Frisco or Dust Shields?
What that scribbled message on the front of this postcard is all about will have to be left to speculation in the comments. The card was mailed 110 years ago — May 4, 1909.
The caption on the back reads:
The high school, established in 1872, is a magnificent brown stone building, covering an entire block, and, including grounds and equipments, is valued at $545,000. It has a staff of about 22 teachers, and there are about 650 students in attendance.
Nice! A different angle than about 90 percent of the other historic images I see out there… usually the building was depicted from the Lake Ave side. This also shows the original size of the building, before the addition of the gymnasium wing on this side in the 1920s.
If you want to super geek out about the card publisher Raphael Tuck and Sons “Art Publishers to Their Majesties the King and Queen” you can do so at tuckdb.org/history.
I’m thinking, “Frisco or bust. Sheila.” Sheila was eager to get out of Duluth.
Yes, Frisco or Bust looks correct. Here is an article about a barber who worked at the barber shop where this card was sent:
Monongahela is home of nation’s oldest barber
Student-teacher ratio was 30-1, shameful.
Perry Simmons was kind of a big deal back East. A leading citizen at the time who wasn’t white.