Ironwood Memorial Building

Visitors shouldn't miss looking in on this lavish Beaux Arts civic building for its stained glass, murals, original light fixtures, and exhibits of local history and memorabilia. Ironwood city offices occupy the south wing; a much-used civic auditorium is on the north. (Every Thursday evening, the auditorium is given over to bingo and refreshments, to benefit DOVE, a domestic violence program.)

A recent $2 million restoration, guided by city manager and local son Keith Johnson, was funded by a millage. It means the building and decor are in top-notch shape: no drop ceilings or tacky partitions here.

Erecting this civic palace, completed in 1923 for $500,000, was one of many projects fostered by the Ironwood Women's Club, in this case cooperating with the chamber of commerce. The Memorial Building's main theme is to commemorate local men who died in World War I. Public buildings like this aren't uncommon on mining ranges because paternalistic mining companies encouraged them with donations. (The Peterson Auditorium at Ishpeming High School is one such showcase. Bob Dylan's high school in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range is another, from a later era. )
To get the Memorial Building's full effect, enter the central rotunda. Here scenic murals depict dairying, lumberjacks, pioneers, Jesuits, and a wide landscape of hills punctuated from east to west by the headframes of the Norrie, Ashland, Pabst, Aurora, and Newport mines.

To the left a wall of bronze tablets lists 1,580 names of Gogebic soldiers killed in World War I - a chilling number of war deaths for such a small area. In the center are trophies from firefighters' competitions.

Go right and enter the auditorium lobby. Here a lunette over each of five doors is topped by a painting of a romanticized scene from an era of Ironwood history.

Back in the rotunda, go up the grand staircase to see stained-glass windows showing the Battle of the Argonne. Airplanes fly above the French town. Shrapnel bursts in the streets, and heavy artillery fires from camouflaged positions. Flanking the centerpiece World War I window, other windows show the attack on Fort Sumter that launched the Civil War, and the sinking of the Moro Castle in the Spanish-American War.

When you go up the stairs to the second floor, in some rooms on your left interesting displays of Ironwood history has been installed by Ironwood Historical Society volunteers. Exhibits include prehistory, the fur-trading era, and the shifting Michigan-Wisconsin line in these states' early history. Illustrated vignettes of the colorful men who developed the Gogebic Range include the fabulously rich Marquette landlooker John Longyear, Yale geologist Raphael Pumpelly, James Wood, and Benjamin Moore, among others. (Moore was led to the ore deposits that became Bessemer's Colby Mine by Richard Langford, a hermit who lived in a one-room shack near Lake Superior. Moore never paid Langford a cent, nor did he credit him with his "discovery" of the ore body. Moore was at the right place at the right time. He made multiple fortunes, in Bessemer, in Ashland, Wisconsin, real estate, and in Hurley-area mining. Another exhibit features the Memorial Building itself.)

If you'd like a quick look at the auditorium or the elegant clubroom of the Ironwood Women's Club, ask downstairs at the city clerk's office. The private Ironwood Women's Club was entitled to space in this public building because it was a major benefactor in the Memorial Building's construction. Wives of mine managers, bankers, and other local leaders made up the club. In its clubroom, wing chairs, double-sided mahogany writing desks, and a silver tea service evoke an era when refinement was all-important in distinguishing a lady from the masses.

Like many women's clubs of the early 20th century, the Ironwood Women's Club functioned as a town improvement society and pioneered projects later taken on by government. Over the years the club lobbied for women's suffrage, established milk and lunch program in the schools, and raised funds for the Bay Cliff camp for disabled children outside Marquette. The club also worked to get a female police officer and an advocate for women in court. It sponsored concerts and lyceum programs, plays and teen dances. One aspiring local artist of Finnish descent, Aare Lahti (brother of the well-known University of Michigan art professor), received a Women's Club scholarship to study in Europe. The clubroom features his mural illustrating some of the club's activities.

McLeod & Marquette, northwest corner. McLeod parallels Aurora a block to the south; Marquette is two blocks east of Suffolk/Business Route 2. Open 7:30 to 4 Mon-Fri. Wheelchair access: facing the main entrance, look to the left for a recessed entrance. An interior elevator leads to all floors.

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