View of Downtown Duluth from Fourth Avenue West including the Duluth Harbor, Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point, and Lake Superior. Duluth City Hall and the St. Louis County Courthouse and jail are visible in the center right. Just below the Lift Bridge are the tall Alworth building and the wider Medical Arts building, both on the lower side of Superior Street. Along the waterfront are Minnesota Slip, Industrial Slip, the North Western Fuel Company coal dock, to the right is the Northern Cold Storage Building, 702 West Railroad Street. A number of lake vessels are grouped together in the center of the harbor.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A vessel enters the harbor in this view of downtown Duluth and Minnesota Point. Fifth Avenue West runs directly from the St. Louis County Courthouse to the waterfront in the lower right corner of this image. At Fifth Avenue West and Superior Street is the Holland Hotel on the right; and on the left the brownstone Spalding hotel building which will be razed in 1963. On the lower left of this view are the tall Alworth building and the wide Medical Arts building both on the lower side of Superior Street.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Northern City National Bank's NC sign was placed on top of the Alworth building in 1957 where the bank occupied the Alworth's main floor. The sign was permanently removed in 1980 when a bank merger resulted in the new First Bank. The Alworth is Duluth's tallest downtown building at 16 stories. Minnesota Point extends into the distance. The Arena Auditorium is in the middle of this photograph on the edge of the harbor. Later, the street behind the complex will be renamed Harbor Drive. The Arena Auditorium itself will be expanded and renamed the DECC in 1987. Canal Park, at the far left, is still occupied by industrial businesses in this image. It will not begin to transition to the tourist destination we know it as today until Grandma's Restaurant opens there in a rehabilitated building in 1976. The seven-story Ordean Building is next to the Fifth Avenue West Overpass. The Ordean was built in 1973 and occupies the site of the Spalding Hotel.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A view to the canal with the Duluth business district in the foreground. The 1896 Sacred Heart Cathedral steeple is in the right corner in front of the building that is now the Damiano Center (clothes distribution and soup kitchen). The cathedral, now a music center, and the Damiano are at 211 and 206 West Fourth Street. At the left is the smokestack of the Duluth Steam Plant built in 1932 that continues to provide heat to downtown businesses. To the left of the smokestack is the five-story Freimuth's Department store which opened in 1900 on the corner of Lake Avenue and Superior Street. It was Duluth's oldest family owned firm when it closed in 1961 with 60 employees. The Freimuth's building was razed in May 1968. On the far right on Superior Street are the tall, slim Alworth building (16 stories) dating from 1909, and the light colored Medical Arts building on the site of the St. Louis Hotel. The hotel was razed beginning May 19, 1932. September 1, 1932 contractors broke ground for the Medical Arts building. Signs in Canal Park include Marshall-Wells Hardware Company and Griggs, Cooper and Company. Griggs Cooper was a wholesale grocer and liquor business at 217-219 Lake Avenue South featuring Home brand food.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This view stretches from Harbor View Homes at Lake Avenue and Eleventh street at the bottom of the photograph to Canal Park and then Minnesota Point lying beyond the Aerial Bridge at the left. At the far right are grain elevators in the Duluth harbor.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Northern City National Bank's NC sign was placed on top of the Alworth building in 1957 where the bank occupied the Alworth's main floor. The sign was permanently removed in 1980 when a bank merger resulted in the new First Bank. The Alworth is Duluth's tallest downtown building at 16 stories. The round or cylindrical building at the right is the Radisson Hotel built in 1970 with an addition in 1975. The top floor of the Radisson holds the Top of the Harbor restaurant that turns 360 degrees while you dine. The Aerial Bridge's lift span is up because an ore boat it about to exit the harbor. Minnesota Point extends into the distance, with Hearding Island to its right in the harbor. Hearding Island is the uninhabited site called Bird Island by Part Point residents and Harbor Island by Duluth Bird Club members. In December 1962, the St. Louis County Historical Society, supported by the Park Point Community Club, petitioned the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (Dept. of the Interior) to use the name Hearding Island on all official and Federal maps designating an island in the Superior Bay portion of the harbor parallel to Minnesota Point from 20-24th Street, Duluth, Minnesota. The Duluth City Council officially named it Hearding Island for local use July 1962, ordinance No. 7323. The name Hearding Island is for William Hellins Hearding (1826-1893) who surveyed the Duluth-Superior harbor in 1861 as assigned by Capt. (later general Civil War) George C. Meade.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Skyline Parkway began in 1888 as Terrace Parkway or Rogers Boulevard. It was extended under Mayor Samuel F. Snively. Today, Skyline Parkway Drive stretches about 27 miles. In December 1959 the Duluth City Council and Mayor E. Clifford Bork changed the name of Rogers parkway and Skyline Boulevard to Skyline Parkway. The smokestack at the far left is part of the Duluth steam plant. It heats hundreds of downtown buildings. To the left of the smokestack is Hotel Duluth, which opened to great fanfare on May 21, 1925. Hotel Duluth became senior housing and was renamed Greysolon Plaza in October 1981.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View of West Duluth facing downtown Duluth and Lake Superior. The image includes the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range railroad ore docks, grain elevators on Rice's Point, the Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point, and Lake Superior. Wade Stadium is visible in the center of the picture to the left of the ore docks, with Wheeler Field, 3501 Grand Avenue, to the left of the stadium. Denfeld High School, 4405 West Fourth Street, is in the center of the bottom portion of the image with the West Junior High below it at the southwest corner of North Central Avenue and West Sixth Street. The Interstate Bridge connects Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin at Rice's Point. The Duluth Missabe and Iron Range railroad tracks are at the lower left, continuing to the ore docks where three vessels are waiting to be loaded with ore.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View of the harbor from above, possibly from Skyline Drive. The long, low Northern Pacific Railroad freight sheds are between Minnesota and Industrial slips. A laker is in Minnesota Slip. The coal dock area will be the construction site for the Duluth Arena Auditorium in 1963. Hearding Island is off Minnesota Point in the harbor. The island is the uninhabited site that has been called Bird Island by Park Point residents and Harbor Island by Duluth Bird Club members. The name Hearding Island is for William Hellins Hearding (England, 1826-1893, Milwaukee) who surveyed the Duluth-Superior harbor in 1861 as assigned by Captain (later a general in the Civil War) George C. Meade. The survey, completed in a little over two months, included the St. Louis River up to Fond du Lac, and the bay including Minnesota Point and the mouth of the Nemadji River. Rice's Point is at the middle left of the image showing a number of grain elevators.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Duluth harbor looking at the waterfront, the hillside beyond and the Canal Park area abutting the bridge. At the left on the waterfront are warehouse district buildings and remaining North Western Fuel Company coal docks before you reach slips and Canal Park businesses. At the center of the image is a light building, Hotel Duluth, at Superior Street and Third Avenue East that opened in May 1925. The bay side view of Minnesota Point is at the right with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel yard facility.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View from the harbor looking toward the Duluth downtown business district and the hillside. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel yard is at the right. The U.S. Amry Corps of Engineers Building is framed by the Aerial Lift Bridge whose span is raised for the exit of an approaching ore boat. The ore boat is parallel to the new Arena Auditorium, just opened August 1966. The excursion boat business is at the corner of the Arena and Minnesota Slip. The pyramid shaped roof ofthe Pietro Belluschi designed copper top church, First Methodist, at Central Entrance and Skyline Drive is visible. It was completed in 1966. Canal Park is still industrial but will become a tourist destination following redevelopment in the 1980s. The South Breakwater Inner Light Tower or the Canal Park lighthouse is at the far right.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This image stretches from the ore docks at 33rd Avenue West to about Eighth Avenue East, incorporating downtown Duluth and portions of the East Hillside, Minnesota Point, Superior, and the Superior harbor. A laker has just passed under the Aerial Lift Bridge and is heading in to the Duluth harbor. Grain elevators on Rice's Point are above the vessel. In the center of the photo is Hotel Duluth, just below what is now called the corner of the lake, with Fitger's Brewery to the left.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Minnesota Slip (water), on some 1920s maps called Lake Avenue Slip, is bounded by the Northern Pacific Railway Dock No. 6, and the businesses and warehouses on the harbor edge of Canal Park. The Marshall-Wells water towers are a feature standing tall next to the DeWitt Seitz Company building that stands today. The DeWitt-Seitz Co., whose plant, factory, warehouse and offices were at 390 S. Lake Avenue, was one of Duluth's prosperous businesses. The company, organized in 1905 by Henry F. Seitz and C E. DeWitt, manufactured all grades of mattresses and box springs, and included wholesale and jobbing of furniture and floor coverings. The DeWitt-Seitz best grade mattress and box spring, known as the Sanomade, carried the slogan "Remember the Name, the Rest is Easy." It was used and advertised all over the country. Its wholesale furniture and jobbing business covered Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan, North Dakota and parts of South Dakota and Montana. Including salesmen, the company employed a total of 60 persons in its nine story building that still stands as the DeWitt-Seitz Market Place in Canal Park. F. S. Kelly Furniture Co. bought the furniture stock of the DeWitt-Seitz Co in June of 1961. DeWitt-Seitz continued manufacturing mattresses and reorganized the firm, but the mattress company was sold in 1962.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This view shows light the industrial Canal Park area at the left as you approach the Aerial Bridge and the 1966 completed Duluth Arena Auditorium at the center with its expansive parking lot. Sailboats and small pleasure craft are in the harbor. Fifth Avenue West overpass is at the far right. Note that Canal Park was not a tourist destination until the 1980s. It was zoned as a light industrial site for decades.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The Duluth Yacht Club provided Scenic Rides. The Duluth Yacht Basin on the bayside of Park Point or Minnesota Point, near Tenth Avenue, was originally owned by Julius Barnes. It was subsequently owned by A. B. Hargrave. Hargrave sold it to the Lakehead Boat Basin, Incorporated in May 1959. The formal, brief, Duluth Yacht Club organized in 1890 and incorporated in 1905. It was distinct from the Duluth Boat Club but was absorbed by the Boat Club in 1909. The Lakehead investors were making improvements in 1959 and developed two areas. One was for outboard runabouts the other for cruiser operations. The Lakehead company would sell new and used yachts and boats.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This is the lower side of Superior street between Third Avenue West on the left and approaching Fourth Avenue West on the right. The buildings left to right are Lonsdale at 300, Alworth at 306-308, Siewart's 310, Irving Moore Memorial 312, Torrey 314-316, St. Louis Hotel 318. If we could see a little further toward Fourth the Providence building would be near the corner. The St. Louis hotel was razed and the Medical Arts building constructed in its place in 1932.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The businesses and housing of the East End are visible in this wide view facing west. Superior Street, East First Street and East Second Street run diagonally from left to right in the lower right quadrant of the image. In the distance beyond the Lift Bridge is Rice's point.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The businesses and housing of the East End are visible in this wide view facing west. Superior Street, East First Street and East Second Street run diagonally from left to right in the lower half of the image.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The Duluth harbor is frozen over and snow covered, but the lake is still open. It is very rare for Lake Superior to freeze fully. Which ever way the wind blows the lake ice shifts. Lake ice piles up on Minnesota Point or moves out into the lake or onto the northeast segments of shore. It changes every minute. This is a terrific view of the shape of Canal Park in the foreground and the Point as it extends toward Wisconsin. The U.S. Naval Reserve Training Center is at the corner of Thirteenth Street and Minnesota Avenue on the Point. Thirteenth is where the road, Minnesota Avenue, jogs to the right. The structure at the right is the Arena Auditorium (will be added to and renamed the DECC in 1987) and Pioneer Hall. The feature in the harbor off of Minnesota Point is the snow covered Hearding Island. The skywalk from downtown Duluth to the arena through Pioneer Hall is known as the "Northwest Passage."
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A view (for a 1961 Photo Contest) of the Duluth-Superior high bridge's first span being lowered into place after construction began two years before on November 28, 1958.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The "North West" with passengers aboard deck was built in Cleveland, Ohio in 1894 by the Globe Shipbuilding Company but operated by the Northern Steamship Company of Buffalo, New York until 1911 when she burned.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections