According to this postcard, Duluth Motel sat in some mysterious forest, perhaps offering the only toilet available for miles and miles. In reality, “Northwest’s Most Luxurious Motel” was near Denfeld High School and surrounded by West Duluth homes and businesses. A lush, undeveloped hillside was indeed in the distance, though not very similar looking to the illustration on the postcard.

The card appears to have never been mailed, but it does have a rubber-stamped date of July 2, 1958. The motel was built about five years prior to that date.

The text reads:

Duluth Motel
44th and Grand Ave., Duluth Minnesota
On Highways 23 & 61. 21 units. All brick construction. Ceramic Tile Baths. Baseboard hot water heat. Thermostat heat control in each room. Floors Carpeted. Telephones and Television. Open year ’round. Phone MA 4-5791

The Duluth Motel postcard below, circa the 1960s or maybe early 1970s, shows Denfeld’s clock tower peeking up in the background.

And the final image shows the Duluth Motel on July 9, 2009, as preparations were underway for its demolition. Denfeld’s smokestack was removed that same summer.