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All businesses and organizations located in Alcona County are eligible to apply for a FREE basic listing in this directory. Linked and Premium Listings are available for a nominal fee. Click Here!
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Addison Silverhorn Jewelry Store [Historic Site], 115 Lake St., Harrisville, MI The Silverthorn Jewelry Store is located on the west side of Lake Street, two buildings north of Main Street in the downtown area of the city of Harrisville. This one-story, three-bay, commercial building with an exaggerated, wooden, boom town parapet was built primarily of rusticated concrete block beginning in 1913 and completed in 1914. The original portion of the building has a square floor plan and sits on a cement block and concrete foundation. A smaller rectangular, one-story addition constructed of cement block was added to the south elevation at a later date. The rear portion of the original building has a hip roof covered in asphalt shingle while the front of the building has a pyramid roof accommodating the parapet. The addition has plain wood cornices with deep overhangs and sides on each of its three elevations. The original section of the building has a wide cornice supported by small ornamental brackets evenly spaced approximately every four feet. There are two three-over-one picture windows on the front facade and a few original two-over-two double hung sash windows on the remainder of the structure. The centered front entry includes a narrow rectangular transom over which appears the date of construction "1913" in cast concrete.
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Greenbush School [Historic Site], Greenbush, MI The Greenbush School is a clapboard-sided, rectangular, frame building covered with a metal roof. A small, wooden cupola is attached to the crest of the gabled roof. A brick chimney and metal stovepipe pierce the roof at the rear of the structure. Shed-roofed projections are constructed onto the front and rear walls of the structure. The building is structurally sound, but major renovation and restoration, together with a move directly across the street, were being planned by Greenbush Township to preserve the building in 1979.
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Joseph Van Buskirk House [Historic Site], 659 US-23 South, Harrisville, MI. The Joseph Van Buskirk House was constructed in 1878 with an addition in 1926. The Gothic-style house was constructed for lumber baron Joseph Van Buskirk. The Springport Inn Bed & Breakfast is operated for this historic home.
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Sturgeon Point Light Station [Historic Site, Museum], Point Road, Harrisville, MI. The Sturgeon Point Light Station is a single-story, rectangular dwelling connected to a circular light tower over seventy feet high and sixteen feet in diameter at the base. The walls of the residence and tower are of plaster covered brick and rest on a limestone foundation. The tower housed a fourth-order, polygonal light manufactured by Henry Lapalte of France. The Sturgeon Point Light Station is a well-preserved example of a Lake Huron light station and one of the few surviving buildings which served the thriving fishing industry of the Saginaw Bay area. The U.S. Coast Guard constructed the lighthouse in 1869 at a cost of $15,000 to warn off-course ships of a nearby reef. The light continues to operate unmanned. The keeper's house is now a maritime museum which is open to the public seven days a week from Memorial Day to mid-September. The lighthouse tower is not open to the public. The grounds are open all year.
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West Harrisville Deport [Historic Site], 116 Fisk Street, Lincoln, MI. The West Harrisville Depot was constructed as part of the Detroit, Bay City, and Alpena Railroad in 1886. The simple rectilinear form structure with its gable front roof was typical of the depots erected to serve the small railroad that operated along former logging rails in the Alpena area of eastern Michigan. The extant portion of the depot, including the former passenger waiting area and ticket office area has exterior dimensions of approximately 23 by 25 feet. Inside the train station was a passenger waiting area, the ticket office with a glass ticket booth, a telegraph station, and a large stock room to house products brought by train. In 1930 the building was sold as a private residence to the Skiver family and was converted from a train station to a private residence. The abandoned train tracks were removed along with the former platform along the west facade of the depot. Additional changes made during the 1930s include the addition of a concrete block foundation, installation of several second floor windows and an indoor bathroom as well as the re-cladding of the exterior walls. The Skiver family made relatively few modifications to the building following the initial conversion of the building into a permanent residence. The final major alteration was the replacement of the roof with new asphalt shingle cladding in the 1980s. Following the death of Bob Skiver in 1996, the building sat vacant and abandoned until its purchase by the Lincoln Downtown Development Authority in 1997. Initially they planned to demolish the building for a parking lot, however, these plans have been placed on hold while the Citizens for Lincoln Depot Restoration develop alternate plans to save and restore the structure. Statement of Significance The West Harrisville Depot is significant in several ways. The major importance associated with the depot is from its status as the last surviving small train depot located along the former Detroit, Bay City and Alpena (D.B.C. and A.) Railroad. The D.B.C. and A. Railroad was established on the narrow-gauge lumber railroads around the Alpena area in 1883. Among the major investors, and serving as president, was General Russell A. Alger, who went on to serve as Michigan governor, as secretary of war under President McKinley, and finally as a United States senator from Michigan. The depot is also noted as the beginning point of an 1888 botanical expedition across the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, in which four hundred species of plants were collected. In 1883 lumberman and Civil War hero Russell Alger led the consolidation of several lumber railroads as the Detroit, Bay City, and Alpena Railroad, bringing passenger and freight service to this region for the first time. Built in 1886, the depot was taken over by the Detroit and Mackinac Railroad in 1895 and renovated in 1913. Service ceased in 1927 and from 1930 to 1996 the building served as a residence. Citizens saved the depot in 1997.
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