The postcard photo above is dated 1924, making it 100 years old. It shows a boy driving a car with a sign on the grill that reads “Western Steel Products Company, New Duluth, Minn.” That doesn’t technically mean the photo was shot in the New Duluth neighborhood, however, so the primary mystery of the photo’s location perhaps hinges on whether the houses in the background match any present-day Duluth homes. The identity of the people in the car is the longshot mystery to solve.
The photo above, from the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Archives and Special Collections at Kathryn A. Martin Library, shows the Western Steel Products Company’s manufacturing facilities on the southwest corner of Prescott Street and Commonwealth Avenue in New Duluth. Perry Gallagher is credited as the photographer; 1925 is speculated as the year the photo was shot.
Western Steel made metal products such as fire escapes, tank stations, culverts and boiler-plate furnaces at its New Duluth facilities until the Coolerator Company took over the location in 1935.
Below are a few Western Steel Products Company advertisements.
