Duluth preservation awards honor historic buildings turned into housing

A Duluth building that had been in rough shape, with a patchwork of older additions and a facade that no longer matched its original structure, ended up as one of the clearest examples of what historic preservation can do for a neighborhood: create more affordable housing without erasing the building’s place in the city’s fabric.

The Duluth Preservation Alliance used its 45th annual awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 19, to recognize six plaque winners for outstanding historic preservation, split evenly between three businesses and three homeowners. The group also handed out centennial awards for homes more than 100 years old that have been maintained, along with letters of recognition for smaller and ongoing restoration projects.

The standout case was Brewery Creek Apartments, listed in the award materials as Brook Terrace. Preservation Alliance president Lori Melton said the property had long needed work before Heirloom Property bought it and restored it. The project turned the building into more affordable housing, linking preservation directly to Duluth’s housing supply and to the reinvestment of core neighborhoods where older buildings still anchor daily life.

That is the economic value the alliance was emphasizing: preservation is not just about keeping an old look intact. When a property like Brewery Creek Apartments is stabilized and reused, it can stay on the market, remain part of the neighborhood mix and avoid the spiral of vacancy or demolition that often leaves older blocks weaker and less walkable. In that sense, the work supports housing access and helps keep older residential and commercial corridors economically viable.

The broader slate of honors showed how that work happens at different scales. Some projects require a full rehabilitation and a new owner willing to absorb the cost and risk. Others depend on steady maintenance, the kind that keeps century-old homes standing and usable for another generation. Together, the awards pointed to a practical lesson for Duluth and the rest of St. Louis County: preserving historic buildings is often the difference between a property that keeps serving the neighborhood and one that becomes a liability.