Odd, obscure, historic, humorous, random and/or relevant items from the archives of the Duluth News Tribune
1963
Workers begin demolition of the Spalding Hotel in downtown Duluth on November 20, 1963. (Duluth Herald file photo)
The Spalding Hotel, once located in downtown Duluth at the corner of Superior Street and Fifth Avenue West, has been mentioned several times in past posts – usually because it appeared off to the side in a photo focused on some other building, or in a wide shot of downtown Duluth.
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Today I hit the jackpot on Spalding Hotel images – a misplaced file folder in the News Tribune Attic containing bunches of photos from inside and outside the hotel in the year before it was demolished as part of an urban renewal project; the Ordean Building now occupies part of the site.
I don’t have the time to scan all of the photos in tonight, so here are a few select images from the file. I’ll add more in the coming weeks.
Leonard Olson (left), a 10-year Spalding Hotel employee, and guest Harmon Brown wait in the hotel lobby on June 27, 1963. (Duluth Herald file photo)
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The Spalding Hotel lobby on July 1, 1963. (News-Tribune file photo)
Here are a couple of interesting items when you look closely at the above photo…
It’s the arch that made a reappearance this year at the Minnesota State Fair, at O’Gara’s restaurant. It very clearly does match. And, if you look even closer at that poster atop the radiator:
It’s a movie poster for the 1962 horror movie “Premature Burial.” A not-quite-the-same, but very similar poster for the movie can be seen here .
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Mrs. Darlene Park, a three-year employee of the Spalding Hotel, in a hotel elevator on June 27, 1963. (News-Tribune file photo)
Note the fallout shelter sign at upper left – capacity 50 people.
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Within a few months demolition was under way. Here is one more shot from late November or December 1963, as the Spalding Hotel passed into history:
Share any information and stories you have by going to the News Tribune Attic and posting a comment.
If you have historical photos of the Spalding, or anything in the area, that you’d be willing to share, send them to akrueger@duluthnews.com .
