The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall (and Rise and Fall?) of Downtown Duluth’s Fifth Avenue West

Matthew James Dec 19, 2023 7 Comments

Looking down Fifth Avenue West toward Duluth’s Spalding Hotel in 1889. University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections

A few weeks ago, David Beard wrote a post on the future of the plaza next to the Ordean Building, noting plans for it to be sold to a private developer in conjunction with a future housing project. I recently wrote a rather long post about Gunnar Birkerts, the architect of the Duluth Public Library, and because his firm also designed the plaza, I ended up with enough information about this project that I thought it might be worthy of a follow-up post on the history of the Fifth Avenue Mall, a name so forgotten that a 2015 Perfect Duluth Day post referencing the mall clarifies that the word ‘mall’ as used here is “not about a shopping mall, but instead something like the decorative median with trees that stands in the middle of the avenue today.”

Read More


History, News and Current Affairs , , ,

Postcard from Three Ore Carriers at DM&IR Docks

Paul Lundgren Dec 18, 2023 No Comments

This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography shows the ore carriers Wm. B. Schilier, Peter A. B. Widener and Henry Phipps at the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range docks in West Duluth.

All three vessels were built for the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. The Schilier was sold for scrapping in 1978 in Duluth. The Widener was sold for scrapping in 1986 and towed to Lisbon, Portugal in 1987. The Phipps was sold for scrapping in 1976 in Duluth.


History , , ,

Community Resource List: Freelance Grant Writers

David Beard Dec 18, 2023 No Comments

I’m seeking entries for a community resource list. The category of resource I am hoping to build first is “Freelance Grant Writers.”

If you’d like to be on such a list (one I am hoping to convince the University of Minnesota Duluth would be good to have both internally and to serve its community better), please comment below with your name, your electronic presence (e.g., website, LinkedIn, or social media) and the areas you are comfortable writing grants in (e.g., arts, the environment, education, etc.).


Random

PDD Quiz: Bentleyville

Alison Moffat Dec 17, 2023 No Comments

In honor of Bentleyville’s 20th anniversary, here’s a quiz testing your knowledge of Duluth’s famous light display.

The final PDD quiz of 2023 will review the year’s headlines; it will be published on Dec. 31. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Dec. 27.

Read More


Random

Ripped at Miller Hill Mall in 2003

Slim Goodbuzz Dec 16, 2023 No Comments

[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago the Sultan of Sot paid a visit to the Miller Hill Mall and composed this article for the Dec. 24, 2003 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper. Historical footnote: This was Slim’s last column for the Ripsaw before it switched from a weekly newspaper to a monthly magazine. Neither were ever the same. Additional footnote: The Great American Bar & Grill closed in 2011; the space is now occupied by Noodles & Company and Chipotle Mexican Grill.]

With all the recent abductions and alleged abductions going on in the region, now is an excellent time to prey on people’s paranoia. That’s why I’m at the Miller Hill Mall, picking out people at random and following them around. It’s just before Christmas, so there are plenty of targets to choose from.

My first victim is Sean Baker. I know his name because he just registered to win a Sea-doo powerboat and 500,000 World Perks miles. I also know now that he is gullible. You don’t have to read the fine print on the entry form to know that the odds of winning are miniscule and the odds of being contacted by annoying telemarketers for the rest of your life because you just signed away your do-not-call list status are equal to the odds of whether or not you have a phone.

Read More


History , ,

List of Duluth-area Podcasts No Longer in Production

Paul Lundgren Dec 15, 2023 No Comments

They might be on hiatus or they might be done. Some lasted a handful of episodes, others lasted a decade. Some were never meant to keep going. There are no recent episodes of the audio productions listed below, but the archives are still available … or, at least they were the last time we checked.

Perfect Duluth Day’s look at archived podcasts no longer in production is a companion piece to the “Guide to Duluth-area Podcasts,” which features shows currently, or at least recently, in production.

Read More


Random ,

Big Into – “Deep Snow Full Moon”

PDDTV Dec 15, 2023 No Comments

Iron Range natives Curtis Kraft Mattson and Jozef Conaway find what they are looking for in the latest video from their nerd-rock duo Big Into. The track is from the band’s upcoming EP.


Music, Videos

Guide to Duluth-area Podcasts

Paul Lundgren Dec 14, 2023 4 Comments

Left: Jebah Edmunds, host of “Cultural Curriculum Chat.” Top center: Hailey Eidenschink, host of “Attracted to Duluth.” Top right: Tom Jamison and Yvonne Myers, hosts of “For the Love of Duluth,” along with 2022 guest Charlie Parr. Bottom: Marie Zhuikov and Sharon Moen, hosts of “The Fish Dish.”

There are more than 50 active podcasts that have some connection to Duluth and the surrounding area. Some feature Duluthians talking about Duluth, while others are produced in the region but meant for broader audiences. The topics span a wide range — history, phenology, hockey, education, aquaculture, Christianity, gardening, entrepreneurism and so on.

Perfect Duluth Day has resisted the urge to create a podcast about Duluth podcasts and instead used the written word and images to put together this guide to local digital audio. The list below includes only podcasts with recent episodes; we have a separate “List of Duluth-area Podcasts No Longer in Production.”

Read More


Random ,

Frau Holle’s Werkhaus

PDDTV Dec 12, 2023 No Comments

Frau Holle’s Werkhaus is Duluth artist Joellyn Rock‘s latest mixed-media installation, on display at the Tweed Museum of Art through February as part of the University of Minnesota Duluth’s faculty and staff exhibition Everything & Nothing. It was first exhibited in the group show Catching Up / Resurfacing at Joseph Nease Gallery.

Read More


Art, Videos ,

PDD Video Lab: Duluth Ship Canal Dog Rescue Footage

PDDTV Dec 11, 2023 1 Comment

The Duluth Fire Department released video footage today of a Dec. 7 dog rescue in the Duluth Shipping Canal. The five segments of footage were shot by cameras controlled by the Aerial Lift Bridge’s engineer. The clips were dark and choppy, but the PDD Video Lab has slapped them together, brightened the scenes a bit, trimmed it all down and added a music track — “A Shoreline Dream” by Hypermode featuring Ulrich Schnauss.

Read More


Videos , ,

Postcard from Isle Royale, Lake Superior, Near Duluth

Paul Lundgren Dec 11, 2023 No Comments

This undated postcard shows a scene from Isle Royale National Park, the fourth-largest lake island in the world, located about 150 miles northeast of Duluth.


History , ,

Steve Solkela plays “Ievan Polkka” while unicycling

PDDTV Dec 10, 2023 1 Comment

Local accordion sensation/goofball Steve Solkela is playing Minnesota gigs almost daily in December before his tour of Finland in January.

Read More


Music, Videos

Jimi Hendrix, LSD and My Grandmother

Jim Richardson (aka Lake Superior Aquaman) Dec 09, 2023 No Comments

Jimi Hendrix appeared to me in a vision while I was getting my wisdom teeth out. This was Thanksgiving break 1986, in Houston, Texas. The next day I took LSD. It was a trip full of signs and portents, heralded by Hendrix’s visitation to me at the dentist’s office. At first I thought Jimi was protecting me, but now I think he may have been trying to warn me about that acid trip.

I’d heard Hendrix on LSD the previous summer, as “Are You Experienced?” transformed my boom box. That’s the song where he says he’s experienced, and then he says “Let me prove it to you” and plays a backward guitar solo. Everybody knows that song, but on psychedelics I heard the solo, man. It did prove Jimi was experienced, just like he said he was. I trusted him, an ersatz father figure dispensing psychedelic wisdom.

Why did I get into LSD, you may ask. Well, in 1983 after our father died, my family lived with our Houston grandmother for a summer of grieving. And while we were there, my little brother Allen and I watched the William Hurt movie Altered States on cable like 5,000 times. It’s about a psychedelic scientist testing the limits of meaning and sanity. We adopted it as a roadmap for how to live.

Read More


Random

The Black Labels – “Blackboard Jungle”

PDDTV Dec 08, 2023 No Comments

Recorded at Beaner’s Central, now known as Wussow’s Concert Cafe, the week in September 2002. The track appears on the double album One Week Live at Beaner’s.


Music

Shippee – “To You: (Merry Christmas)”

PDDTV Dec 07, 2023 No Comments

Duluth’s Blake Shippee has a new Christmas song. The video is directed by Lance Lindahl.

Read More


Music, Videos ,
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!