Fire struck one of Duluth's grandest buildings early Monday.
Shortly before 1 a.m., firefighters descended upon the Oliver G. Traphagen House, built in the early 1890s at 1511 E. Superior St. by the man it is named for and who also was its first occupant.
Heavy fire on the first floor was immediately visible to emergency personnel who were the first to arrive. Flames then made it to the second of the red sandstone building's three floors before it was "knocked down quickly," a Fire Department statement read.
At the time of the blaze there was no one inside the building, which is now home to HTK Marketing and Communications. Fire officials put damage at roughly $150,000.
The building has been up for sale since last fall with an asking price of $725,000, said Greg Follmer, whose commercial real estate agency is handling the listing on behalf of HTK founder Howard Klatzky.
"My office is right across the street," said Follmer, a Duluthian all of his 49 years. "I've seen it every day for more than 30 years. It's a beautiful building. … I'm heading there right now. It will be tough."
Investigators remained on the scene for many hours in search of clues to what started the blaze, but Follmer is pointing to two discoveries Monday morning that make him suspicious of the fire's origins.
Follmer said a Molotov cocktail — a gasoline-filled beer bottle with a rag — was thrown through a basement window of his building, although it did not explode. "It was pretty spooky, nonetheless," said Follmer, adding that police and fire personnel have been alerted.
