Is Smithville, Duluth, Minnesota right for you?
Part of the Smithville neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
You will love Smithville if you want quiet, a ridge and a price, and you have genuinely made peace with the drive. It is the quietest neighborhood in this guide, one of the cheapest, and the most strongly owner-occupied, with Bardon Peak and the Superior Hiking Trail directly above, Spirit Mountain six minutes north, and Jay Cooke State Park reachable by bicycle. If you also happen to care that a nationally notable labor college once ran here, that is a rare thing to be able to say about an ordinary residential street.
Look elsewhere if you have school-age children, because there is no school here and the ride is long at every grade for thirteen years. Look elsewhere if you need groceries, a clinic or neighbors close by, or if a twenty-two minute drive to a hospital would worry you. Look elsewhere if you want walkable anything.
Do three things specifically before buying: if the parcel is near Stewart Creek, pull the flood and drainage history. If it is on the hillside, get advice on slope drainage, driveway grade and winter access, and confirm an ambulance can reach it. And if the building was ever institutional or multi-unit, get the permit history and an inspector who works on that kind of property.
If you want the same corridor with direct water frontage, look north at Riverside. If you want the most unusual housing on this river, look east at Morgan Park. If you want to go further out still and cheaper, look southwest at Fond du Lac.
Is it right for you? next door
North along the river, sharing the same Census tract and the same owner-heavy river-corridor profile, with direct Spirit Lake frontage.
Morgan ParkEast along the river, the 1913 US Steel company town built almost entirely of concrete block.
Gary-New DuluthImmediately south, the nearest everyday services and the closest published price anchor in the far west.
Norton ParkNortheast, where the Munger and Western Waterfront trails begin and Indian Point gives boat access.
Fond du LacSouthwest along the river, the oldest community in Duluth and quieter still.