Michael A. and Bessie Fedje House

2301 W. 3rd St.

A 1905 notice in the Duluth Herald announcing new home permits in West Duluth drew particular attention to this house, “One of the best habitations that will be found in the West end for some time is to be erected by M. A. Fedje” at a cost between $3,000 and $4,000 ($120,000 to $160,000 today). In 1906, ill health forced Michael Fedje to liquidate his successful clothing business, so he may have built the 1905 house with a view to retirement. A 1906 article in the Duluth Herald about Fedje’s going-out-of-business sale described him as “one of Duluth’s pioneer merchants” and noted that he had expanded his original store into “the leading clothing house west of the ‘Point of Rocks.’”

American Foursquare houses were popular from the 1890s into the 1920s for their affordability, symmetry, and good use of space. Their relative plainness was a reaction to the decorative excesses of the Queen Anne style.