Union Building Site: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Keweenaw National Historical Park - Calumet Unit, National Park Service
2011. Union Building Site: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Keweenaw National Historical Park - Calumet Unit, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 501435. NPS Midwest Regional Office. Midwest Regional Office/CLI Database
The Union Building and associated landscape is located in the Calumet Unit of Keweenaw National Historical Park in Calumet, Michigan. Calumet is located in the center of the prominent Keweenaw Peninsula, which extends about 100 miles into Lake Superior from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The discovery of copper led to the region becoming a vital center of industry-related development. The Union Building is a three-and-one-half-story masonry building located on the primary commercial street of Calumet Village, a settlement that developed with the rise of regional mining operations in the mid-1800s. Completed in 1889, the building was constructed to provide meeting facilities for two of Calumet’s oldest benevolent societies, the Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The Calumet and Hecla (C&H) Mining Company, a historically dominant copper mining company of the peninsula, donated land for the Union Building. This is one example of the company’s role in community life and social order. The C&H Company approach to management demonstrated support for employees, while at the same time maintaining control and cultivating dependency. The National Historic Landmark (NHL) nomination establishes the Calumet Historic District period of significance as 1864 to 1930. The period of significance for the Union Building cultural landscape reflects this time period, and it will be revisited when a Cultural Landscape Report is completed for the Calumet Unit. The Union Building cultural landscape contributes to the Calumet National Historic Landmark District, expressing the historic character of the Village of Calumet commercial district that reflects the growth and prosperity of the Calumet mining industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building embodies the distinctive architectural qualities of the block, typically characterized by commercial storefronts on the ground level with the upper floors dedicated to semi-private use. Located at the intersection of 5th Street and Red Jacket Road, associated landscape features of the Union Building include rows of white cedar, mown lawn, and concrete walkways. Most of the cedars along property lines are located on land owned by the Village of Calumet, a partner in the park’s preservation and management. This vegetation is associated with a proposed plan for the adjacent Agassiz Park, designed by landscape architect Warren Manning as a memorial to the president of C&H Mining Company. Although some landscape features associated with the Union Building cultural landscape have changed from the historic period, it retains aspects that allow it to convey its historic significance. The spatial organization and overall design of the building is retained, with its rectangular plan, flat roof, and masonry façade. The spatial organization of the area, characterized by continuous rows of buildings in the surrounding commercial district, has changed since the period of significance. A multi-story YMCA building that once stood on adjacent property has been replaced by a car lot, diminishing the feeling associated with continuous street character. The Union Building property itself, though no longer contiguous with buildings along Fifth Street, still marks the southern entrance to the historic commercial district of downtown Calumet. The location, design, and visual connections continue to display how the Union Building represents the transition between the industrial C&H mining district and the dense commercial district of downtown Calumet. The landscape features that reinforce the overall historic character of the Calumet Unit retain integrity of location, design, setting, materials, association, and feeling. Contributing landscape characteristics include the spatial organization, vegetation, circulation, buildings and structures, and the views from the site.
- Type
- Published Report
- Date of Issue
- 2011-04-22
- Publisher
- NPS Midwest Regional Office
- Units
- KEWE , MWR
- Keywords
- Agassiz Park, C&H, Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, Calumet National Historic Landmark District, Calumet Unit, Calumet Unit Core Industrial Area, Calumet Visitor Center, cedar, Commercial Buildings, Commercial Street, Company Towns, Copper mining, Copper Range, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Engineering, Ethnic Communities, Free and Accepted Masons, historic site, Houghton County, immigration, Independent Order of Oddfellows, industrial buildings, Industry, Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Superior, meeting place, Michigan, Mining, Mining Towns, Social History, The Mining Frontier, Warren Manning, Westward Expansion of the Colonies and the United States 1763-1898