Menominee’s downtown historic district
from the marina
Dear George,
Recently (3-11-14) I posted
some writeups of historically significant places in my Upper Peninsula hometown
of Menominee. That first batch all
dealt with places that originated before 1900. This is a continuation of that post, here covering landmarks
that go back to a period from 1900 to 1928). I should note that I have no particular expertise about
Menominee history but have compiled this information from a number of sources
on the Internet. For the
interested reader, there’s a great deal more information available at the
websites listed at the end of this posting. I took the photos below between 1990 and 2011. I hope that this journey back into
Menominee’s history proves enjoyable.
Love,
Dave
Menominee Post Office
When my dad was in the navy
in World War II, my mom Doris, my brother Steve, and I lived on the second
floor of an apartment building at Sheridan Road and Quimby, right next door to
the post office. I was 7 or 8, old
enough to be sent on errands to buy stamps at the Post Office or mail
letters. It was a scary responsibility,
but I managed to do it. The Post
Office, an impressive building, was built at 110 Quimby (Sixth Ave.) in
1900-1902. It was designed in the Beau Arts style by a government
architect named A. A. Packard and was intended to resemble an Italian Palazzo.
The exterior is marble, brick, and red sandstone. (10) [Note: numbers in parentheses refers to
sources listed at end.]
Riverside Country Club
My parents and many family
friends were members of the Riverside Country Club, and we children started taking
lessons and playing there when we were ten or eleven. We also enjoyed family dinners there over the years,
Riverside having become the location of family reunion outings in adulthood. The Riverside Golf Club was
originally a private club called the Menominee River Club. It was
established in 1901 and is the oldest golf club in Michigan's Upper
Peninsula. The clubhouse was built in 1928, designed by architect A. H
Jolly. It represents a mix of Northwoods and parkland-stye architecture.
When I played there in the 1950's, the course consisted in nine holes spread
out along the Menominee River, west of the city and just east of Riverside
Cemetery. Decades ago it was upgraded to eighteen holes. The
course today is 5,628 yards long and has a par of 71. I myself traded in golf for tennis when I couldn’t break 55
for 9 holes. (14)
The Menominee Opera
House
When I was in grade school
we'd go every Saturday to the Menominee Theater to take in a Saturday afternoon
matinee. Even before that I went there with my dad to see a community
theater play in which my mother played a tiger. According to family
stories, in the middle of the performance I yelled out at the top of my voice,
"That's my Mom!," eliciting lots of laughter from the audience.
All of this occurred in what used to be the Menominee Opera House in the
downtown waterfront district. The opera house was funded by local lumber
barons at the turn of the last century in an effort to enhance Menominee's
cultural life. The building was designed by a Chicago architect, George
O. Garnsey, and was constructed in 1902. It had a fully rigged stage
house, four dressing rooms, and 1,000 seats in eight boxes, an orchestra
section, mezzanine, and gallery. The eight-musician orchestra was led by Jean Mautpas.
Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1.50. The Opera House was the
pride of the city during Menominee's lumber boom and was regarded as the finest
theater north of Milwaukee. Road shows regularly performed there,
including famous acts such as Maude Adams, John Philip Sousa, and Texas
Guinan. The opera house also hosted political rallies, suffrage meetings,
and local theater and musical productions. However, as technology
advanced and movies became more popular, the kind of entertainment provided by
opera houses faded. The opening of the competing Lloyd Theater in 1929
caused economic failure for the Menominee Opera House. Ownership reverted
to the city, and it functioned as a community auditorium for graduations and
high school class plays from 1929 to 1947. In 1950 a fire broke out and
severely damaged the building. In 1952 a new owner removed the seats and
repoured the floor with concrete in order to use the building as a warehouse
for storing paper pulp. The Vennema family purchased the building about
1979 and donated it to the newly formed Menominee Opera House Project in
2004. The goal today is to restore the building to its original purpose
as a live performance and community event venue. (5, 13)
The Spies Public Library
Washington Grade School was
located a block away from the Spies Public Library, and we became accustomed to
being regular library users through many classroom field trips to the
children’s library in the basement.
The library continued to be important in my teenage years, and now we
visit it every time we return to Menominee. Lumberman Augustus Spies presented the city with a
beautiful, completely furnished library building in 1904. It was located
on Main St. (now First St.) at the site of the former home of Judge E. S.
Ingalls. The building was built in the style of a French Country
Chateau. There is a stained glass skylight in the entrance. The
first Board of Trustees of the new public library included A. L. Sawyer
(president), Charles A. Spies, R. M. Andrews, Dr. Walter R. Hicks, Mrs. John W.
Wells, and mayor George H. Haggerson (ex officio). Mrs. Gertrude B.
Munger was the first librarian. The new library held 10,000
volumes. In 1995 voters approved a bond issue for an addition and restoration
of the main building. (3, 10)
Menominee
Herald-Leader
The
Herald-Leader was Menominee’s daily paper throughout my youth. My dad would take me over to visit the
editorial offices once in a while, and my mother, Steve, and I lived in an
apartment right across the street during the war. The Herald-Leader had a long history in the city. The Menominee Herald, a Republican
newspaper edited by E. S. Ingalls, began publishing on Sept. 10, 1863. It began a daily edition in 1894 but
ceased publication in 1904. A
rival paper, The Evening Leader, began publication by Joe E. Soults in 1890,
then became the Menominee Daily Leader in 1901. On May 14, 1904, the Daily Leader and the Menominee Herald
merged to form the Daily Herald-Leader.
The title was changed to Menominee Herald-Leader in 1908, then shortened
to Herald-Leader in 1965. Jean
Worth, my parents’ close friend, was Editor of the Herald-Leader from 1943 to
1955. In 1995 the Herald-Leader
merged with the Marinette Eagle-Star to form the Eagle Herald, published daily
(except Sundays and holidays) in Marinette. (8)
The Commercial Bank
I had my first savings
account at the Commercial Bank when in grade school. If I’m remembering correctly, I used to bring a dime to
school each week and put it in a slot in my Xmas Club book. Later I deposited the bulk of my
paychecks from my drugstore clerk job in the bank in my teenage years. I had about $600 when I went off to
college. The Commercial Bank was
organized on October 2, 1905. It arrived later than Menominee's other two
banks of the era, the First National Bank (1884) and the Lumberman's National
Bank (1890). According to A. L. Sawyer (1911), it had a capital stock of
$65,000 with surplus and individual profits of over $13,000 and deposits of
over $250,000. George H. Haggerson was President; Jerry Madden, Vice
President; and H. H. Kern, Cashier.
(3)
Henes Park
I think many people would
agree that Henes Park is Menominee’s top attraction for leisure
activities. It has a swimming
beach on Green Bay, picnic areas and shelters, softball fields, hiking trails,
gorgeous views, and, in the past, a small zoo and a large buffalo and deer
pen. We played there a lot as
kids, especially when visiting the O’Hara’s or the Caleys who lived just up the
beach. When Katja and I had our
own family, we’d go there with our son J and enjoy the same pursuits I had as a
child. Henes Park is over a
hundred years old. In 1906 local
businessman John Henes paid $1,000 for a 43-acre peninsula called Poplar Point
on the Green Bay shore at the north edge of the city. He kept his plans
secret for a year, then offered the land to city council for use as a park and
a beach. The city hired landscape architect Ossian Cole Simonds of
Chicago to design the park. Simonds was known as a pioneer of "natural
landscaping," and his design emphasized eight nature trails named after
literary greats, e.g., Longfellow, Byron, Shakespeare, and Homer. All
eight trails still exist today. Henes Park was dedicated in October of
1907. The featured speaker, U.S. Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan,
described the Henes Park as "a park that will forever be the property of
every man, every woman and principally every child in this city and one where
beauty, recreation and rest will be synonymous." And that
proved to be the truth. (16)
The Lloyd Manufacturing
Company
Marshall B. Lloyd was born
in St. Paul in 1858. Successful in
inventing new techniques for manufacturing woven wire doors, bed springs, and
wire wheels for baby carriages, he sold his Minneapolis business and
transferred his machinery to his new Lloyd Manufacturing Company in Menominee
in 1907. At the Menominee plant
Lloyd invented a new method of weaving wicker which revolutionized the
industry. While it had taken an
expert nine hours to weave the wicker for a baby carriage, the same job could
be done in 18 minutes with the Lloyd Loom. The Lloyd plant came to employ hundreds of area workers and
supplied Lloyd Loom baby carriages throughout the world. In World War II 250 Lloyd employees
joined the military, women replaced men on the factory floor, and 85% of the
company's work was in war production.
The Lloyd/Flanders Co. today produces wicker lawn furniture and remains one of the twin cities most
important industries. (6)
St.
John the Baptist Catholic Church
My
family members were only occasional church attenders. However, because we got together so often with the O’Hara
kids, we’d be more likely to go with them to mass at their church, St. John’s. The St. John parish dates back to 1873
and is the oldest religious organization in Menominee county. The original church cost $4,000 and had
a membership of 150 families. The
first pastor was Rev. Martin A. Fox.
The St. John the Baptist Church was built in 1921-22. The architect, Derrick Hubert, was a
member of the parish. It's a
red-brick Late Gothic Revival building with a gable roof and a square tower
projecting from the facade. The
church's stained glass windows were reportedly made in Munich, Germany. The church was closed because of a
parish merger in 1972, and the Menominee County Historical Society bought the
building in 1972, then opened its Heritage museum there. (7, 15)
The Lloyd Building
The Lloyd Buildings is the
largest building in Menominee’s downtown waterfront district. It was a frequent family destination in
my childhood because it housed the Montgomery Ward Department Store, the
A&P Grocery, and (best of all) the Lloyd movie theater where I was thrilled
by Hopalong Cassidy and the Marx Brothers. In 1924, when Menominee's only department store was
destroyed by fire, citizens appealed to Marshall Burns Lloyd, owner of the
Lloyd Loom Company, for help, and he decided to help finance a new community
department store and theater downtown. 1500 residents invested more than
$500,000 in the new enterprise, and, when Lloyd encountered difficulty finding
a tenant, he leased the building himself and created "The Wonder
Store", travelling abroad to establish buying connections. The store
and the Lloyd Theater opened in October, 1926, with a huge parade and community
celebration. However, Lloyd died less than a year later, and the store
was sold to Lauerman Brothers of Marinette. With the onset of the
Great Depression, the original Lloyd store was closed. In 1940, however,
local citizens, led by Mayor Michael C. Olsen and Chamber of Commerce member
John Fernstrum, negotiated with the Montgomery Ward Co. of Chicago for Ward's
long-term lease of the building. The building was remodeled, and Wards
held its grand reopening on Sept. 4, 1940. The department store occupied
the first, second, and fourth floors. The third floor was later occupied
by the Menominee Glove Co., which produced gloves for the U.S. armed forces
during World War II, and the south end of the basement was occupied by the
A&P grocery chain. The Ward's store operated from 1940 till 1969, by
which time FNT industries had taken over the upper floors. (2, 12)
The Menominee North Pier
Light
Menominee is an important
Great Lakes port, and the lighthouse signals the route into the Menominee River
as well as identifying the shoreline.
The Menominee North Pier lighthouse, located in Menominee's harbor area,
was first established in 1877. The current structure opened in 1927, and
its light is still operational today. It was automated in 1972. The
34-foot tall octagonal lighthouse is set on a concrete pier. The tower is
red, with a black lantern and a white base. The original lighthouse had a
fog signal structure attached, but that was later removed. One can walk to the lighthouse at the
end of the pier, though the tower itself is closed. (11)
The
Interstate Bridge
The
twin cities of Menominee, Mich., and Marinette, Wisc., are connected by three
automobile bridges, the Interstate Bridge carrying Highway 41 traffic being the
most important thoroughfare. For
northbound tourists it’s the entryway to the Upper Peninsula; for southbound
traveller’s, it’s the first step in one’s Wisconsin journey to Green Bay or Milwaukee. The bridge was a significant part of my
youth, practically and symbolically.
We'd sometimes walk across it to go to the movies in Marinette, and it
became a daily part of our "cruising the loop" as teenage drivers. The first bridges across the Menominee
River were built in 1865 and then in 1872, and a drawbridge was added in 1897
that connected downtown Marinette and Menominee's Frenchtown neighborhood at
what’s now 19th St. The first
Interstate Bridge, built in 1929, replaced the earlier bridges and was built at
an angle across the river. It cost
$700,000 ($5.27 million in today's dollars). It was 850 feet long and included eleven 80-foot spans. The Interstate Bridge was rehabbed in
1970 and then was replaced on its existing foundations in 2004-05. Catherine Anderson, who participated in
the 1930 dedication ceremony cut the ribbon in the 2005 dedication. (4)
The Menominee
Breakwater
The Breakwater shelters
local and visiting boats from what can often be stormy waves in Green Bay. People do a lot of fishing there for
perch, sunfish, and crappies, and it offers a scenic view of the downtown
Menominee skyline for leisure walkers.
The Menominee Breakwater was constructed in 1932 as a WPA project.
It’s been recently restored and expanded and is the focus of many activities on
the waterfront. The Marina currently offers docks with 261 slips and 20
inner wall tie-ups. (10)
The Band Shell
Marina Park faces the
breakwater, and the Band Shell is at its north end. The Band Shell is the
center of the annual Waterfront Festival, summer concerts, and other
festivities which we’ve always attending at family reunions. Derrick Hubert, a Menominee architect,
designed the Band Shell, and it was built in 1932. It was designed to be
used both as a band shell and to house the local yacht club, and it’s been
recently restored by the M & M Yacht Club to further that original
purpose. (10)
Menominee County Airport
When Katja and I were young
marrieds and living in Ann Arbor, we’d fly from Detroit to Menominee on North
Central Airlines (home of the Grey Goose) and disembark at the Menominee
airport. In 1928 Menominee became
the first county in Michigan to establish a county airport. The original
airport was on M-35 along the bay.
In 1940 the city and county joined forces to purchase land for a new
airport which was expected to be the second largest in the state, next to
Detroit. The new airport was to be located on the city's west side,
within two miles of downtown. The plan called for four runways, ranging
from 3600 feet to approximately one mile. According to a 1940 brochure,
because of Menominee's strategic location in the Upper Great Lakes area, it was
expected that the new airport would be important "in the interest of
national defense...wrecking of the Soo canal would bottle up the entire fleet
of ore carriers in Lake Superior...High speed army planes could reach any one
of these four vital points within an hour's time from a Menominee
base." Fortunately, all that never proved to be necessary. (9)
SOURCES:
(2) "Community Building
took on new identity," Larry Ebsch, Jan. 31, 2011, www.ehextra.com;
(3) “A History of the
Northern Peninsula of Michigan and Its People," Alvah L. Sawyer, 1911, www.usgwarchives.net;
(4) “Interstate Bridge
(Marinette, Wisconsin – Menominee, Michigan),” www.wikipedia.org;
(7)
"Memorial Record of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan," Lewis Publ.
Co., 1895, www.books.google.com;
(9) "Menominee County:
The Gateway to Hiawatha Land,” 1940, www.quod.lib.umich.edu;
(15)
"St. John the Baptist Catholic Church [Menominee, Michigan],”
www.wikipedia.org;
SELECTED
ADDITIONAL MENOMINEE HISTORY SOURCES AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET: "Deep Woods Frontier: A History of Logging in
Northern Michigan, T. J. Karamanski, 1989, www.books.google.com;
"Early Days in the Lumber Business," www.rootsweb.ancestry.com;
"Heritage of the Route," www.cuppad.org;
"History of the Lumber and Forest Industry of the Northwest," G. W.
Hotchkiss, 1898, www.books.google.com;
"History of Michigan, Vol. IV," Charles Moore, 1915; “A History of
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan," G. N. Fuller, www.quod.lib.umich.edu; "History of
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan: Menominee County, Michigan," Western
Historical Co., 1883, www.files.usgwarchives.net;
"Menominee, Michigan," www.wikipedia.org;
"Menominee County," www.kenanderson.net;
“Menominee County,” pp. 304ff in L. R. Ashlee, “Traveling Through Time: A Guide
to Michigan’s Historical Markers,” www.books.google.com;
“Menominee (County Courthouse),” pp. 122-23 in J. Fedynsky, “Michigan’s County
Courthouses; www.books.google.com; “Menominee
County Courthouse,” www.wikipedia.org; “Menominee
County: Courthouse History,” www.menomineecounty.com;
"Menominee County," family history & genealogy site, www.mygenshare.com; “Menominee County,
Michigan: Family History & Genealogy…,” www.linkpendiunm.com; "Menominee
County, Michigan: Surnames" (biographies), www.linkpendium.com; “Menominee County
Historical Society,” www.menomineehistoricalsociety.org;
"Menominee County History," www.menominee.genwebsite.net;
"Menominee County: Trails to the Past," www.hometownchronicles.com;
"Menominee Remembered," E. C. Somerville et al., 1982, made available
by the Menominee County Historical Society, www.uproc.lib.mi.us;
“The Menominee Wellses,” www.menomineewellses.com;
