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Freimuth 's Department Store closes, 1961 Duluth News Tribune: Blogs (MN) - Saturday, February 28,
2009 Author: Andrew October 18, 1961 Freimuth
's to quit business today Duluth
Herald, October 18, 1961 Freimuth 's Department Store, Duluth's oldest family-owned
firm, will go out of business at 5:15 p.m. today. J.J. Mickelson, Minneapolis, court-appointed trustee of
the financially troubled store, ordered the closing. He said he had no
alternative. The store went into bankruptcy Monday after a
reorganization plan, worked out by the U.S. District Court and the referee in
bankruptcy in Minneapolis, failed to restore the firm's financial footing. Edgar Freimuth , president of Freimuth 's, at 2 W.
Superior St., said his 60 employees did not learn of their job losses until
Tuesday. He told them as soon as he learned of the decision, he said. Freimuth 's was founded in 1883 by the present president's
grandfather, I. Freimuth , as a general store, and was moved to its present
location in 1900 from 119 W. Superior St. Freimuth said another 40 persons are employed in leased
departments which "will remain open at least temporarily." The
leased departments are Gift House Stamps, furniture, beauty shop, a post
office sub-station, millinery, watches and jewelry, downtown ticket office,
restaurant and shoe repair. Freimuth said he "explored every possible course of
keeping the store operating." ... "I had no alternative but to order the closing,"
Mickelson said. "The reorganization plan failed. If the people of Duluth
were interested in keeping Freimuth 's open they should have supplied the
necessary capital." ... Mickelson said he will come to Duluth and make
arrangements for a complete inventory of the stock. Then he will decide
whether to sell the inventory in bulk "or to someone who wants to
operate a department store," he said. ------------------------ Freimuth 's was located on the site of what is now an open
plaza next to the Minnesota Power building, where the city Christmas tree is
displayed each year. After the department store closed, the building - known as
the Fowler Building - sat largely vacant for several years. It was acquired,
along with the neighboring Fidelity Building, in 1968 by a group called
Duluth Downtown Properties Inc., and was razed in April of that year (more on
that below). In November 1968, the News-Tribune reported that the group
wanted to remodel the Fidelity Building "for use as a motor hotel of
about 100 units. It would be in conjunction with a parking ramp and retail
shops to be constructed on the site of the Freimuth Building." Obviously, that didn't happen. From what I can tell, the
site sat empty until the Minnesota Power complex went in.... but if anyone
out there knows more and can fill in the gaps, please post a comment. ---------------------------- The photo above has some nice detail. Here are some
zoomed-in views. Looking south down Lake Avenue, there is the railing of
the bridge over Michigan Street, then the Metropole Hotel building. Among the
other signs just visible are one for Joe Huie's Cafe, and one for Old
Bohemian beer: Here is a look at the busy Superior Street facade of
Freimuth 's: Next door to the Freimuth 's building was the Fidelity
Building, housing - at this time - what appears to be the Kelley-Duluth
hardware store (the sign is a bit hard to read). Beyond that to the west, it
looks like there was a furniture store: -------------------------------- Here is another photo of Freimuth 's, from August 4, 1959,
showing a window display that must have been celebrating the new St. Lawrence
Seaway: In the background, behind the people looking in the
window, is a building with a "Diamonds" sign on it, so I'm guessing
it housed a jewelry store. It appears that it's located where the Tech
Village complex is today. Anyone have more information? ------------------------- As mentioned earlier, the Freimuth 's / Fowler Building
came down in April 1968. Here are a couple photos of the demolition, both
from April 16, 1968: Visible in the photo above is an entrance to Joe Huie's
Cafe and the Metropole Bar: Here is the second razing photo: The Freimuth Building, long an important part of the
Duluth business community, is being razed for possible development of a
retail store, parking ramp and motel complex. (Duluth Herald file photo) Visible in this photo are a Fitger's beer sign along
Michigan Street behind the crane, and in the far, far background is a very
early Skywalk "bridge" over Michiagn Street - I think that's the
one out the back of what is now Wells Fargo Bank: --------------------------- Finally, here is the last Freimuth 's image from the
archives - an undated artist's concept for what probably would have been a
major renovation, rather than a replacement, of the Freimuth 's Building: This would probably date to 1955-1960; judging from the
financial difficulties the store faced in 1961, I don't think they would have
been planning such major work anytime after 1960. ---------------------------- So that's everything about Freimuth 's in the Attic's clipping and photo files... and I'm exhausted. I've been going at a whirlwind pace on posting the past couple months. I'm going to scale back just a bit in frequency of posting for a while; we'll see you back here in a few days. |
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