DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace To Celebrate 40th Anniversary Milestone

View from the parking lot across the street.

Susie and I moved to Duluth in the spring of 1986. At the time, I don't believe there were any hotels in Canal Park. There were a few restaurants--most notably Grandma's--a block-long half-empty office building and an emptied warehouse transformed into a bar unimaginatively called "The Warehouse Bar." Smack dab in the middle of this promontory was the DeWitt-Seitz Building.

Having come to town from elsewhere I was under the impression that the collection of retail businesses assembled in the DeWitt Seitz had been there for ages. Little did I know the Art Dock, Blue Heron Trading Company, J-Skylark and Sandra Dee’s Minnesota Gifts had taken residence here as recently as 1985, only one year previous. Each continues to operate in the building to this day. Little by little these businesses would be joined by an assortment of retailers and popular eating spaces and the first weekend in May they will be celebrating their 40th Anniversary. 

SPECIAL EVENTS – MAY 2 & 3

On May 2 & 3, DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace will celebrate four decades of shopping and community as the 10 retailers mark their 40^th anniversary with a series of special events and drawings. Located in the heart of Duluth’s Canal Park, everyone is invited to join in the festivities. From exclusive sales to unique in-store experiences, here's what each store has planned for this milestone celebration.  

 

Friday, May 2: Ribbon Cutting, 5:00 p.m.      

 

Saturday, May 3:

 

Art Dock

1-3 pm            Artist Sue Pavlatos      Demo

3-5 pm            Reception, May 3        “From Norway to the North Shore”

Drawing: “Evening in Canal Park”       (Matted print by Sue Pavlatos)           $125 value
                        “Winter Silence”         (Matted print by Sue Pavlatos)           $75 value

An exhibit of Pavlatos’ paintings titled “From Norway to the North Shore” will be on display April 28 - May 26.

 

Blue Heron

Anniversary Bag Sale and Food Shelf Drive

**Bring Food Shelf Donation and receive 20% off one Blue Heron Bagful of in-stock merchandise **

Drawings: For an assortment of some of our Favorite Products grouped together for Lucky Winners, valued at more than $1,000!

 

Hepzibah’s

Guess the number of Jelly Belly jellybeans in the Asst’o Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Jar. The closest number wins the works! Yummm.

 

J. Skylark 

Chalk Board House

Drawing: Of our favorite items

 

Lake Avenue Café

Gift Card Special: Buy $50.00 get $10.00 or buy $100.00 to receive $25.00

Drawing: Dinner for Two, 3 Course Meal with Wine Pairing

 

Minnesota Gifts by Sandra Dee 
Storewide sale!

Drawing: Your choice of a Sweatshirt

 

Naturalight Candles & Coffee  
Special Coffee Bar Anniversary Beverage!

Drawing: $50.00 Gift Card

 

Northern Waters

Live Music                   

 

Pholicious  
10% OFF Vietnamese or Chinese Dinner over $20.00

Drawing: Dinner for Two value $40.00.              

 

Two & Co.
20% off Bag with Donation for Second Harvest Foodbank

Drawing: $50.00 Gift Card and Goodie Basket

 

DEWITT-SEITZ MARKETPLACE

Drawing for ten $50.00 Marketplace gift certificates.

 

How to Get There

The DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace is located in the heart of Canal Park at 394 S. Lake Avenue and Buchanan Street. Public parking is available both in front and in back. 

 

DeWitt Seitz Building, 1952

For what it's worth, we're just over three weeks from a pretty big day for a batch of local business who took advantage of an opportunity when success was not a sure thing. Mark your calendars, Duluth. Congratulations, DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace group.

Wordless Wednesday: Just Doodlin'

 

Help Support West Duluth's Theater Revival

Duluth’s theatrical history is steeped in rich traditions, with iconic venues like The West Theatre and The Alhambra Theatre standing as cultural beacons in the community. These historic landmarks not only drew audiences from across the region but also became deeply woven into the social fabric of Duluth.

  Built in 1937, The West Theatre was a stunning example of Art Deco architecture. It became a popular gathering spot for movie lovers and community members alike. With the changing tides of the entertainment industry and urban development, however, the theater was forced to close its doors in 1976. After decades of dormancy, The West Theater was triumphantly revived in 2019, bringing back its historical charm while serving a new generation of arts and culture enthusiasts.

The Alhambra. Circa 1913

  Similarly, The Alhambra Theater—famed for its lavish design and opulent interior—was a space where vaudeville acts and films transported audiences into worlds of imagination and creativity. While it, too, faced challenges from modern entertainment trends--shuttering with the advents of "talkies"-- the efforts to restore this gem are nearly complete.

  These restorations are more than just architectural projects. They represent the preservation of Duluth’s artistic legacy and the rekindling of community spirit. With The West Theater restored and The Alhambra’s renovation nearing completion, these venues will once again offer spaces where art, performance, and culture thrive.

  By supporting the revival of these theaters, future generations can experience the magic of live performances and cinematic history, keeping Duluth’s cultural heart beating strong.

Help Support West Duluth’s Theatre Revival

The West Theatre is a unique establishment offering movies and entertainment for the community. The Alhambra offers a unique theatre experience as well as entertainment in a beautifully restored venue.

The Alhambra restoration is nearly complete. Located in the heart of West Duluth at 321 N. Central Ave., the theater is on the cusp of reopening, thanks to the dedication and vision of its current owner Bob Boone, and a host of volunteers. To complete the project Boone is offering the following incentives for contributors:

Visionary - Save A Seat $2500/year (or $220 per month)
•  Exclusive newsletter with member recognition on our website.
• Access to purchase tickets during member pre-sales*
• Occasional discounted event tickets.
• Members-only monthly screening.
• Two admissions to West Night, a members only appreciation night
• Four pairs of movie passes.
* Four certificates, each good for a pair of drinks.
• Two tickets to your choice of our special events
• Occasional meet and greet opportunities
* Film party for you and twenty of your friends. (Upon scheduling availability)
• Discounted theater rentals. (Save $350)
* Locally crafted coffee mug
* Pair of custom T-shirts
* Personal Marquee Message
* Annual Unlimited Film Pass For Two
• Name engraved on a brass plate on a seat at The Alhambra.
 
Directors Circle - Save A Seat   $1000/year (or $88 per month)
 • Exclusive newsletter with member recognition on our website.
• Access to purchase tickets during member pre-sales*
• Occasional discounted event tickets.
• Members-only monthly screening.
• Two admissions to West Night, a members only appreciationn night
• Four pairs of movie passes.
* Four certificates, each good for a pair of drinks.
• Two tickets to your choice of our special events
• Occasional meet and greet opportunities
* Film party for you and twenty of your friends. (Upon scheduling availability)
• Discounted theater rentals. (Save $350)
* Locally crafted coffee mug
* Pair of custom T-shirts
• Name engraved on a brass plate on a seat at The West.
 
Icon $500/year (or $44 per month)
• Exclusive newsletter with member recognition on our website.
• Access to purchase tickets during member pre-sales*
• Occasional discounted event tickets.
• Members-only monthly screening.
• Two admissions to West Night, a members only appreciation night
• Three pairs of movie passes.
• Two tickets to your choice of our special events
• Occasional meet and greet oopportunities
* Film party for you and fifteen of your friends. (Upon scheduling availability)
• Discounted theater rentals. (Save $200)
* Locally crafted coffee mug
* Pair of custom T-shirts
 
Leading Role $250/year (or $22 per month)
• Exclusive newsletter with member recognition on our website.
• Access to purchase tickets during member pre-sales*
• Occasional discounted event tickets.
• Members-only monthly screening.
* Two admissions to West Night, a members only appreciation night
• Two pairs of movie passes.
* Film party for you and ten of your friends. (Upon scheduling availability)*
* Locally crafted coffee mug
 
Supporting Cast Membership $100/year (or $9 per month)
• Exclusive newsletter with member recognition on our website.
• Access to purchase tickets during member pre-sales*
• Occasional discounted event tickets.
• Members-only monthly screening.
* Two admissions to West Night, a members only appreciation night
• One pair of movie passes.
 
DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS
* Benefit packages will be mailed directly to members.
* The West and Alhambra are not a 501 C3 non-profit. (In theory, anyway)
* Film parties include private use of our Black Lounge, viewing of a scheduled current film, and free pop and popcorn for you and your guests.
Licensing fees will incur if you want to show your favorite film. There may be a fee if scheduled outside normal operating hours.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

TAKE THE NEXT STEP HERE:

https://www.thewesttheatre.com/support

https://www.thewesttheatre.com/

In What Way Was John Glenn the Last American Hero?

Alice George titled her book The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn to reflect her view of Glenn as a singular figure in American history—a man whose life embodied a heroic ideal that she believes has faded from the national consciousness. In her portrayal, Glenn isn’t just a hero for his feats as a fighter pilot, astronaut, and senator, but a symbol of a bygone era when Americans embraced real, flawed individuals as icons of courage and service. She suggests that his 1962 orbit of Earth, his steady character, and his lifelong dedication to public duty made him a unifying figure during a fractious time, like the Cold War and the turbulent 1960s—a role she argues is rare in today’s cynical age.

George doesn’t explicitly dissect the title in the book, but her narrative implies a nostalgia for a time when figures like Glenn could capture the public’s imagination without being torn down by modern skepticism. In interviews around the book’s 2020 release, she noted how Glenn’s death in 2016 prompted obituaries that universally hailed him as heroic, striking her as a contrast to a culture quick to spotlight flaws over valor. She seems to propose that Glenn might be “the last” because society now favors fictional superheroes over flesh-and-blood ones, a shift she ties to a loss of faith in human potential amid scandals and division. The title’s provocative edge—implying no successors—challenges readers to consider whether such heroes can still emerge, or if Glenn’s mold, forged in a specific American moment, is truly broken.

The book brought to mind two other books I've read in recent years, the first being The Last Boy, Jane Leavy's book about Mickey Mantle. "The Sports Illustrated journalist titled her story The Last Boy because sports journalism was moving into a new era. Up till Mantle, the innocence of our heroes was preserved because of the unwritten rule that journalists protect the privacy of person's of importance. They helped maintain the images that had been carefully crafted.

"Leavy essentially states that at a certain moment in time a shift occurred. Up until then, if you revealed what you knew about a player, you were bad. You were slapped on the wrist and sent to your room without supper. Post-Mantle, in the new era of sports journalism, if you failed to reveal something you knew, you were punished. Writers were no longer permitted to conceal. It was their job to reveal."(1)

In both books, the authors use a singular iconic figure to illustrate how journalism in particular, and the broader culture in general, have changed.

The second book that came to mind was Ghost Burglar, by Jim King and Jack Burch. Ghost Burglar is the story of Bernard Welch, one of the most successful thieves in U.S. history, as well a surprisingly witty prison escapee, with two such exits under his belt. 

The book does an excellent job of showing the education of Bernard Welch, how he learned his trade and how he’d become so elusive. How did he end up with a home, including a sauna and indoor pool, in one of Duluth's most elite neighborhoods? That was a lesson he learned from an incident earlier in his career. He was an east coast crook, rich neighborhoods from Jersey to D.C., but he got caught because 200 miles away is still too near when fencing stolen goods. During his first stint in prison he assessed the mistakes he'd made and refined his methods. One of these was how to put his stolen merchandise back into the market and he settled on an unsuspecting community a thousand miles away.(2)

The reason this latter book came to mind is because one of the homes Bernard Welch robbed was that of John Glenn's. There were awards Glenn had received for his achievements, made of gold, which the burglar stole and melted down for resale. 

Though each of these books tell different tales, it's interesting how they also intersect and reveal things about the times we live in.

(1) The Shifting Tides of Sports Journalism

(2) Ghost Burglar

Related Link
Eight Minutes with Jack Burch and Jim King, Co-Authors of Ghost Burglar

Flies Won't Mate in a Petri Dish

Creative Commons 2.0

Sometime this past week, one of the articles I was reading--and I can't recall which or where or by whom--included this sentence: "Flies won't mate in a petri dish." For some reason the statement was so unusual and intriguing that I scribbled it down and typed it into a "Notes" file. 

A few days later I noticed that I had included several paragraphs of text. Was this a cut-and-paste from the article or were they my own original words? The beginning of a blog post or a story? I knew that the last part came from my own observations about sterile work environments. However, rather than be guilty of plagiarism I decided instead to turn the core elements of the article into a poem, smitten by an urge to create.

                     * * * * * 

Flies Won’t Mate in a Petri Dish

Beneath the hum of sterile light,

Gleams a petri dish, cold and tight—

A cage of glass, pristine, severe,

With trapped flies buzzing there in fear.

Wings slice air, iridescent, bold,

Even so, no courtship dance unfolds.

No rot, no breeze, no wild decay,

Just a void where instincts fray.  

Dr. Voss, standing mute with trembling hand,

Dreams of strains of fly she’s deftly planned—

Glowing genes, a perfect breed,

But the flies defy her sterile creed.

“Too clean,” she sighs, “too pure, too still,”

Chaos, not order, spurs their will.

In meadows rank with ferment’s call,

They’d mate—not here, they scorn the wall.  

With a sprinkle of mold and a desperate plea,

Antennae twitch, the flies dance with glee.

The dish, once tyrant, hums alive,

Proving life in mess will always thrive.

Utopians chase their polished dream,

A world too smooth, a muted gleam—

Like flies, we shun the sealed design,

For in the stink, the soul aligns.  

Office tombs with all their windows shut,

Oppress the heart, the spirit cut.

Perfection falters, hollow, bare,

While struggle breeds what’s raw and rare.

From petri prisons to grand ideals,

The flawed, the real, is the thing that heals—

Flies and men, in chaos free,

Find love where life is meant to be.  

                    * * * * *

Throwback Thursday: Everythng Is Broken

"It's nice to be known as a legend, and people will pay to see one, but for most people, once is enough. You have to deliver the goods." ~ Bob Dylan, Chronicles

Maybe one reason some people like Dylan is simply because of the durability of his career. Like the Energizer Bunny he just keeps going. Like the Cinderella Man he keeps coming back.

Yesterday I noted that John Hinchey called John Wesley Harding "the comeback of comeback albums." Others have hailed Blood on the Tracks as Dylan's great comeback, and it certainly was an exceptional album after the early Seventies period that produced the critically dissed Self-Portrait, Dylan and Planet Waves. When Dylan released Time Out of Mind in 1997 it was yet another comeback level achievement, winning a Grammy and receiving flurries of critical acclaim. His Never Ending Tour had been on the road nearly ten years, but now people were beginning to notice.

I don't recall many people calling his Gospel Period a comeback, though Slow Train Coming is a superfine album for its production values, cohesiveness and earnestness. Songs like "Serve Somebody" and "Precious Angel" are written in the old Dylanesque style but with a new born-again sensibility. You don't fake the emotion he conveys in "I Believe In You."

The comeback I wanted to talk about this morning, though, occurred in 1989 with the release of Oh Mercy. Rolling Stone gave the album high marks and I remember wondering if that was only because they're so predisposed to liking Dylan. Still, I bought the vinyl and continue to listen to it to this day.

Oh Mercy was hailed as a comeback, not just because it had songs noticeably more meaningful than anything Bob Dylan had recently released, but because Daniel Lanois' production gave it cohesion. There was cohesion on Empire Burlesque, of course, but that cohesion was a little too slick, a little too commercial, whereas this record was filled with atmospheric, hazy production -- a sound as arty as most assumed the songs to be. And Dylan followed suit, giving Lanois significant songs -- palpably social works, love songs, and poems -- that seemed to connect with his past. And, at the time, this production made it seem like the equivalent of his '60s records, meaning that its artiness was cutting edge, not portentous. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine

In Dylan's Chronicle: Volume One, he devotes an entire chapter to this period of new fertility when Oh Mercy was birthed. Keep in mind that the book is only five chapters, so that's 20% of the book. The events of this time were important enough to dive into at length. 1987 was a difficult year because he's injured his hand in a freak accident that winter, and was scheduled to do 100 concerts beginning in the spring. It was also a difficult time because Dylan himself was not sure who he was. "There was a missing person inside of myself and I needed to find him."

Dylan states that he had not been writing songs for a while, but then the muse returned. He'd be sitting at a table and twenty-some verses for "Political World" flowed out from his pen. He placed these in a drawer, and they were soon joined by verses for a song called "What Good Am I?" More songs followed and he would see what their relationship would be to one another.

The reason I found Oh Mercy to be such a meaningful album is that it became clear that his "Gospel Phase" had not just been a phase. The heart of his spiritual experiences now seemed integrated naturally into a world view that was less about preaching, but true to a vision of how things are.

Another feature of Oh Mercy is that it is primarily slow songs, reflective and thoughtful songs. It's a nice album to put on at the end of the day when you want to unwind. The only two fast-paced pieces here are the kickoff opener, "Political World" and "Everything Is Broken". "Political World" just lays it out there, an indictment of how things work in our modern age. "Everything Is Broken" gets more specific. It's a "list song" on a theme. It's a broken world, "you'd better get that in your head." Perhaps formulaic stylistically, it makes a point.

This is not a new theme. It hearkens back to Hard Rain. It hearkens back to the Fall and humanity's exile from Paradise. And it implores us to be realistic about what we expect next.

Several songs give direction on this point. Don't catch the disease of conceit. Don't neglect the needy, forgotten and disenfranchised among us. And keep ringing them bells.

Everything Is Broken

Broken lines, broken strings
Broken threads, broken springs
Broken idols, broken heads
People sleeping in broken beds
Ain’t no use jiving
Ain’t no use joking
Everything is broken

Broken bottles, broken plates
Broken switches, broken gates
Broken dishes, broken parts
Streets are filled with broken hearts
Broken words never meant to be spoken
Everything is broken

Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground

Broken cutters, broken saws
Broken buckles, broken laws
Broken bodies, broken bones
Broken voices on broken phones
Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin'
Everything is broken

Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face

Broken hands on broken ploughs
Broken treaties, broken vows
Broken pipes, broken tools
People bending broken rules
Hound dog howling, bullfrog croaking
Everything is broken

Copyright © 1989 by Special Rider Music