Lightkeeper's House | |
Location | 12 South Broadway, Grand Marais, Minnesota |
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Coordinates | 47°44′56″N90°19′58″W / 47.74902°N 90.33272°W |
Area | .25 acres (0.10 ha) |
Built | 1896 |
NRHP reference No. | 78001528 [1] |
Designated | November 28, 1978 |
The Lightkeeper's House, also known as the Cook County History Museum, is a historic building in Grand Marais, Minnesota, United States.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and was nominated for being "a significant survivor of the settlement along Minnesota's north shore during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, it is indicative of the dependence of communities such as Grand Marais on Lake Superior." [2]
Constructed in 1896, the Lightkeeper's House is a well-preserved two-story frame residence of the kind called a "mechanics cottage". In his NHRP review, Charles Nelson called it "unimposing architecturally" and its ornamentation "undistinguished and sparse". [2]
The Lightkeeper's House, which is located a block from the shoreline near the Grand Marais lighthouse, was built in 1896 by the federal government to house the lighthouse keeper and his family. The Grand Marais lighthouse is one of several which were established along the shoreline between Duluth and the Canadian border during the second half of the nineteenth century. The rugged location of the well-known Split Rock Lighthouse was chosen to mark dangerous reefs. The lighthouses in Two Harbors and Grand Marais, conversely, marked places of refuge. The first lighthouse in Grand Marais was built in 1884, but the current building dates to 1896.
After 1946, it was used as a home for the U.S. Coast Guard commander. It was acquired by the Cook County Historical Society in 1966. In 2006, the society built an addition for use as an archival storage facility.
The building now houses the Cook County History Museum, which holds more than 50,000 artifacts, photos and documents including the Fresnel lens from the Grand Marais Lighthouse, and features exhibits on local history including fishing and maritime shipping, military history, the settlement of Lake Superior region, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The building is also the society's main office. [2] [3]
Grand Marais is a city and the county seat of Cook County, Minnesota, United States, of which it is the only municipality. It is on Lake Superior's North Shore. Grand Marais had a population of 1,337 at the 2020 census. Before it was settled by French Canadians and before Minnesota's statehood, it was inhabited by the Ojibwe.
Point Iroquois Light is a lighthouse on a Chippewa County bluff in the U.S. state of Michigan. Point Iroquois and its light mark the division line between Whitefish Bay and the western end of the St. Marys River, the connection between Lake Superior and other Great Lakes.
Split Rock Lighthouse is a lighthouse located southwest of Silver Bay, Minnesota, US on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The structure was designed by lighthouse engineer Ralph Russell Tinkham and was completed in 1910 by the United States Lighthouse Service for $75,000, including the buildings and the land. It is considered one of the most picturesque lighthouses in the United States.
Grand Marais is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Alger County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located within Burt Township on the shores of Lake Superior, and the community is the eastern gateway to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore via H-58.
The Two Harbors Light is the oldest operating lighthouse in the US state of Minnesota. Overlooking Lake Superior's Agate Bay, the lighthouse is located in Two Harbors, Minnesota. The construction of the lighthouse began in 1891 and was completed the following year, with the light being lit for the first time on April 14, 1892. The first Two Harbors keeper was Charles Lederle and there were normally three keepers assigned to make sure the light was lit every day. The Lighthouse was built to provide safe passage into the Agate Bay Harbor during the early 20th century, as Two Harbors was a major shipping point for the iron ore of the Mesabi Range.
The North Shore of Lake Superior runs from Duluth, Minnesota, United States, at the western end of the lake, to Thunder Bay and Nipigon, Ontario, Canada, in the north, to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in the east. The shore is characterized by alternating rocky cliffs and cobblestone beaches, with forested hills and ridges through which scenic rivers and waterfalls descend as they flow to Lake Superior.
Crisp Point was one of five U.S. Life-Saving Service Stations along the coast of Lake Superior between Munising and Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The lighthouse is within McMillan Township in Luce County.
The New Presque Isle Light was built in 1870, at Presque Isle, Michigan, east of Grand Lake, and sits on the namesake peninsula. It is one of 149 lighthouses in Michigan, more than any other state. Because of changing shoreline particularly, or alternatively deterioration of the original building, it is not uncommon for a replacement lighthouse to be placed in the vicinity of an earlier light, in this case, the Old Presque Isle Light.
The Browns Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse located near Tacoma on Browns Point at the east entrance to Puget Sound's Commencement Bay, Pierce County, Washington.
The Erie Land Light, also known as the Old Presque Isle Light, is a lighthouse on the shore of Lake Erie in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is one of the three lighthouses in Erie, along with the Presque Isle Light and the North Pier Light. The lighthouse is situated on the bluffs overlooking the lake in Lighthouse Park east of downtown Erie.
Au Sable Light is an active lighthouse in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore west of Grand Marais, Michigan off H-58. Until 1910, this aid to navigation was called "Big Sable Light".
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Cook County, Minnesota. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Minnesota, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
Cook County Courthouse in Grand Marais, Minnesota, United States, was built in 1911 and designed by architects Anton Werner Lignell and Clyde Wetmore Kelly. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Grand Marais Light is located on the outer end of a breakwater on the shore of Lake Superior in the city of Grand Marais in Cook County, Minnesota, United States. It is located in USCG District 9.
The Grand Marais Harbor of Refuge Inner and Outer Lights are a pair of lighthouses located on the west pier at the entry to Grand Marais Harbor of Refuge, in Grand Marais, Michigan. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
The Jim Scott Fishhouse is a historic building in Grand Marais, Minnesota, United States, built in 1907 by a family-owned commercial fishing outfit. During the fishing season it served as a place to dress and pack fish, while over the winter it was used for the storage and repair of fishing gear. The Jim Scott Fishhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 for having local significance in the theme of commerce. It was nominated for being a representative of the important commercial fishing industry on the upper North Shore of Lake Superior.
The Chantry Island Lighthouse, officially known as Chantry Island Lightstation Tower, is a lightstation on Chantry Island, off the coast of Southampton, Ontario in Lake Huron. It was constructed in the years 1855 through to 1859, by John Brown of Thorold, Ontario, under the authority of the Province of Canada and is recognized as one of the six Imperial Towers. Virtually identical, they were completed in 1858-1859 on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and are among the few lighthouses on the Great Lakes made of cut limestone and granite.
The North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum is a museum in Tofte, Minnesota, dedicated to the history of the Scandinavian immigrants and communities of the North Shore region of Lake Superior, and especially their importance to the national commercial fishing industry of the 1880s to 1940s. It is Minnesota's first museum dedicated to commercial fishing.
The Bally Blacksmith Shop is a historic building in Grand Marais, Minnesota, United States, built in 1911 and used for nearly a century by three generations of the Bally family blacksmiths. The shop was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It was nominated for being "architecturally and historically significant as a rare, intact, operating example of an early twentieth-century blacksmith shop", according to historical consultant Jeffrey Hess.
Chik Wauk Lodge, now Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, is a historic building near the northern terminus of the Gunflint Trail northwest of Grand Marais, Minnesota, United States. It overlooks Saganaga Lake.