This postcard, mailed 110 years ago today — Dec. 29, 1908 — depicts what was then the relatively new Sellwood Building at 202 W. Superior St. in Downtown Duluth. The Sellwood still stands today, with Western Bank as its most visible tenant.
Zenity City Online has a detailed history of the building and it’s namesake. Here’s a teaser:
You have to look up to the 8th floor to see what’s left of its orange sandstone trim, once the defining feature of the building’s Michigan and Superior Street levels. But while renovations have rendered the building’s exterior somewhat unremarkable when compared to its original glory, the story of the man who built it remains a remarkable rags-to-riches tale of the man newspapers eulogized as the “most able mining man in the Lake Superior district, if not in the United States.”
