The View from

176 West Michigan Avenue

The Newsletter of the Presque Isle County Historical Museum

Winter 2008 

Rogers City’ s Oldest

Homes and Businesses

      Among the “treasures” in the museum’s collections are a number of old plat books of Presque Isle County.  One dates to 1869, when the first settlers arrived at what is now Rogers City.  The book supposedly belonged to the notorious Albert Molitor, one of the founders of the community.  It records land ownerships in the period from 1869 to 1881.

     The second book  belonged to Frederic Denny Larke, another  of Rogers City’s “founding fathers.”  It is a little harder to date, but seems to start about 1875, the year Molitor was murdered.

     Both of the books were donated to the museum by the late Harry Grambau, former Superintendent of Schools.  Unfortunately, no information is available on how Grambau came into possession of the books.

     The plat of the Village of Rogers in the Larke book  is particularly interesting.  Larke has drawn little squares on the map to show the locations of all the buildings in the community. 

     At that time, only twenty-six homes in the village.  Twenty-one of those were located on First Street, between Superior and Ontario.  Another house was located on Huron Avenue, just west of the alley between First and Second streets.  There were two more houses on Huron, just east of Third Street, on property now owned by the Nowicki family.

     The house farthest from Lake Huron was at the corner of Third and Huron, where KJ Alignment is presently located.  That home belonged to Frederic Denny Larke.  In 1878, Larke built a drugstore across Huron Avenue from his home.  Today, that building is occupied by Grulke Hardware.  The drugstore does not show on the plat, so it appears to have been drawn prior to 1878.

     Another building missing from the plat is the original site of Herman Hoeft’s general store.  That store was built in 1873 at the northwest corner of Third Street and Michigan Avenue.  So, it is probably safe for us to conclude that the plat is from before 1873.  By the way, big D’s Pizza is now located in the building that Hoeft had built in 1873.  Absent any evidence to the contrary, it is the oldest commercial building in Rogers City.

     Many of those early homes on First Street still exist today, although most have been extensively remodeled.  The oldest may be the Doug Richards’ home at  181 North First Street.  That house was built for William Rogers, namesake of Rogers City.  It undoubtedly dates to 1868 or 1869.