North Shore

By Peter Passi ppassi@duluthnews.com

Duluth’s North Shore neighborhood remains the source of much of the city’s drinking water. The Lakewood pumphouse, constructed in 1896 at 8130 Congdon Boulevard, was Duluth’s answer to recurring outbreaks of typhoid fever that began to afflict residents in the days before the arrival of a citywide sanitary sewer system. The search for a clean source of water, located away from existing population centers, led Duluth officials up the shore a few miles past the mouth of the Lester River.

There, they built a castle-like pumphouse on the shore of Lake Superior. The brick and brownstone facility continues to provide Duluth with a steady supply of clean water. On a typical day, the pumphouse delivers about 16 million gallons of clear water to city residents, but the operation has more than double that capacity at the ready, if needed.

Initially, the imposing facility’s pumps were driven by a massive coal and steam power system, but modernday electrical turbines now do the job. The building’s facade has changed a bit through the years, with the original smokestack and cone-shaped turret roof now removed from the structure.

The North Shore neighborhood stretches up Congdon Boulevard from Brighton Beach to the McQuade Road. Homes located along the corridor boast dazzling views of Lake Superior.

The scenic highway has become a favorite route for cyclists and motorists out to take in the scenery, including several hidden beaches, as well as the ever-popular Brighton Beach, where people flock in all types of weather — fair or foul. The McQuade Safe Harbor bookends this attractive lake-oriented neighborhood. way for liquor to be sold there.

Adding to the allure of Duluth’s North Shore neighborhood is the Lester Park Golf Course, located to the east of the Lester River. The municipal course offers 27 holes of play, but there has been talk of possibly downsizing it in the future to 18 to make way for additional housing in the area.

Attorney, real estate developer and former Duluth Mayor Samuel F. Snively helped draw attention to the natural beauty of this neighborhood when he set out to build a scenic road from his home near Hawk’s Ridge to the mouth of the Lester River around the turn of the century. The result — Seven Bridges Road — crosses back and forth across Amity Creek at points designed to maximize attractive views as the stream ultimately converges with its neighbor, the Lester River.

Lester Park became a popular tourist destination in the late 1890s, boasting a three-level “rustic” bridge and a pavilion, featuring refreshments, dancing, a merry-go-round, a shooting gallery and a petting zoo, as Dierckins notes in his picturepostcard book, “Zenith.” Those structures were later destroyed by fire.

One of the oldest remaining structures in the area is a former federal fish hatchery built to the east of the Lester River’s mouth. Many have likened the ornate building to a gingerbread house.

While the hatchery has long since closed, the building now belongs to the University of Minnesota Duluth, which now operates it as a center for limnology — the study of freshwater bodies.