Duluth’s Christmas of 1889 was finer than ever

This Christmas card from Duluth jeweler Andrew Jackson promotes a special holiday sale 130 years ago, featuring “greatly reduced prices.”

Whatever building Jackson was in was replaced in 1900 with the four-story building that stands there today bearing the address 117 W. Superior St. It was built to house the Huntington and Tallant store, which quickly transformed into Hendren and Tallant Company, then Gray and Tallant Company, then George A. Gray Company.

Gray and Tallant Department Store workers Clarence C. Bartholomew and Bessie Crasweller are behind the counter at the left in this photo from a Christmas shopping season circa 1903. Image via the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Kathryn A. Martin Library.

From 1936 to 1987 the building was the location of Wahl’s department store. Maurices occupied the space from 1989 until 2016. The building was sold in April to 117 Investments, LLC of Minnetonka.

Undated photo of Wahl’s department store and other Downtown Duluth businesses.

1 Comment

Paul Lundgren

about 4 years ago

Mr. Jackson was apparently a rather diminutive fellow, which was poked fun of in an 1885 Board of Trade resolution printed in the Duluth News Tribune and recounted on the Zenith City website in a profile of John C. Hunter Family.

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