History
Mystery Photo #96: Unknown Building
This image landed in Perfect Duluth Day’s files under “unknown building.” Anyone recognize it?
Postcard from Paul Bunyan Bar & Grill
This undated postcard, published by Kaeser & Blair of Cincinnati, Ohio, depicts interior and exterior scenes at the Paul Bunyan Bar & Grill in Downtown Duluth. (more…)
Sinclair Lewis / John G. Williams House
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Cade Imaging of Maplewood provides this short, sweeping aerial video of the Duluth mansion best known as the home of Nobel-prize winning writer Sinclair Lewis during the 1940s. (more…)
Mystery Photo #95: Mr. Earl Askew
A recurring source of confusion in the Mystery Photo series is whether particular images that share the stamp of the Post Card Shop in Minneapolis and the Penny Arcade in Duluth were shot in Minneapolis or Duluth. Here is another such image. (more…)
The Slice: Davidson Windmill
The Davidson Windmill is in Lakeside, Wis., about 20 miles southeast of Duluth and six miles east of Superior on Wisconsin Highway 13. It was built between 1900 and 1904 by Jacob Davidson on his 80-acre homestead. The mill operated until 1926. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and donated to the Old-Brule Heritage Society in 2001. (more…)
Postcards from Lincoln Park
A random collection of postcards depicting Lincoln Park in Duluth’s friendly West End neighborhood. (more…)
Class Photos from Duluth’s Bryant Elementary School
Bryant School was built in 1894 at 3102 W. Third St. in Duluth’s friendly West End neighborhood, the present-day location of Cummins Sales and Service. Hugh McKenzie shot the photo above, which is loosely dated by UMD’s Kathryn A. Martin Library Archives & Special Collections as “1914?”
Assembled below is a small collection of class photos from the school, which closed in the 1970s. (more…)
List of Old Bars in Superior
Photo by Jennifer Moore
Back in May, a collection of Superior bar memorabilia was briefly displayed at the Spirit Room. On a sheet of white paper, a list of old Superior bars was created, and folks passing through added to it. (more…)
Postcards from Arrowhead Cafeteria & Grill
This undated postcard, published by F.H. Lounsberry & Co. of Duluth, shows the exterior of the Arrowhead Cafeteria & Grill. It opened in 1925, but its owners — S. T. Huie and Stephen G. Wong — were rebranding their prior operation, the Congress Cafe. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Presidential Twin Ports
Courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, University of Minnesota Duluth.
Test your knowledge of local history and presidential trivia with this week’s PDD quiz, which explores presidential visits to the Twin Ports. Inspired by a 2011 PDD post, this quiz relies heavily on external sources (Zenith City Online and Minnesota Reflections in particular).
The next PDD quiz will review the month’s headlines; it will be published on July 28. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by July 25. (more…)
Postcard from Gooseberry Falls State Park
This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography offers a scene at Gooseberry Falls State Park. (more…)
Duluth View from Cascade Park in 1899
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company shows the view looking out from Duluth’s hillside at Cascade Park toward the Downtown area and Minnesota Point. William Henry Jackson is credited as the photographer.
The Library of Congress dates the image as circa 1902, but research by Mark Ryan for the story “W. H. Jackson’s Photographs of Duluth” for Zenith City Press puts the time of Jackson’s visit to Duluth as the summer of 1899.
Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography
Ashland Ore Dock – Ashland
Loading iron ore into the steamer Denmark.
Bridge over the St. Croix – Summerset
Soo Line train crossing the High Bridge.
The Lake Superior Railroad Museum at the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center has opened a new photo exhibition based on the work of American railroad photographer Wallace W. Abbey. Located in the museum’s Gallery Car, the collection follows Abbey’s life work as he traveled around the country capturing historic images of railroads and the people who worked on all levels to keep the trains running. (more…)
Meatballs clip with Duluth pennant in background
It was 40 years ago today — June 29, 1979 — that the screwball summer camp film Meatballs premiered in theaters. In one scene, Tripper and Rudy (Bill Murray and Chris Makepeace) have a conversation while a Duluth pennant hangs in the background.
The Richardson brothers vs. the Alexy brothers
The Duluth-based Richardson brothers (Jim and Allen) have a longstanding creative relationship with the Duluth-based Alexy brothers (Teague and Ian). Most recently, Jim (aka Lake Superior Aquaman) has a cameo in the new video “Everybody’s Got A Baby But Me” by Alexy bros. project, Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank. (more…)
Mystery Photo #94: Postcard of Bizarro Duluth
So … what we’ve got here is … um … an image that seems completely unrelated to Duluth, labeled upside down as Duluth. Can anyone speculate on what the folks at V.O. Hammon Publishing Company were thinking? What is this image actually depicting?
While it’s not technically a photo, it needs to be categorized as a PDD Mystery Photo nonetheless.
Gallery of Defunct Duluth Music ’Zines
As a companion to Perfect Duluth Day’s “Gallery of Defunct Duluth Literary and Arts ’Zines” we now present the local underground music news publications that once spread the gospel of local rawk and/or roll. (more…)
Mystery Photo #93: A Hard Day
With some Mystery Photos, we know a lot going in. With this one, we know very little. Who is this little girl and why was this photo shot on such a hard day? (more…)
Dickson’s Lake Park Tourist Home
Dickson’s Lake Park Tourist Home is listed in Duluth city directories from 1951 to 1967 and Frank G. Dickson is listed as a resident going back at least to 1930.
The address was 1127 London Road, today the location of a vacant lot across the street from the Leif Erikson statue near the Rose Garden.
Spalding Hotel circa 1908
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company shows Duluth’s Spalding Hotel at 428 W. Superior St. The elegant 200-room hotel opened on June 6, 1889 and was demolished on Sept. 25, 1963. (more…)
Postcards from Universal Atlas Cement Company
The postcard above was published by Arrowhead Trading Post of Duluth. It depicts part of the U.S. Steel Duluth Works campus, with Universal Atlas Cement Company in the foreground. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #14
More from the deck found at Savers …
1. Who sculpted the statue of Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut at UMD?
2. Where was that statue cast?
3. When did UMD become a campus of the UM system?
4. Who was the first provost of UMD?
5. Which US President visited UMD in 1963?
6. Which UMD graduate was “Carlton the Doorman” on TV’s “Rhoda”? (more…)
The Times of Lincoln Park Junior High School 1969
As another school year ends, Perfect Duluth Day once again looks back through the pages of an old Duluth school yearbook. In this edition we present a gallery of select images from the 1969 edition of The Times, the Lincoln Park Junior High School annual. (more…)
How we do things at Duluth, Minn.
It’s difficult to make out the line of red text at the top of this old postcard, but it reads: “How we do things at Duluth, Minn.” Apparently “how we do things” is we doctor images to make raspberries appear to be the size of pineapples.
The undated postcard is credited to “Johnson, Photographer, Waupun, Wis.”
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #13
More from the deck found at Savers …
1. In 1871, who ridiculed the City of Duluth in the House of Representatives, helping to defeat a land grant bill?
2. What was “The Clark House”?
3. Who was J. B. Culver?
4. When was the Grand Opera House destroyed by fire?
5. Who was Oliver G. Traphagen?
6. In 1891, what downtown Duluth building was called “the handsomest and costliest building in the Northwest?