Photo courtesy the City of Escanaba The Stephenson Hotel circa 1930.

Karen Rose Wils

ESCANABA — Isaac Stephenson left his mark on Upper Michigan.

His name lingers on towns, streets and parks.

In north Escanaba we have Stephenson Avenue and the I. Stephenson Park with tennis courts, basketball hoops and a playground. (It was formerly called Dock Diamond).

The Stephenson Lumber Company, located in Wells, was once the biggest producer of hardwood flooring in the world. Its mill and lumberyard once covered much of the mouth of the Escanaba River including the island in the middle.

We are all familiar with the famous House of Ludington (still in business and a historical landmark on the east end of Ludington Street).

It was named after Nelson Ludington, a lumber baron from Escanaba’s early days.

Well, the lumber baron Stephenson had a hotel named for him too. Built in 1889, the Stephenson Hotel is still standing today.

Standing near enough to the mouth of the Escanaba River, to almost hear the echoes of the ghosts of lumberjacks and mill workers, the Stephenson Hotel is on the 1500 block of Sheridan Road.

When four or more iron ore docks jutted out like fingers into Little Bay de Noc, the Stephenson Hotel welcomed guests.

When thousands of board feet of hardwood lumber flowed, thanks to saw, ax, cant hook and horsepower, from the Escanaba River, the Stephenson Hotel was there.

Businessmen, railroad men, lumber men, and travelers checked into the Stephenson Hotel on Hartnett Avenue. (Hartnett’s name was changed to Sheridan Road in the 1920s.)

Escanaba’s northside was once a busy, thriving portside town. Hotels, taverns, barber shops, grocery stores, post office and a cemetery were all once found there. The old-fashioned storefronts made the place look like the wild old-west.

Horses’ hooves, streetcar rails and gravel finally gave way to blacktop and motor cars. The Stephenson Hotel changed with the times. Additions were added to the building. The old city directory called it the Stephenson House.

It became known as the Corner Bar. Hotel rooms were remodeled into apartments. At one time it was called the “Bayview Beer Garden.” I recall my mother saying that years ago the Stephenson Hotel and the bars across the street would close off Sheridan Road and have a dance out there. In the 1970s I delivered newspapers there. We went for fish fries there. It was once Rusch’s Corner and a laundromat.

Last year the old Stephenson Hotel building had a new facelift and refurbishment. A stonework pattern faces Sheridan Road like a statement about the hard-working people that lived and worked in north Escanaba.

If you walk up there after dark, I swear, you can still hear cussing, laughing and singing in Croatian, Russian, French, Swedish…

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.