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Everyone knows Duluth as the home of Canal Park and the Aerial Lift Bridge. But not many people know Duluth was once the ski-jumping capital of the United States. Two local history buffs dug up that nugget and other forgotten pieces of Duluth history. They've put them in a book that's a photographic tour of Duluth's old buildings.

	A member of the Minnesota Ballet practices in the dance company's home - the old Board of Trade building in Duluth. Two local writers have produced a book documenting some of Duluth's most historic buildings. See more images. (MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill)

Sheldon Aubut grew up in Duluth and moved away. When he came back, he fell in love with Duluth's old buildings. And as he walks around the city today, he's still discovering them. Aubut feels so strongly about the need to save Duluth's old buildings that he co-authored a book about them.

On this day Aubut is visiting the Board of Trade building. It was built of brick and stone in 1893, in the Romanesque style. The arched entrance is two stories high. It's decorated with intricate carvings. At the top of the building is the trading floor of the old grain exchange. This was a vital part of the city's economy until the 1960s. Aubut can picture the work that went into the building.

The ceiling is just fantastic, with the horsehair plaster and the intricacy. It's absolutely incredible," Aubut says.

Workers mixed horsehair into the plaster, to make it stronger for molding into delicate patterns.

A blackboard, hanging high on one wall, displays commodity prices. There's a list of oats, wheat, and other grains - and blank spaces where clerks would write in the prices, in Duluth, Minneapolis, and Chicago. The clerks stood on a balcony 10 feet above the floor. Under the balcony is a row of 20 doors. At one time, each one was a phone booth. The traders popped in the booths to report prices and take orders.

Now the doors are mirrored. That's to help the dancers rehearse. The old grain exchange is now the home of the Minnesota Ballet. The ballet has a long-term lease for the space. It has made repairs using grant money, and kept the room as much as possible the way it was when it was a busy grain exchange.

	Author Sheldon Aubut and Minnesota Ballet Artistic/Executive Director Allen Fields admire the old trading floor of the Duluth Board of Trade. (MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill)

Sheldon Aubut says his favorite building in Duluth is the Masonic Temple Opera Block. It was built in 1889. It was six stories high, with a bulbous Moorish tower on the corner and onion-shaped turrets in the back. Duluth's first public library was on the second floor.

In the 1940s, the building's owner built the NorShor Theatre right next door. The theatre was capped by a 70-foot tall tower, covered with lights.

"And they say it was visible up to 60 miles away, except from the direction where the Temple Opera Block was," says Aubut. "So in order for people to see his beautiful art deco tower, he knocked the top three stories off of what I consider to be the most beautiful building ever built in Duluth."

So the Moorish tower of the opera building is gone, and since then the art deco tower of the theatre has been torn down. But other parts of the buildings are still there - the arched entrance to the opera house, and the marqee of the movie theatre.

The buildings are now home to a small theatre and a cyber cafe. Marianne Norton, the co-author of the book, says those buildings probably won't be torn down. But she worries about others.

"We almost lost the old Central High School. Members of the school board wanted to tear it down. But the city just rose up and said, 'No, you're not going to destroy that building.' So they had to find another use for it - and they did. And that, of course, is the key for saving buildings - re-use," says Norton.

Norton and Aubut are enthusiastic about plans to find a new use for another Duluth landmark. They want to save the old Armory. And they hope their book, Images of America; Duluth, Minnesota, will encourage people to appreciate the city's old buildings, and do more to preserve them.