Located where the Eagle River flows into Lake Superior, the village of Eagle River was founded in 1843 and platted by the Phoenix Mining Company in 1855. In the 1840s and 1850s, as eastern speculators explored the rich copper deposits in the rugged cliff to the west, this port community served as a shipping and distribution point for the early copper industry. During this period, too, eighteen mines opened nearby. Eagle River is the seat of county government and became a resort center in the twentieth century when automobiles brought tourists to the peninsula.
Along the northeast bank of the river, on E. Main Street between 3rd and 2nd streets, stands a row of hotels, boardinghouses, warehouses, stores, saloons, and houses whose vernacular Greek Revival origins lie concealed under later nineteenth-century additions and twentieth-century sidings.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.