I'm not sure how I feel about immediately recognizing two long gone buildings in a bad print of a blurred copy of a photo from 1869, but since I did, I might as well share the reference. This somewhat later photo from almost the same perspective shows that the building on the left was occupied by William Branch, dealer in real estate. The skyscraper on the right looks like it's still waiting for a tenant.

That's funny. I had noticed it was a different photo taken from almost the exact same perspective and was thinking there must be a reason for that. But because you can't see what's behind the camera, it's hard to know what made that particular spot easy to take pictures from. 

I also recognized the buildings that you suggested as the location of the photographer because both of these building groups were part of a post I did several years ago on digitally cleaning up old Duluth photos. When you brighten these images, it's clear they both face away from the harbor -- all these businesses are on the same side of the street. What I hadn't realized until this discussion here is that they are neighbors, which becomes clear when you place the photos side by side.