Look closely and you’ll find a flag flying in this Mystery Photo. Can you determine from this where this photograph was taken? Send your answer to ebrack2@gmail.com, and include your hometown.
Holly Moore of Suwanee instantly recognized the recent mystery. “This is the ‘historic’ Dutch Mill Motel and restaurant in Duluth. I think it might still be standing when we moved here in 1991, but it didn’t last long after that.” The photograph is from archives of Gwinnett Daily News.
Others eyeballing it were Barbara Knox Luckhurst, Duluth; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Bob Hanson, Loganville; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Kay Montgomery, Duluth; Ann Odum, Duluth; and Michelle Staab, Dacula, who said: “My family ate there when I was a small child. The pineapple cake was so good. There was interest in renovating it to its former glory in the 90s; however, it burned down and was ultimately demolished.”
It was originally located along Buford Highway between Georgia Highway 120 and Rogers Bridge Road. It was built and operated in 1948, by Mr. Lowry L. Arnold (1905–1970) and his wife Lenora Love Hogan-Arnold (1909–1966) and their two daughters, Dorothy “Dot” Arnold Turner and Jean Arnold Corley (1931–2023).
Allan Peel of San Antonio added: “It was the first formal sit-down restaurant in Duluth. It was famous for its fried chicken and barbeque that was cooked and smoked in a fire pit just outside the kitchen, all served with fresh vegetables from the farmers’ market each day. The banana pudding and pineapple cake were highly popular as well.
“In 1965, the Arnolds sold the property to Ray Burns, who ran it for another 23 years. The Dutch Mill Motel and Restaurant were totally destroyed in a fire in 1998 and then demolished. The only artifact that remains of the building today is the Dutch Mill Motel ‘Air Conditioned’ neon sign that was rescued by a local Duluth resident, Jason Moore, who, in partnership with the developers of Parsons Alley and the City of Duluth, had the sign restored and is now installed on a brick wall at the Good Word Brewing and Public House in Parsons Alley.”
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