September 29, 1908: Duluth rents space above paint store for municipal court

On this day in Duluth in 1908, the Common Council passed an ordinance that “provides for the leasing of the new municipal court on the second floor of the building now being erected adjoining the police station.” Since 1889 Duluth’s municipal court was in the Michigan Street level of City Hall, but as Duluth continue to grow beyond expectations, city officials had pushed beyond the building’s capacity. The new building, at 124 East Superior Street was designed by renowned Duluth architect Frederick German and built for Duluth industrialist David P. McDonald. Dunlop & Moore, a builders’ and painters’ supply store, had already leased the first floor. Beginning in 1890, for their court appearance prisoners held at police headquarters were lead from the Police Headquarters and Jail next door via a passage we today would call a skywalk. When the court moved in 1908, a similar passage was created between police headquarters and the second floor McDonald’s building, originally intended to be used as office space. But the second floor of the new building was several feet lower than the police station and jail’s second floor, which held the prisoners. So when workers knocked open a wall to create a passage between the jail and the municipal court, they also had to build a set of stairs and a ramp in the McDonald building. The municipal court moved into Duluth’s new City Hall in 1929. Today McDonald’s building is home today to Shel/Don Print and Design. Read a much more complete history of the building here.

The McDonald Building, aka the Service Motor Company Building, photographed in 1963 by Perry Gallagher Jr. [Image: UMD Martin Library]