Laurium Walking Tour Part 2 - 2019 Camping Post #7

     I began this week by posting about the various historic businesses in Laurium, Michigan. Today, I invite you into some of the homes. Oh, don’t I wish I’d been inside more of these homes. (Spoiler alert, I was in one of them, many years ago.)

 247 Tamarack, built in 1905 and owned by Joseph and Addie Wills. He was Laurium president 1911-1916 and 1930-1936.

 243 Pewabic, built in 1906 and owned by James and Eliza Hoatson. James Hoatson (1846-1923), from the Scottish village of Wanlockhead, was the first of 13 children born to Thomas and Grace Hoatson. The Hoatson family left Scotland in 1853 and finally settled in Calumet, Michigan. James became vice president of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company which operated several successful copper mines in Arizona and Montana in the early 1900s. In 1879, he married Eliza Anderson (1850-1936). At the time of his death, James and Eliza had a large estate in Hollywood, CA. They had no children. Their house is relatively modest and in good shape today. 

 403 Kearsarge Street, Frank and Jane Carlton built this house in 1903. He made his fortune selling heavy equipment to the mining companies. His store, Carlton Hardware, was located in Calumet.  

 441 Pewabic, 1895. Charles Anderson was a contractor and carpenter who built many of the fine Laurium houses. 

 317 Iroquois, built in 1898 and owned by physician Dr Alexander T LaBerge. You would think that if he was a doctor, I could have found out something about him on the internet, but this is all I have.   

 327 Iroquois, built in 1913 and owned by Gordon R. (b.1870) & Lou Campbell. He was a prominent lawyer and secretary for the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co, eventually becoming its president in 1921. This house looks like it was beautiful in its day, but is in need of TLC today.

 305 Tamarack, built in 1906, by Norman and Minnie MacDonald. Norman MacDonald was born in Germany in 1864 to a Scottish father and a Norwegian mother and immigrated as a child to Calumet. His father owned a drugstore in Calumet, which Norman MacDonald took over in the late 1890s, living over the store with his wife, Minnie. By 1905, though, MacDonald had retired from the business and built this large house in Laurium. The source of his wealth was apparently the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company, in which he had invested. Norman and Minnie MacDonald lived in this house alone with two servants as their only son had died in 1908.  The house is 7,000 square feet and is run as Victorian Hall Bed and Breakfast.    

 320 Tamarack, built in 1908 and originally owned by Thomas Jr and Cornelia Hoatson. Though he was one of the owners of Calumet & Arizona Mining Company, it should be mentioned that Thomas Jr was the first president of the International Hockey League. This grand home has 13,000 square feet, 45 rooms and 9 bedrooms. It was built for $50,000 and furnished for $35,000. Now known as The Laurium Manor Inn, it is open as a bed-and-breakfast and also for tours. 

 Mom, Val and I took a tour of it in 2003, back before I had a digital camera so only took a single picture of it. 

 Wow, way too much information. I went down quite a few rabbit holes on this one. Wasn’t going to stretch this out to a third part, but I’m afraid I’ll have to.