 Ermatinger-Clergue Heritage Discovery Centre | |
 | |
| Location | Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 46°30′22″N84°19′28″W / 46.50622°N 84.32456°W |
| Type | Museum |
| Curator | Kathryn Fisher |
| Website | www |
The Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site is a historic site and museum located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.
There are three buildings on the site: the Ermatinger Old Stone House, the Clergue Blockhouse, and the Heritage Discovery Centre. [1] The Ermatinger and Clergue houses are thought to the be oldest buildings northwest of Toronto. [2] The Heritage Discovery Centre's construction was completed in 2014; this space was designed to provide additional interpretive and programming space for the historic site. [3]
The site is managed by the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. [1]
The Ermatinger Old Stone House is the original building on the site, and was constructed between 1814 and 1823. [4] It is considered one of the oldest surviving houses in Northern Ontario. [5]
It was built by Charles Oakes Ermatinger, a former North West Company fur trader who lived in the home with his wife and children. He resided there until 1828, when he cut his ties in Sault Ste. Marie after the death of his brother Frederick William. [6] It was designated as a national historic site in 1957. [4]
The house is constructed from local stone and timber, and faces the St. Mary's River. It was considered big for its time, and was an imposing landmark hen it was constructed. [4] After the Ermatinger family left, the stone house was used by succeeding occupants as a mission, hotel, tavern, courthouse, post office, dance hall, tea room and apartment building. [4] The house was bought by the City of Sault Ste. Marie in 1965 and was restored before opening to the public as a house museum. [4]
In 1956 Sault Ste. Marie historian McNeice began researching the history of the Ermatinger Old Stone House and the Ermatinger family. Her work would ultimately result in the publication of a book titled, The Ermatinger Family of Sault Ste. Marie, which was published posthumously by McNeice's daughter. [7]
The Clergue blockhouse was originally a powder magazine at a North West Company trading post [8] before the merger of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. When the last remaining factor at the post resigned in 1867, [8] the site fell into disuse, until only the powder magazine's foundation building remained. American industrialist F.H. Clergue purchased the property and began the process of transforming it from powder magazine to living space. He lived in the blockhouse from 1894 to 1902. [9]
In 1979 the blockhouse was designated as a local historical site by the City of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. In 1995 the St. Mary's Paper Mill was planning development that would jeopardize the location and structure of the blockhouse. The following year the City of Sault Ste. Marie purchased the building and relocated it from the St. Mary's Paper Mill to the Ermatinger Old Stone House site, forming a complex of historic buildings. [10]
Sault Ste. Marie is a city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Chippewa County and is the only city within the county. With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 census, it is the second-most populated city in the Upper Peninsula, behind Marquette. It is the primary city of the Sault Ste. Marie, MI Micropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Chippewa County and had a population of 36,785 at the 2020 census. Sault Ste. Marie was settled by mostly French colonists in 1668, making it the oldest city in Michigan.
The St. Marys River, sometimes written St. Mary's River, drains Lake Superior, starting at the end of Whitefish Bay and flowing 74.5 miles (119.9 km) southeast into Lake Huron, with a fall of 23 feet (7.0 m). For its entire length it is an international border, separating Michigan in the United States from Ontario, Canada.
The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks, operated and maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, that enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario. They bypass the rapids of the river, where the water falls 21 ft (6.4 m). The locks pass an average of 10,000 ships per year, despite being closed during the winter from January through March, when ice shuts down shipping on the Great Lakes. The winter closure period is used to inspect and maintain the locks.
Algoma Steel Inc. is an integrated primary steel producer located on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Its products are sold in Canada and the United States as well as overseas. Algoma Steel was founded in 1902 by Francis Clergue, an American entrepreneur who had settled in Sault Ste. Marie. The company emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004. In April 2007, Algoma Steel was purchased by India's Essar Group for US$ 1.63 billion, continuing operations as a subsidiary known as Essar Steel Algoma Inc. It was purchased again in 2017, by a group of US investors.
Francis Hector Clergue was an American businessman who became the leading industrialist of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, at the turn of the 20th century.
The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario, Canada, that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads.
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, commonly shortened to Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians or the more colloquial Soo Tribe, is a federally recognized Native American tribe in what is now known as Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The tribal headquarters is located within Sault Ste. Marie, the major city in the region, which is located on the St. Marys River.
Sir William Howard Hearst, was the seventh premier of Ontario from 1914 to 1919.
The GFL Memorial Gardens, formerly the "Essar Centre", is a 4,928 seat sports and entertainment centre in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. It opened on September 29, 2006, replacing the now demolished Sault Memorial Gardens. The new building was constructed directly next door to the former Memorial Gardens and incorporated its most distinctive feature, the Memorial Tower, into its plans. The block surrounding the arena is called "Memorial Square."
The Sault Ste. Marie Canal is a National Historic Site in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and is part of the national park system, managed by Parks Canada. It includes a lock to bypass the rapids on the St. Marys River.
Fort St. Joseph is a former British outpost on the southernmost point of St. Joseph Island in Ontario, Canada, on Lake Huron. The fort consisted of a blockhouse, powder magazine, bakery building, Indian council house and storehouse surrounded by a palisade.
The Art Gallery of Algoma (AGA) is an art museum in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. The museum occupies a 930 square metres (10,000 sq ft) facility, situated near the shoreline of St. Marys River.
Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig is an Indigenous led institute, with Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie as one of its main partners. Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig is one of nine Indigenous Institutes in Ontario's post-secondary system and collaborates with other colleges and universities to offer post-secondary programs geared specifically toward Indigenous students.
David Ellis is a Canadian architect ,based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He is perhaps best known for his winning entry for the World Bank's Malaysian Health Development Project Design Competition along with his countless architectural designs built in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. "Design is not a product, but a process", David Ellis stated this phrase to explain his view of architectural philosophy through his commitment to architecture, planning and interior design. This philosophy led into his design specialty for buildings that have complex academic innovation as well as attention to the human condition. His vision included revitalizing Northern communities and bringing technology and detail to the human condition. Many of David Ellis' design choices come from a relationship between building and environment, "Everyone needs to have a relationship with their environment".
Sault Ste. Marie is a city in Ontario, Canada. The third-largest city in Northern Ontario after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, it is located on the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. To the southwest, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. The two cities are joined by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side and Huron Street on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.
Shingwauk Indian Residential School was a Canadian residential school for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children that operated in Canada between 1873 and 1970 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the Anglican Church of Canada and the Government of Canada.
James Watson Curran was a newspaper publisher and editor who settled in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario after purchasing a local weekly newspaper in 1901. He went on to publicize and promote the city and the Algoma District. He played a leadership role in the formation of the Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie in 1918 and was actively involved in local history and tourism promotion.
The Chicora incident was an incident in May 1870 between the American government and an expeditionary force consisting of British and Canadian militia under the command of Colonel Garnet Wolseley in Sault Sainte Marie. US authorities blocked passage of the Chicora for several weeks, delaying Wolseley's response to the Red River Rebellion. The incident ultimately led to the construction of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal on the Canadian side of the river, allowing unfettered access to the Lake Superior.
Entomica Insectarium is an insectarium located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. First established in the Mill Market in 2014, Entomica is now located in the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre.
Media related to Ermatinger-Clergue National Historic Site at Wikimedia Commons