Algoma's downtown lakefront has changed dramatically since this photo was taken in the early 1960s.
Significant buildings identified by number follow with their original use and current status, if any, today. Number 1 was the utility plant which has been torn down; 2 is the utility building and office, now the Haegele Center and home of Farm Market Kitchen; 3 is Dick DeGuelle's home which has been relocated, and 4 is DeGuelle's tavern which was torn down and replaced with a marina parking lot; 5 was the 1901 Charles saloon, now Von Stiehl's warehouse; 6 was the cheese cold storage building that became Jag Outdoor Advertising; 7 is a garage that was torn down, 8 is the Steam Laundry that was also torn down; 9 is Ahnapee Brewery and now Von Stiehl Winery; 10 was built as Toebe's saloon and shoe store, now a private residence; 11 was Gericke's store, now demolished; 11 was the Fuel Co. office and now Natural Light Gallery; 13 and 14. are the Fuel Co. cabinet shop and shed, also demolished.
Youngs and Steele Plat Block 12, the area in the lower left quadrant of the photo, has one of Algoma’s more interesting histories. Activity dates to some of
DeGuelle’s tavern building dates to the 1860’s when it was
operating as a small boarding house or hotel, called the Rosiere House, while also serving as Mollie
McDonald’s news depot, telegraph office and sewing machine sales room. Over the years, the building changed. Eighty years later, and after several refurbishings, the
second story was converted to apartments to accommodate the World War ll
housing shortage. Originally a frame building, it was brick veneered in 1882.
Its yellow brick came from the Swaty Brickyard in what
is now the Lake Street
One hundred years ago grain warehouses stood between the hotel and
Lake Michigan, and a livery stood just south of
the hotel which by then was the Charles House. In later years, Pleck's Ice Cream and Dairy used the livery building as an ice cream and
soda warehouse. Then Jerry Seiler used it as a tire warehouse. Both buildings
were torn down before the picture was taken.
Joe Villers, who also appears in documents as Williams or Willems, bought, in 1876, what most remember as the DeGuelle building and started calling
it the Rosiere House. Telesphore Charles purchased it a few years later and
changed the name to the St. Charles Hotel. For most of its history, the
building held a saloon or tavern. Coisman, Nesemann, Schmidt, Wacek, DeGuelle
and Jennings
It was David Youngs, his Chicago business partner George Steele, and Solomon McKitchum and William Clark who owned most of what is today's downtown Algoma. Properties were sold back and forth so it was eventually mostly in Youngs' name. It was platted as Youngs and Steele Plat in 1858.
Youngs built a slab mercantile on the south bank of the (then) Wolf River on the approximate site of the cheese storage building, best remembered as Jag's. Youngs was thought to have common sense and business acumen, though he did meet with financial misfortune. He was known as one whose integrity was never questioned. He was noted for his openhanded generosity and never turned away a needy person. As commerce grew, so did the need for piers which were built up and down the lake shore. Realizing the advantages of a pier, the farsighted Youngs built a bridge pier on the north side of the river during the spring and early summer of 1856. It was organized as Youngs, Fellows and Co. Seymour Palmer was the "and Co." When Youngs died in 1874, the Record commented that while he was not a Christian, "Christians would do well to follow his example."
Bohemian immigrant Franz Swaty and his family arrived in the fledgling village in 1860. It was Swaty who was credited with encouraging his countrymen to settle in the area. He opened a store on the approximate site that became DeGuelle's. For a time, he was a partner in the brewery and a partner in the gristmill at what became Bruemmerville. Too old to serve in the Civil War, the patriotic Swaty did what he could for the women whose husbands served and for widows and orphans. His patriotism extended to the naming of two daughters Liberty and Columbia. Liberty taught in Ahnapee. Julie, the youngest, was the only one of Swaty's children to remain in Algoma, living in the little yellow house that had been in the Swaty family for most of 100 years.
The first of the McDonalds came to Wolf River with their mother, Jane McDonald Loval. Jane McDonald was a widow when she married Jack Loval. She opened her 1857 Union House just south of the small white building at the left of building #5 in the photo above. Her hotel was one of Wolf River's first frame structures. Jane's children had a significant impact on the community.
While the names Youngs, Swaty and McDonald no longer appear in Algoma, it is possible there are descendants. If there are, no doubt they are continuing to make an impact 150 years later.
Note: The photo has been cropped from a postcard in the author's collection. Much of the information comes from An-An-api-sebe, Where is the River?
It was David Youngs, his Chicago business partner George Steele, and Solomon McKitchum and William Clark who owned most of what is today's downtown Algoma. Properties were sold back and forth so it was eventually mostly in Youngs' name. It was platted as Youngs and Steele Plat in 1858.
Youngs built a slab mercantile on the south bank of the (then) Wolf River on the approximate site of the cheese storage building, best remembered as Jag's. Youngs was thought to have common sense and business acumen, though he did meet with financial misfortune. He was known as one whose integrity was never questioned. He was noted for his openhanded generosity and never turned away a needy person. As commerce grew, so did the need for piers which were built up and down the lake shore. Realizing the advantages of a pier, the farsighted Youngs built a bridge pier on the north side of the river during the spring and early summer of 1856. It was organized as Youngs, Fellows and Co. Seymour Palmer was the "and Co." When Youngs died in 1874, the Record commented that while he was not a Christian, "Christians would do well to follow his example."
Bohemian immigrant Franz Swaty and his family arrived in the fledgling village in 1860. It was Swaty who was credited with encouraging his countrymen to settle in the area. He opened a store on the approximate site that became DeGuelle's. For a time, he was a partner in the brewery and a partner in the gristmill at what became Bruemmerville. Too old to serve in the Civil War, the patriotic Swaty did what he could for the women whose husbands served and for widows and orphans. His patriotism extended to the naming of two daughters Liberty and Columbia. Liberty taught in Ahnapee. Julie, the youngest, was the only one of Swaty's children to remain in Algoma, living in the little yellow house that had been in the Swaty family for most of 100 years.
The first of the McDonalds came to Wolf River with their mother, Jane McDonald Loval. Jane McDonald was a widow when she married Jack Loval. She opened her 1857 Union House just south of the small white building at the left of building #5 in the photo above. Her hotel was one of Wolf River's first frame structures. Jane's children had a significant impact on the community.
While the names Youngs, Swaty and McDonald no longer appear in Algoma, it is possible there are descendants. If there are, no doubt they are continuing to make an impact 150 years later.
Note: The photo has been cropped from a postcard in the author's collection. Much of the information comes from An-An-api-sebe, Where is the River?
My My My, how the city has changed! Thanks for the constant updates on the history. I always enjoy what you write.
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