Our legacy
About Us
Through years of experience, we've gained valuable insights—like how to offer choices without overwhelming, and how to address the needs of multiple caring individuals. When people turn to us in their most challenging moments, we respond with compassion, clarity, and expertise.
Our goal is to create a memorable experience and ensure you always feel welcome. We dedicate our time to planning alongside families, staying informed on the latest industry developments, and making hard times a little easier.
Who We Are
At Lenroot-Maetzold & Downs-Lesage Funeral Homes, and Mariner Monument Company, we believe your family is our family. We strive to meet all needs, emotional and financial, and accommodate all faiths and cultures. Our goal is to serve each family with the utmost care and respect. That starts from the very first phone call you make to us. We personally handle everything from that moment on.
We offer a wide variety of services to meet all of the needs of families, such as: Pre-Planning of Funeral/Cremation/Memorial services; finest quality of markers and monuments, and video tributes to memorialize your loved one...in which we handle each detail with grace, generosity, and the professionalism for which our staff is known.
...In times of crisis, personal service is always assured, and many of you already know and entrust us with your loved ones. We will continue to provide the finest service our family has offered the community for 122 years.
Mariner Monument Company
Mariner Monument was established as an extension of the Downs-Lesage and Lenroot-Maetzold Funeral Homes to provide families with an additional service. Families now have the option of completing all arrangements at one facility, as our funeral directors are knowledgeable in all aspects of cemetery memorials.
The various options available are upright monuments, slant markers, benches, flat markers, and cremation markers. Standard designs are available, or custom designs selected by the family may be meaningful. Cemetery memorials are made of granite and bronze, and the granite used is of the finest quality. Many granite colors are available, and design options are nearly endless.
When considering a cemetery memorial, we assist in the selection by explaining the various options, which families may not have considered. Cemetery regulations may prohibit some types of memorials; therefore, care is taken to ensure that what is selected is allowed at the gravesite.
Our cemetery memorials are competitively priced and include the memorial, installation fee, and sales tax.
When contacting us about a cemetery memorial or any other aspect of funeral service, complete information and professional service will always be provided.
Downs Generation
Z.A. Downs, founder of Downs Mortuary, was a pioneer resident of Superior, coming here from Canada. As a boy in London, Ontario, he learned the cabinet trade in conjunction with undertaking, it being the custom to combine the two in those days.
In Superior, he became associated with a firm of undertakers and later opened his own establishment in 1890 on Broadway, between Ogden and Tower Avenue. Later, the business was moved to the Minnehaha block on Ogden Avenue. As the years went on, the trend of businesses moving south on Tower caused Downs' establishment to move to 16th and Tower. In 1913, Downs Mortuary moved to 1515 Belknap Avenue. For almost 20 years, Mr. Downs held the position of County Coroner.
In 1928, Z.A. Downs transferred the responsibilities of the business to his oldest son, William Downs, where he worked as general manager and as Deputy coroner. William Downs planned the architecture and interior decorations for his new funeral home at Ogden and Nineteenth, Downs Funeral Home, which opened in 1956. William took over the Downs Funeral Home when Z.A. Downs retired after 69 years in the business, having served as Douglas County coroner. His two sons later joined the business.
In 1972, Lenroot-Maetzold Funeral Homes was purchased by the Downs family. In 1983, William Downs Jr. was named president of Lenroot-Maetzold and a corporate officer. William Downs Jr. became a licensed funeral director in 1957.
LeSage Funeral Home
The LeSage Funeral Home was founded by Albert P. LeSage in 1896, when he opened his office and quarters at 1715 Broadway. In 1905, Mr. Albert P. LeSage moved to 1113-1115 Ogden Avenue. In 1909, he occupied the old mortuary at 1813-15 North Twelfth Street, the first building ever constructed for funeral purposes, in either Northern Wisconsin or Northern Minnesota.
The Colonial two-story building at 1304 Hammond Avenue opened in 1930, which now represents the current location of the Downs-LeSage Funeral Home.
Coad A. LeSage was the executive head of the LeSage mortuary in 1919. In 1922, he received his embalmer's license. After he was granted a license to practice in Minnesota, the illness of his father, Albert P. LeSage, in 1924, Mr. Coad LeSage was placed in active management of the business and assumed the reins in 1926, following the death of his father. Coad LeSage was the first vice president of the Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association. Coad dedicated the funeral home on 1304 Hammond Avenue to his father, Albert P. LeSage.
Warren T. LeSage joined the firm in 1927 and received his diploma in 1930. Warren was the assistant when the LeSage Funeral Home opened in 1930.
Thomas LeSage attended the University of Minnesota, where he graduated from the Department of Mortuary Science. He received his Funeral Director's license in 1960. Tom LeSage retired in 1986 when William Downs Jr. purchased Downs-LeSage Funeral Home.
William Downs III purchased Downs-LeSage Funeral Home in 2009 after the death of his father.
Lenroot-Maetzold Funeral Home
Lenroot-Maetzold Funeral Home was established in 1945 by John Lenroot. John purchased the funeral home from Florence Flinn, daughter of the late James Flinn. This building was the home of the Flinns. A letter from Coad Lesage helped to establish this building, as it went to the zoning board to turn it into a business.
John Lenroot was a native of Superior, but before coming to Superior, he operated the Lenroot Funeral Home in Iron River, Wisconsin, for seven years. John Maetzold, who had been with the home since its opening, worked for the Gleason Mortuary in Minneapolis from 1936 to 1941. When John Maetzold came to Duluth, he was employed by Bell Brothers. John Maetzold was a native of Leser Prairie, Minnesota. John Maetzold left Lenroot-Maetzold in 1956 to establish another funeral home in another city.
Lenroot-Maetzold Funeral Home purchased Downs-LeSage on January 1, 1986, by William Downs Jr.
William Downs III became a licensed funeral director at Lenroot-Maetzold in 1984.
