Wild West Liquor Mural, 1996

wild-west-liquor

This photo is dated Dec. 5, 1996. It’s a shot of the exterior mural on the parking lot side of the former Wild West Liquor, 318 N. Central Ave. in West Duluth.

At the time it was probably a fairly new mural; the liquor store changed its name from West Duluth Liquor to Wild West Liquor at some point in the mid 1990s. I don’t remember when the mural was painted over, but I’d guess the side of the building has been plain white for at least ten years. The liquor store closed in 2015.

The building is being remodeled to open as Zenith Bookstore in summer 2017.

1 Comment

mnqueenb

about 5 years ago

I have lived in Duluth my whole life, most of which has been on the west side of town. I remember being a little girl and living in the Applewood Apartments right behind the liquor store...and for as long as I can remember, there was always something painted on the side of the liquor store. I lived in that apartment complex in the 80's, then after less than 10 years, we moved back to West Duluth, and there was still a painting on the building. Now mind you, I cannot remember if they were the same paintings or if they were different...the reason I remember it so well is because I could not understand why there was a cartoon painted on the wall of a liquor store.  As an adult, old enough to buy alcohol, before that store closed, I remember pulling up to it and thinking to myself how odd it was to go into the same liquor store that had the mural painted outside of it that I loved to look at growing up.  So I am curious about who did the painting and how long the "tradition" was around for.

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