Huron City Museums (Pioneer Huron City)

The site of Huron City, on an elevated plateau overlooking Lake Huron, was occupied only by transient fishermen before a sawmill was built here in 1845. Langdon Hubbard (1816–1892), a partner in the lumbering firm of R. B. Hubbard and Company, arrived here in 1853 and Huron City grew under his activities. He developed lumber, shingle, and flouring mills and shipping facilities. The Great Fires of 1871 and 1881 destroyed the town, but it was rebuilt after each. By the mid-1880s, Hubbard owned thirty thousand acres of land, as well as a large farm. The destruction of timber from the 1881 fire and the depletion of the town's water wells soon after transformed Huron City from a lumbering center to a mere summer retreat for the Hubbards. Through the initial efforts of Langdon Hubbard's granddaughter, Carolyn Hubbard Parcells Lucas, and later her descendants, Huron City is today a museum complex containing a number of both original and relocated buildings, including an inn, a general store, a church, and houses. The Langdon Hubbard General Store (c. 1882; 1953 closed; Pioneer Road west of Huron City Road) is a simple, utilitarian general store that was operated for Langdon Hubbard by various winter caretakers for Seven Gables ( HU3.3). It remains as a typical example of a Michigan country store. The William Lyon Phelps Foundation, established by Charles A. Purcells Jr. in 1947 to commemorate the teachings, writings, and life of Phelps, operates the museums.