History Posts

The Seaway Market in Norton Park

Someone — I think her name was Gloria — posted this picture of the Seaway Market on Facebook a few months back and asked if anyone remembered the place. I saved the image, but can’t find the Facebook post anymore.

Here’s the deal with the Seaway Market:

Historic Lift Bridge featured on Shorpy

Here is a really neat photo looking back into the history of Duluth. The first version of our beloved Lift Bridge didn’t really lift at all. It initially was built in 1905 as a very rare transporter bridge.  It wasn’t until 1930 that it was converted into the form we know today.

Aerial Bridge: 1908 [Shorpy.com]

Inside Denfeld’s Renovation

1Denfeld1

This is the view looking up from inside the new main entrance to Denfeld High School. The main floor of the new addition connects to the old building through the auditorium lobby. The main floor of the addition will include a new cafeteria and common area, administrative offices and media center.

The Rentola

Rentola-1924-Duluth

Here are two historic photos of the Rentola, a Finnish boarding house at 4 N. 59th Ave. W., in West Duluth. The top photo is from Karl Hagglund, whose grandmother was a maid at the Rentola. The next photo is from 1961, courtesy of the Northeast Minnesota Historical Center. So the story goes, there was an old steam house nearby where Rentola residents took saunas.

Today’s vocabulary word: Varicocele

A varicocele is an enlargement of the veins of the scrotum, frequently causing a knotted or swollen appearance.

Fortunately, Duluth’s Progressive Medical Association had a “master specialist” back in the day. He considered the cause of a varicocele to be “often indiscretion” and listed as references some of “the leading businessmen of the city.”

Duluth Street Scene, 1909

Street scene, Lake & Superior Streets 21 July 1909 (Minnesota Reflections)

I ran across this photo last year on Minnesota Reflections.

It was the people who caught my interest though. Looking into the faces of people caught in a random freezeframe of Superior Street traffic from 101 years ago grabbed me for whatever reason. I guess the fact that they’re gawking at a ruined street gives it a timeless quality.

Old Duluth Rock Shows/Posters?

A coworker recently left this poster in her office so I:

1) Pounced all over it.

2) Wondered if others in Duluth have old posters from big name (whatever that means) rock shows that took place here.

Does anybody else have posters they can upload a picture of … or just knowledge of other big acts that have come through Duluth?

West Duluth 100 Years Ago

WestDuluthFrom59th1910

The photo above is from 1910. It was almost certainly shot from North 59th Avenue West, near where Tacony Street intersects it. I tried to replicate it with the modern shot below, but trees, fences and houses kept me from shooting at the same spot, and the view is much more limited.

WestDuluthFrom59th2010

Behind all the trees across the street is a rock outcropping that matches the one in the 1910 photo.

You would like it in the Northern Plains: Duluth, Minnesota

This ad for Northern Natural Gas Company ran in Time magazine on Sept. 17, 1965. Hats off to Susie LeGarde Menz for the find.

Denfeld vs. Central: The Pranks

HuntersCar

Now that the Denfeld and Central High School student bodies have been united, it seems like a good time to look back at some of the pranks students played on each other.

The most infamous, of course, was during the 1974-75 school year. Denfeld kids somehow managed to hoist a Volkswagon to the top of Central High School. The car had “Hunters” painted on the side.

The statute of limitations is probably up, so anyone willing to come forward, admit participation and explain how it was done will surely be held harmless. (Although I can’t promise some middle-aged Central grad won’t toilet paper your house. And I suppose administrators could still revoke your diploma. Better keep quiet.)

One rumor I heard was that the whole prank was based on a lesson from a physics class at Denfeld.

Another prank I remember hearing about, I think also from the 1970s, involved Denfeld kids setting a greased pig loose at Central. Again, anyone with details should chime in on the comments.

And, of course, there was the fall of 1979, when Central kids threw eggs at the Denfeld marching band before the Homecoming game, which prompted Denfeld kids to throw eggs at Central’s band during halftime. I think that was the last significant prank before Duluth Public Schools entered an era of civility and brotherhood and whatnot.

Certainly there were some other good pranks not mentioned here. Let the discussion begin. Hell, we’ll even let cake eaters participate.

Laurie Hertzel book launch in Duluth on Thursday, Sept. 16

Laurie Hertzel, author of News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist, is going to be in Duluth launching her new book, Thursday evening, Sept. 16, at 7 pm, in Fitgers’ Spirit of the North theater.

News to Me tells the story of the 18 years Laurie spent working for the Duluth News Tribune, including her accompanying a group of Duluthians to what was then the Soviet Union in 1986, when they went to talk to the city officials in Petrozavodsk about setting up a sister city relationship. It’s a compelling read, and there’s some fabulous stories about what Duluth was like in the ’70s and ’80s. And to sweeten the deal, there’s going to be a cash bar, free meatballs, and I am introducing Laurie!

United States Steel Duluth Works

It’s amusing to me that the soundtrack to this slideshow is by Dokken. You might think that’s a poor choice, but I remember 20 years ago the only Duluth kids into Dokken were from Morgan Park, so it makes sense.

Also, tragically, the one sentence of text in the video contains multiple errors, but oh well.

Best of the Twin Cities: Duluth winners from 1999 to 2011

A collection of Duluth-related stuff from City Pages’ Best of the Twin Cities issues over the years.

2011
Best Blues Artist
Charlie Parr

Charlie Parr is the real deal. A Duluthian through and through, he’s about as unpretentious as they come. Climbing up on stage dressed in a flannel shirt, carpenter’s pants, and work boots, he wields his steel-stringed guitar like it’s an extension of his body, effortlessly gliding over the frets with a slide and letting it reverberate before trading it for a banjo or a 12-string. Sometimes when he plays he’s accompanied by an unassuming young lad who looks like he’s been plucked straight from the ore mines on the Iron Range, who clangs on train spikes and steel bars while Parr sings and strums. And while Parr’s guitar playing is technically complex and seemlingly effortless, it’s his voice-a blues howl with a soft side, which can climb up from a sweet moan into a loud bellow at a moment’s notice-that accentuates the stark, sad nature of his songs, painting vivid portraits through lyrics about loneliness, the devil, and making things right with the Lord.

Wooden arch from Duluth’s Spalding Hotel at State Fair

I didn’t ask around, with the crowd as thick as it was, but I’m assuming this big wooden arch must be the one from the Spalding Hotel that was retrofitted into O’Gara’s fairgrounds restaurant in St. Paul.

Duluth’s Goat Hill Neighborhood

Does anyone know about the history of West Duluth’s “Goat Hill” area or how it got that name?

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