May 30, 1905: City rejects liquor license for pavilion in Lincoln Park

On this day in Duluth in 1905, Duluth’s Common Council rejected a request by W. J. Chestock for a license to sell liquor in a pavilion within Lincoln Park. Chestock intended to rebuild a pavilion adjacent to the west side of Lincoln Park on Fifth Street, between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Avenues West, that had burned down the previous summer. Unlike the city-built pavilion in Lincoln Park pictured below, privately operated amusement pavilions located adjacent to parks were common at the time, offering games, live music, dancing, candy, refreshments, and sometime liquor and beer. Chestock intended to use his pavilion for dancing, skating, indoor ball games, and musical entertainment, but when he applied for a license to serve liquor, the neighbors strongly objected. They claimed that it was not so much the dancing they were opposed to, but rather the liquor. They feared that the park as a “family fresh air ground” would suffer from the introduction of liquor. Undaunted, Chestock persevered, and in May 1906 the council finally granted him a license to operate a dancing, concert, and amusement pavilion on the condition that it did not violate any city ordinances. Chestock’s pavilion burned down in November, 1916. Many privately owned pavilions were built adjacent to the parks—including Fairmount Park, Chester Park, and Lester Park—at the time, several of which were destroyed by fire. The pavilion that Cox replaced was built by Civil War veteran and former city alderman Ambrose Cox, who also served as one of Duluth’s first Park Police. Read more about the history of Lincoln Park here and Duluth’s Park Police here.

A lithographic postcard of the Lincoln Park Pavilion made between 1901 and 1915—though the photograph may have been taken in the 1890s. (Image: Zenith City Press)