Mark Nicklawske Posts

Historic Duluth Woman’s Club building will become B&B

The Duluth Woman’s Club, 2400 E. Superior St., was constructed in 1910 by Duluth Edison Power company founder Alexander W. Hartman. It had been owned and maintained by the Duluth Woman’s Club since 1936. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

A Superior Street mansion that long served as a meeting place for the Duluth Woman’s Club has been sold to a Washington couple with plans to establish a bed and breakfast in the Turn-of-the-Century property.

Lincoln Park salad shop moves to Lakeside; adds dining room

Ritual Salad owner Cori Zastera poses in the doorway of her new restaurant location in Lakeside. Zastera and friend Jenna Wersal, left, were prepping the building for paint June 11. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

A year after opening in Lincoln Park, a popular grab-and-go lunch counter and mystic shop is moving to a bigger building in Lakeside.

Ritual Salad & Apothecary plans to open a new restaurant in a former driving school at 4501 E. Superior St. this month. The business debuted last spring in a tiny, renovated building on the corner of Superior Street and 18th Avenue West. The move will increase indoor seating capacity from five to 25.

New loan program designed to save historic Duluth buildings

Demolition of the former Pastoret Terrace on First Street and Second Avenue East has led to a new city fund supporting historic downtown Duluth building preservation.

Historic downtown Duluth buildings are now eligible for city-funded improvement loans after a legal battle over a fire-damaged-but-treasured 19th century townhouse demolition established the assistance program.

The city of Duluth recently added a $1.4 million Historic Fund to its long-running economic development initiative known as the 1200 Fund. To launch the new project, the city plans to make $400,000 in low-interest, partially forgivable loans to historic building owners for property work in 2025. The application process opened May 5.

Sunshine Cafe gets new life as training space for entrepreneurs

Family Rise Together Executive Director ChaQuana McEntyre stands outside the Sunshine Cafe, 5719 Grand Ave. The social service organization purchased the diner and will remodel it to serve as a food-service industry small-business incubator. (Photo by Lissa Maki)

A shuttered building that once housed a landmark West Duluth cafe won’t reopen with breakfast specials and counter seating but new owners will use the space for a program to train ambitious food entrepreneurs and deliver meals.

St. Louis County records show the former Sunshine Cafe, 5719 Grand Ave., was purchased in December by the Duluth social service organization Family Rise Together for $230,000. The nonprofit started renovations on the historic building this winter and has launched a fundraising campaign to install a state-of-the-art, commercial-grade kitchen inside the space.

Oliver Inn adds lounge and four new guest rooms

The Snively Lounge and four new guest rooms are being added to the 13-room Oliver Inn in Downtown Duluth. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)

A new lounge featuring antique chandeliers, a forest of ferns and a make-your-own-music stage is part of a hotel expansion project inside a history-filled Downtown Duluth landmark.

The Snively Lounge is expected to open along with four new ground-floor guest rooms at the Oliver Inn, 132 E. Superior St., later this spring. The remodeling project replaces space formerly occupied by Wasabi Duluth, a Japanese restaurant that closed Dec. 31 and consolidated operations in Superior.

Beloved Lakeside book store may be lost to building demolition

St. Michael’s Catholic Church plans to close and demolish its Lakeside Professional Building this summer. Gabriel’s Used Bookstore, located in the building’s basement, will close this spring if it cannot find a new location. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

Plans to demolish a business center housed in a historic Lakeside school building will displace several organizations, including a beloved bargain book store, this spring.

St. Michael’s Catholic Church announced in December the Lakeside Professional Building, 4915 E. Superior St., has been deemed structurally deficient and will be demolished later this year. The project means the church will close its volunteer-run Gabriel’s Used Bookstore, which has been located in the building basement since 1994.

Zenith Basecamp set to open ‘indoor glamping’ travel hub

Zenith Basecamp, at 27th Avenue West and Superior Street, features a hostel, retail store and cocktail bar. Free Air Life Co opens its outdoor store Saturday, Jan. 25. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).

The adventure begins this week as a new travel center featuring an adventure hostel, outdoor clothing retailer and cocktail bar opens in a historic Lincoln Park office building.

Zenith Basecamp, 2631 W. Superior St., will see Free Air Life Co. welcome customers to its ground floor retail shop Saturday, making it the first business to open inside the renovated property. The second floor hostel started taking reservations last week and will greet its first guests in March. Meanwhile, workers are completing construction on a new interior space that will house Altitude Cocktails and Wine Bar.

Black Water Lounge, Chalet among 2024 restaurant closures

The Black Water Lounge featured live music in a classy atmosphere. The restaurant closed in July after a 15-year run in Greysolon Plaza. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)

Downtown Duluth suffered blows to its dining scene over the past year with two restaurants leaving prominent, historic buildings while Hermantown will lose a landmark establishment at the end of the month.

Notorious Last Place on Earth owner Jim Carlson granted clemency; drug trafficking sentence ended early

Jim Carlson talks to a television reporter in front of his head shop, The Last Place on Earth, on Sept. 16, 2011. (Photo by Paul Lundgren)

A Duluth head shop owner convicted of federal drug trafficking charges more than a decade ago will have his sentence commuted in a sweeping clemency order issued by President Joe Biden Dec. 12.

Chester Park restaurant recycles ‘Pigeon House’

A Better Futures Minnesota worker removes shingles from the roof of the ‘Pigeon House.’ The home was purchased and recycled by owners of the nearby restaurant At Sara’s Table / Chester Creek Café. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

Deck-side diners at a popular Chester Park neighborhood restaurant are treated to glorious Lake Superior views but staff knew an abandoned house — in a direct line of vision — could easily spoil the scene.

The “Pigeon House” had to go — but not to a landfill.

Duluth Grill expands into West Duluth with new chicken eatery

Mural artists Kevin Ballecer, left, and Mela Nguyen are painting the exterior of Chicken n’ Whaaat?! on Central Avenue in West Duluth. The pair also painted murals for Burger Paradox on Superior Street. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).

A family-owned restaurant group that helped revitalize Lincoln Park will expand outside the neighborhood for the first time with a new fast-casual chicken eatery attached to a West Duluth gas station.

Iconic Curious Goods building for sale in Superior

Taimi Ranta has owned the Curious Goods building for about 35 years. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)

A widely photographed building on one of the funkiest street corners in Superior is up for sale after a long run as an antique store, warehouse and spare apartment.

The Curious Goods building, 1717 Winter St., just off Tower Avenue, has been put up for sale by owner Taimi Ranta after about 35 years of using the property for her antique and vintage sales business. While Curious Goods featured an enticing and colorful storefront the space has been used only as a warehouse for the past two decades.

Morgan Park church wins place on national registry

United Protestant Church member Bob Berg, left, Moderator Marna Fasteland and Pastor Mitch Nelson stand in a back balcony inside the church sanctuary. The Morgan Park church was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

A monumental concrete block church constructed by idle steelworkers in early 19th-century Morgan Park earned national recognition last month and will be a stop on a historic building tour this weekend in Duluth.

Hidden Hunters Park mansion up for sale

Duluth grain magnate W.J. McCabe and his wife Jane Chidlaw McCabe built this Georgian-style colonial mansion in 1914. It is located in Hunters Park, about two miles uphill from Glensheen Mansion. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)

Duluth is famous for its turn-of-the-century mansions proudly showcased in busy, well-touristed east-side neighborhoods, but a few historic homes are tucked away in unexpected places far from the grand Lake Superior shoreline.

One of those hidden gems is up for sale.

Historic record store building gets new life downtown

Peter Pascente stands outside the former Young at Heart record store building at 22 W. First St. Pascente is rehabilitating the 1893 structure. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).

The Young at Heart record store was a Downtown Duluth musical mainstay for some 40 years when it closed in 1999. After its colorful store fixtures were claimed by the Minnesota Historical Society and massive inventory moved to Superior, the building sat unused for two decades and fell into disrepair.

Now the property at 22 W. First St. has a new life and big plans that include more music in the historic space.