Hugh McCulloch, Abraham Lincoln's secretary of the Treasury, purchased the land that later developed into Lakeside in 1871. He platted the area while living in London, and named it New London.
By 1889, the settlement, independent of Duluth, incorporated as the village of Lakeside, and a few years later merged with the city of Duluth. The area would greatly prosper.
In 1939, during the Great Depression, a young fellow by the name of Lyman Marshall opened Marshall Hardware. His son, Lyman Jr., took over the business in his 20s after his father died in 1961, and his sons took over in 2000.
There aren't many traditional retail stores here, so it fills a valuable niche in the community. The economic downturn hasn't impacted Marshall Hardware yet. In fact, 2008 was their best year ever, with a 16 percent increase in sales. Scott Marshall attributes this to the closure of Daugherty's Hardware and Menards over the hill.
That is only part of it: Many people are making the wise decision to avoid a 40-minute roundtrip drive to the mall area whenever possible, and we are seeing a resurgence of community involvement.
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Marshall succeeds where others fail by focusing on customer service and on their valuable employees. Their people rarely leave. They run a relaxed business in which the bottom line seems to take care of itself.
Scott is visibly relieved when comparing running the family business to his former career with a Fortune 200 company, when he ran stores that were chronically understaffed and pressured for more profits.
They also have a long history of being interwoven into the community.
Myrtle Marshall, the matriarch, set the bar high. While well known as an opponent of liquor sales in Lakeside, she was also instrumental in saving the Rose Garden from the freeway construction, the creation of the Duluth Playhouse, and is in the Duluth Hall of Fame.
The Marshall brothers carry on this civic spirit through continued involvement in efforts to improve the community. They are currently working with other Lakeside businesses to raise money for a train depot there. This will serve as a launching point for recreation-minded tourists.
Later this year the Lakewalk extension will make it all the way to Sammy's Pizza and will skirt alongside the site of the hoped-for depot. The finished Lakewalk to go all the way to Brighton Beach is also being promoted as a shovel ready project for the economic stimulus.
