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Keweenaw National Historical Park Headquarters (Calumet and Hecla Mining Company General Office Building)

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Calumet and Hecla Mining Company General Office Building
1887, George Russell Shaw and Henry S. Hunnewell; 1899, 1900 additions, Calumet and Hecla Mining Company engineers; 1909 addition, Charlton and Kuenzli; 2002 rehabilitation, Quinn Evans. 25970 Red Jacket Rd.
  • (Photograph by Roger Funk)
  • (Photograph by Roger Funk)
  • (Photograph by Balthazar Korab)

The C&H's office building was sited at the junction of Calumet's two most important roads, near the earliest mine works in the middle of a vast tract of unplatted company-owned land. The building tells of the significance of the preeminent copper producer in the Michigan copper district. Constructed and modified over eighty years of C&H ownership from 1887 to 1968, it reflects the company's growth, decline, and changes in management organization. From here the top administrators directed mining operations. In 1992 it became headquarters for Keweenaw National Historical Park.

The exterior walls are of cut stone rubble trimmed with dark brown brick. The light-colored fieldstone and dark basalt create a mosaic-like pattern. Tall rectangular windows with segmental arches pierce the walls, and slate-clad gabled roofs with bracketed eaves cover the building. The interior held a large private office for the clerk. A staircase hall is in the center section, and in the south end of the building, the superintendent's room and private office. The second floor was intended for the office of the mining engineer, and for sitting and bedrooms for unmarried clerks.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert

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