Detroit Publishing Company
Duluth Boat Club circa 1906
This photo from the Detroit Publishing Company shows the Duluth Boat Club on the bay side of Minnesota Point at South Tenth Street. A previous clubhouse existed where Bayfront Park is today, but the facility shown in the photo above was built in 1903 and was destroyed by fire in 1951. (more…)
DM&N Railway Ore Docks in West Duluth, early 1900s
This photo of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway ore docks in West Duluth is from Detroit Publishing Company. The Library of Congress dates the image as “between 1900 and 1915” and notes it shows “probably Dock No. 1 at left” and lists the three freighters in the foreground as George H. Russell, Sultan and James E. Davidson. (more…)
Mystery Photo #70: East Superior Street in 1908
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company is dated 1908 — 110 years ago — although some evidence in the comments to this post indicate suggest it could have been shot prior to that year. It depicts a scene on East Superior Street in Duluth. The mysteries: What block? Are the homes in the image still there? Can someone recreate the mystery photo with a modern image from the same spot?
Old Duluth Photos on Shorpy
While watching Lost Duluth 2 on WDSE-TV (great show!), I wanted to pass along some awesome old photos that have been scanned in very high resolution and submitted to the wonderful archive site shorpy.com. Anyone who likes looking at good historic photos of Duluth will love these large images. Most of these were taken in 1905 and were published by the Detroit Publishing Co. using glass negatives.
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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.
More Vintage Photos of Duluth
I’m not sure if we’ve ever discussed photos from this site on PDD before, but the vintage photography blog Shorpy just posted some new old shots of Duluth from 1905. There are a few more Duluth photos back in the archives as well, which I dug out for you. Check ’em out:
- Duluth Incline Railway: 1905 (pictured above)
- Duluth, 1905
- Duluth, cont’d 1905
- Strange Span: 1905 (construction of the Aerial Lift Bridge opening of the Aerial Transfer Bridge)
- Fitger Conetops (circa 1960. This shot is upside-down for some reason)
- Mom, 1956
- When Men Were Men and Moose Were Dead








