It was never the caliber of the Spalding Hotel, the Hotel Duluth or the Holland Hotel, but, in its day, the Lincoln Hotel was one of the Zenith City's nicest places to stay.

Nearly 80 years of memories and tons of brick and mortar came tumbling down Saturday at 317 W. Second St. as a large excavator operated by Northwoods Sand and Gravel Co. ate away at the building from the back.

The main structure had collapsed before noon.

"It's another piece of history going down," said Roger Sandberg of Duluth.

Sandberg had a front-row viewing spot for the demolition. He was one of dozens of curious people who stopped by Saturday morning, at least for a few minutes, to see the old building fall.

Sandberg likes to see things torn apart. But he also has a historic tie to the Lincoln: His grandfather made the Lincoln Hotel neon sign for the building.

"I picked it up last year when they had the sale. It's a connection for me. I have it at home now," Sandberg said.

Richard Riddell of Duluth brought his 12-year-old son, Stephen, to watch.

"I like the big equipment. I wanted to see it when it fell," Stephen said.

That's also why Judy and Earl Rogers brought their grandchildren, Colin and Ian Metry, and their son, Tony Rogers, who's a photography buff.

"They wanted to get some pictures of it coming down. The kids love anything to do with construction and big equipment, big trucks," Judy Rogers said. "If they (construction crews) are knocking something down, that's even better!"

All of the structural steel, bricks and concrete will be recycled, said Scott Lucia, owner of the demolition company. The wood and other debris will be taken to a demolition landfill. Recycling work at the site will continue through the week, he said.

Featuring a restaurant and beauty parlor, the four-story, 100-room Lincoln Hotel once was considered among the finest places to stay downtown. It was built in 1926. By the early 1970s, it began housing low-income residents on long-term leases. And by 1975, the hotel had become a haven for an informal program for recovering alcoholics.

In 1987, the building's owners, the Don Henderson family of Sturgeon Lake, Minn., decided they couldn't afford to spend $75,000 to enclose stairwells, add sprinklers and renovate the building to comply with state fire and safety codes.

They closed the Lincoln in January 1988, forcing 54 tenants to find new housing. They put the former hotel up for sale, asking $750,000, largely because of its prime location and solid construction. But instead of attracting a buyer, 16 years of no heat and no residents attracted decay, vermin, vandals and arsonists.

The city bought the building from the Henderson family for $60,000 and then invested another $22,000 to remove asbestos, windows and facades and to do other work to prepare the Lincoln for demolition, which cost another $68,000. The money to clear the lot came from the federal Community Development Block Grant program.

City officials hope a developer will buy the lot for upscale housing or another project to help revitalize the downtown area.