Then and Now: Downtown Duluth from Observation Hill

Shot 60 years apart, these two photos offer a similar perspective of Downtown Duluth and the hillside as viewed from Observation Hill. The angles of the shots are far from a perfect match, so the buildings don’t all line up properly and the jagged points of Lake Superior’s shoreline get flattened out in the 2025 shot, but the images do allow for some comparisons to be drawn — the most obvious being the 18-story Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center building that opened in 2023.

The modern photo was shot by Tomas Soderberg on Nov. 17, 2025.

The source of the 1965 image is unknown; it previously appeared on PDD in 2025.