On this day in Duluth in 1919, Hubert Hart d’Autremont was married to Helen C. Congdon, joining two of Duluth’s most powerful families. On paper, the union seemed inevitable: Hubert was the son of Charles d’Autremont, Jr., a native of Angelica, New York, who came to Duluth in 1882 and opened a legal practice specializing…

On this day in 1925, Northeastern Minnesota Civic and Commerce Association president James Harper announced that a fund of $50,000 had been created for “magazine and newspaper publicity throughout the United States and Canada, advertising the Arrowhead Country.” The money would also be used to makes maps, booklets, and pamphlets of communities within the Arrowhead…

On this day in Duluth in 1958 at 7:15 p.m., Engine 1713 of the Northern Pacific Railroad became the railroad’s last steam-powered locomotives to operate out of Duluth—and on the entire Northern Pacific Line. According to the Duluth News Tribune, NP had been replacing steam trains with diesel-powered trains for some time, and the Lake…

On this day in Duluth in1994, the Chinese Lantern restaurant, housed in the former Duluth Athletic Club building (itself the former Duluth Commercial Club building) was destroyed by fire. Nearly 50 firefighters responded to the call, which first went out at 5:45 a.m. when temperatures were at 18-below zero. Three pumper trucks froze up from…

On this day in Duluth in 1910, an American flag was raised over the still-under-construction Alworth Building for the first time. At sixteen stories, it was the tallest building in Duluth—and indeed, the entire state—when first built and remains the tallest in Duluth today. Marshall H. Alworth—Duluth pioneer in lumber, mining, and real estate—raised the…

On this day in 1929, a Duluth City Council meeting broke into a heated debate over two potential designs for converting Duluth’s Aerial Transfer Bridge into a lift bridge. There had originally been just one plan, by John Harrington of the Kansas City Bridge Company. But then C. A. P. Turner—designer of the original 1905…

On this day in Duluth in 1893, fire swept through the St. Louis Hotel, killing two guests. According to the Duluth News Tribune, the fire started at 10:40 with a gas explosion in the sub basement followed by a “rush of thick suffocating smoke which spread through the whole building almost in a single moment”…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the oldest portion of the Fitger’s Brewery—the original 1881 Lake Superior Brewery building constructed by then owner Mike Fink—was destroyed by fire. The old structure stood between the brew house and the office/bottling facility—two massive stone and brick buildings that were left unharmed by the flames. The building’s…

On this day in Duluth in 1913, the Duluth Curling Club’s new facility—the largest of its kind on the planet—at 1338 London Road celebrated its informal opening after workman spent the previous 24 hours working non-stop to complete the building and lay down the ice. Over 2,000 people attended—all were either members of the Club…

On this day in 1855, the U.S. Congress ratified the 1854 Treaty of LaPointe, opening what is now the “Minnesota side” of Lake Superior to settlement by U.S. citizens. The city of Superior, Wisconsin, had been established the previous year following the announcement of government locks being built at Saulte Sainte Marie, which would connect…