Tag Archives: morgan park

Morgan Park High School memories

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This year marks the end of the line for classes at what is now Morgan Park Middle School; students from Morgan Park will attend classes at the new Lincoln Park Middle School starting in the fall.

It’s also the 30th anniversary of the closing of Morgan Park High School in that building; the high school combined with Denfeld in 1982, and the building then housed a junior high and, later, a middle school.

This week’s News Tribune Sunday Opinion section features memories of Morgan Park, and I thought it was a good time to dig up some more photos of the school from the News Tribune Attic. These photos are from the last years of Morgan Park High School; click on the photos for larger versions, and enjoy (and look for a surprise in one of these pictures)…

At a noisy pep rally on March 7, 1979, at Morgan Park High School, faculty members staged a parody of the Lake City cheerleaders and basketball team, which Morgan Park will meet in the state Class A tournament later in the week at the Met Sports Center in Bloomington. (Charles Curtis / Duluth Herald)

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Morgan Park High School Principal Milan Karich asks students not to walk out of classes on March 25, 1981, to protest plans to close the school. (Karl Jaros / Duluth Herald)

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Morgan Park students march down 88th Avenue West on April 1, 1981, during a protest against plans to close the senior high school. (Charles Curtis / Duluth Herald)

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Morgan Park students march down 88th Avenue West on April 1, 1981, during a protest against plans to close the senior high school. (Charles Curtis / News-Tribune)

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Morgan Park junior and senior high school students listen to Duluth Schools Superintendent Richard Pearson on April 13, 1981, in the school auditorium as he discusses plans to close the senior high school. (Charles Curtis / News-Tribune)

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Morgan Park students watch a Dec. 3, 1981, hearing on plans to close the senior high portion of their school. (Bob King / News-Tribune)

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Morgan Park High School senior Chris Black and junior Bob Delancey work on May 11, 1982, on an 8-foot-by-8-foot sports mural titled “Winners,” to be included in the school’s Festival of Arts exhibit in the school library. (Jack Rendulich / News-Tribune)

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Although they may be among the last seniors to graduate from Morgan Park High School, Terri Smith (front left) and Mary Spehar (front right) appear ebullient on June 8, 1982, as they rehearse for the graduation ceremony. (Jack Rendulich / Duluth Herald)

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Morgan Park seventh-grader Chris Skull leans back and puts his feet up on his teacher’s desk while talking to classmates Bill Gronseth (center) and Laura Sinclair on the last day of the school year at Morgan Park on June 10, 1982. At the time, it was unclear if high school students would be returning to the school in the fall. (Joey McLeister / News-Tribune)

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Morgan Park football coach Kyle Inforzato speaks with some of his team members and backers at a potluck dinner held in the school’s cafeteria on Aug. 28, 1982. The team’s fate was up in the air at the time after the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling that had barred the school district from closing the senior high school. (Joey McLeister / News-Tribune)

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The Duluth School Board voted in December 1981 to close Morgan Park Senior High School at the end of the 1981-82 school year. Eleven residents and 10 community groups challenged that decision in District Court, and in July 1982 a judge barred the school district from closing the senior high and transferring its 253 students to Denfeld.

But on Aug. 27, 1982, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned the District Court ruling and allowed the school district to move ahead with closure plans.

Recognize anyone in these photos? Share your stories and memories by posting a comment.

Greetings from Steeltown

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Morgan Park again jumped to the forefront of Duluth’s fascination with the history of its neighborhoods when it was featured recently on "This Old House" magazine’s Web site as one of the Best Old House Neighborhoods in the Midwest. In the article it said, "Morgan Park might be the most interesting neighborhoods to make our list."

And it does have a rich history. Set up as a "company town" in 1914 by U.S. Steel for its workers and their families, the neighborhood had everything that residents would need: schools, hospitals, fire and police departments, a 47,000 square-foot clubhouse where the community could gather.

Photo courtesy of the Northeast Minnesota Historical Center

The Morgan Park clubhouse, called the Goodfellowship Club, included a large gymnasium with an indoor track, a swimming pool, bowling alley, dining hall, even a ballroom. Information for the photo above says the structure was under construction in 1917. A News Tribune article from 1978 says the clubhouse was constructed in 1914, with the rest of Morgan Park. Another article, from 1981, says it was given as a gift to the neighborhood in 1915 by financier J.P. Morgan Jr. The same article also says the neighborhood’s original blockhouse-style buildings were all constructed between 1914 and 1916. Does anyone know the correct answer to when the mammoth community center was built?

At any rate, the clubhouse was razed in 1981 after it became too expensive to maintain and repair. A community center about one-fourth the size was to be constructed in its place, according to the 1981 article.

It must have taken a lot of effort to demolish the structure, which was built like most of Morgan Park’s homes – with concrete and steel, of course. If a massive natural disaster were to wipe out Duluth, these homes probably would still be standing.

1978 file photos / News Tribune

In the late 1970s, Morgan Park was nominated as a historic site and plans to register the neighborhood as a historic district were in the works. Community members ultimately decided to deny the historic designation, which brings with it restrictions on remodeling original structures.

But it was Morgan Park residents who got "This Old House" to recognize their neighborhood. I guess they don’t need the National Register of Historic Places to tell them how to preserve it.

And, I would like to know where I can find all these old Morgan Park photos. (below)

John Howden, a longtime Morgan Park resident, pores over historical photographs at the Goodfellowship Club of the neighborhood’s history. (1978 file / News Tribune)