March 30, 1889: Village of New London becomes the Village of Lakeside

On this day in 1889, the Village of New London became the Village of Lakeside. The westernmost portion of Lakeside, between today’s 40th and 43rd Avenues East, was established as “Bellville” by J. B. Bell in 1857.  In 1871 Hugh McCulloch, a business associate of Philadelphia financier Jay Cooke and the U.S. treasury secretary from 1865 to 1869, purchased a large parcel of land, including Bellville, between today’s 40th and 54th Avenues East from the lakeshore to today’s Colorado Avenue (originally Summit Street). McCulloch was then living in England, where he and Cooke established the banking firm of Jay Cooke, McCulloch & Co. From his London office, he platted his Minnesota townsite and, obviously inspired by his newly adopted town, named its streets and public squares for English noblemen and landmarks as well as prominent members of Cooke’s banks, including himself. He called his town New London. George Sargent, another agent of Cooke’s purchased the town a few years later. His wife Mary become the town’s proprietor after his 1875 death. Eleven years later Mary sold the property to her son William and his friends, who established the Lakeside Land Company and began buying property between 54th and 75th Avenues East. Because the Lester River ran through the center of this new development, they named it Lester Park. The Village of Lakeside became a city in 1892, and the next year joined Duluth as the neighborhoods of Lakeside and Lester Park.

From 1892 to 1934 the Lester Park Line of the Duluth Street Railway Company, also known as the Lakeside Line, provided streetcar service between Twenty-second Avenue east and Sixty-first Avenue East. Photo by Hugh McKenzie, date unknown. (Image: Zenith City Press)