emmadogs

about 11 years ago

I noticed those two right away!  I can't quite say what makes them so utterly awesome.  Is it the hat?  The stance?  The hankie?  The fact that they are standing outside of the Duluth Beer pub, which implies they can handle their drink without getting violently sick on the Incline?

I don't know.  But they are very, very awesome.  Perhaps if you wore a bowler hat and carried a hankie....

Tony D.

about 11 years ago

Thanks, for posting this, Tony--Shorpy is great! I can never print this kind of detail in a book. We are working on creating an image gallery for the Zenith City History archive at zenithcity.com and will be adding these Library of Congress pics there as well. 

Check out the Duluth 1905 Panorama, try to find the Temple Opera Block, Superior St. and Second Ave. East. You can still see behind it the ruins of the Temple Opera Houseâ€”ten years after it was burned! The pic was taken shortly before the ruins were converted to the "Temple Rink," a roller skating rink with seating for 700 and room for 500 skaters. Sara Bernhardt performed there, and it was demolished in 1910 by Guilford Hartley, who then built the Orpheum in its place.

Can you imagine a fire-ruined building left standing for years after it was condemned, and one so close to Second Avenue East and First Street...?

Emmadogs, if you want to scratch your head over misused punctuation, try reading some of Dr. Thomas Foster's early work in the Duluth Minnesotian. Here's an example:

[img]http://www.perfectduluthday.com/wp-content/uploads/comments/Hanson_1870-06-25_3_Minnesotian.jpg[/img]

emmadogs

about 11 years ago

Tony D, what part of that paragraph isn't terrific.  "Deadwood" writers clearly referred to the works of Dr. Foster when writing their show.


Our city fathers/mothers sure knew how to speak.  And dress.  And punctuate.

Kodiak

about 11 years ago

Kudos to you, Tony for posting.  I have seen all these before and could look at them a thousand times and never get bored.

I especially love the megawide panoramic from atop the Incline and referenced the harbor docks as a basis on which to argue for an authentically Duluth motif on which to design the redeveloped Bayfront.

I would love to jump into those scenes.  Duluth was a thriving, bustling city so full of life and vitality. Bring back the Incline!  

So regretful that the Spalding Hotel was razed.

Tony Rogers

about 11 years ago

I just love looking at the upper hillside, trying to locate reference points. There aren't many! On that panorama, notice where St. Scholastic is now. It is strange seeing that area so bare.

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago



It bothers me that there are so many imperfect beer halls these days, considering they had the ideal one all figured out a century ago.

jessige

about 11 years ago

What you can't see is the Perfectly Acceptable Beer Hall. next door.

mnbeerdrinker

about 11 years ago

Paul, there is one of those Duluth Beer signs on the wall at Grandma's in Canal Park.

I believe the picture in the center is a moose, so it was probably advertising Duluth Brewing and Malting's Moose brand of beer.

heysme

about 11 years ago

I am wasting way too much time at work looking at these photos! Thanks for sharing.

I have to ask - it could be that my head is foggy from a cold or my computer screen is not putting things in perspective but the pic of 1909 West Superior Street confuses me.



Is the photographer standing on the street looking up the avenue? I see the Lyceum and Spalding, both were located on the corner of Fifth Avenue West I believe. 

I don't think there is anywhere in the city of Duluth where you can look up a street and it boasts that view of a grand hill off in the distance.

TGIF - I can go home and look at these photos all weekend!

Tony Rogers

about 11 years ago

That is looking east down Superior Street. That big hill in the background is the hill up to 24th Avenue East on East Superior Street. It looks weird without the trees blocking the view.

Tony D.

about 11 years ago

Heysme:

You are mostly correct, just facing the wrong way! That pic taken from the middle of the west 500 block of Superior Street, facing east, Lyceum at left on "northeast" corner of W 5th & Sup.; Spalding at "southeast" corner.

The pyramidical tower cap seen in the background is the top of the Duluth National Bank, which eventually became the First American National Bank. It was demo'd in 1958. The property was a parking lot until the early 1970s when the Normandy Mallâ€”now the Holiday Center, was built.

Barrett Chase

about 11 years ago

Does anyone have any insight into how these photos were taken? Where was the photographer standing while taking the panorama, for example? Maybe on a crane?

Tony Rogers

about 11 years ago

He was on the roof of the old Marshall-Wells building, part of which still stands as the Waterfront Plaza next to the Irvin ship.

Tony D.

about 11 years ago

Tony R: That makes sense. So, if someone had the ambition, they'd just need to ask one of the Meierhoffs for roof access. I would love to compare a panoramic from today to that 1905 shot.

Tony Rogers

about 11 years ago

That would be a cool photo to do and compare! I think I may get on that!

emmadogs

about 11 years ago

Tony D, that's a great idea.

I am very ignorant, computer-wise.  But is there any way to do some sort of 'overlay', so that you can switch back and forth and see what is currently on site in 2013, vs what it used to look like.  I'm having trouble navigating what was vs what is in Canal PArk.

p.s. i had no idea the canal used to turn and delve into Canal Park.  Did it end at what is now Railroad Street?

Tony D.

about 11 years ago

E-dogs: I don't understand your question about the canal. It never turned in and headed to Railroad Street. My book Crossing the Canal has a fold-out map showing every building that stood on what we call "Canal Park" in 1905. (Canal Park is technically the grassy area on either side of the canal's piers, including the Corps. of Eng. Building and Marine Museum. Everything north of that and south of Michigan St. is considered the "Canal Park Business District.")



Click on the image to see it larger.

Tony D.

about 11 years ago

E-dog: maybe what you are referring to as the canal is the Minnesota Slip, where the Irvin is docked today?

emmadogs

about 11 years ago



Tony, sorry, you're right of course.  I was looking at the Canal Park shot from 1910, and got turned around a bit.  



That is the canal where the Irvin is docked, it just looked like it was where Canal Park Drive is now.  In addition to being very bad at computers, I am also very bad at reading maps, and apparently very bad at figuring out what was where, when!

Henry Brick

about 11 years ago

The panoramic Duluth photos are not from 1905 as claimed, they're from 1904. Any of you figured out why that's the case? Hint: Tony D presentation...

emmadogs

about 11 years ago

Hey, very neat photos added to my last post, thank you to who(m)ever did that! 

Oh no, Henry, now I have to be tortured by 'Where in Duluth 1904--05' too???

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago

I suppose this might be a clue ...

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