Duluth’s Grand Opera House at 333 W. Superior St. was designed by George Wirth and opened in 1883. It was destroyed by fire on Jan. 28, 1889.
Today the site is occupied by the Phoenix Building, which houses Starbucks, Duluth Fine Pianos and Frandsen Bank & Trust. The modern-day Phoenix Building replaced a previous version of the Phoenix Building, which burned in 1994. The name of the building is a homage to the Grand Opera House, having risen from its ashes, so to speak.
The sideways text on the left side of the card credits its publisher, American Architect and Building News, a periodical on architecture and building that changed its name to the American Architect in 1909, and in 1938 merged into Architectural Record, which is still in print.
