Courtesy Park Point Marina Inn
Park Point Marina Inn
This drawing depicts the Park Point Marina Inn as it will look when it opens in May. It faces the bay side on Minnesota Point, with design elements modeled after the historic Duluth Boat Club.
A New Hotel Inspired by History
When Park Point Marina Inn welcomes guests in May, many of them will enjoy views overlooking the boats in Harbor Cove Marina. Off to the left, they’ll see the U.S. Coast Guard station in Duluth, homeport of the impressive 225-foot cutter Alder.
Other guests will have balcony or patio views looking toward Canal Park and the Aerial Lift Bridge.
The new hotel on Minnesota Point (also known as Park Point) faces Superior Bay and the Duluth Harbor, and is being built on the former site of the Duluth Boat Club’s historic clubhouse.
The inn’s towers are a design feature taken from the steeple towers on the clubhouse, which opened in 1903. Interior woodwork and lighting elements also are borrowed from the boat club. Timbers more than 150 years old, recovered from the St. Louis River, are part of the interior construction, according to David Riddle, general manager.
Historic photographs from the boat club with its tennis courts, indoor swimming pool, billiard room and banquet room will be seen throughout the inn. They will be displayed on the number plates outside each guestroom, and they’ll be found inside the rooms as well.
“The Duluth Boat Club will have a very significant presence,” David says. The inn also is hoping to exhibit boat club memorabilia.
The three-story Park Point Marina Inn will have 68 rooms, 63 of them with a balcony. There will be three suites, two with fireplaces and one with a Jacuzzi. Room rates depend on the type of room and will change with the seasons.
The target for opening is May, sometime before the June 21 running of Grandma’s Marathon, David says.
The hotel, four blocks from Canal Park, will have amenities that include an indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, fitness center, business center, gift shop, bar, meeting rooms and a pantry breakfast buffet.
There also will be an effort to capture some of the culture of the boat club era. The club existed from 1886 to 1926, and dancing was as much a part of its activities as boating, according to Invincible: History of the Duluth Boat Club by Michael Cochran.
Some dances popular at the time were frowned upon. Invincible quotes a notice in the boat club log in 1920: “We regret that it should again be necessary to call attention of a few of our members to the rules against ‘Cheek to Cheek’ dancing … The club is no place for the ‘Cheek to Cheek,’ the ‘Shimmy,’ or other of the late vulgar forms of modern dancing … The club has always had the reputation of giving the best dances in the city – the type of dances mothers will allow their daughters to attend without the least hesitation.” (The provocative “Shimmy” was done by shaking one’s hips and chest.)
That was then. Park Point Marina Inn intends to promote dancing, David says, and will even encourage cheek-to-cheek dancing with its “Cheek-to-Cheek Weekend Package.”
Park Point Marina Inn, 1033 Minnesota Ave., Duluth. 888-746-2673 or 218-491-7111. www.parkpointmarinainn.com. Room rates will range from $150 to $499 a night in summer and $89 to $299 in winter.