Cliffs Shaft Iron Mine, Ishpeming, MI
One of two 1919 headframes of the Cliffs Shaft Iron Mine, Euclid Street between Lakeshore Drive and Spruce Street, Ishpeming, Michigan. The Cliffs Shaft Mine is a former iron mine, now a museum, located on Euclid Street between Lakeshore Drive and Spruce Street in Ishpeming, Michigan. The museum, operated by "Marquette Range Iron Mining Heritage Theme Park Inc.", celebrates the history of the Marquette Iron Range. The site was designated a state of Michigan historic site in 1973 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992
In 1919, Cliffs Shaft engineers determined that the two wooden headframes atop their A and B shafts were deteriorating and would soon be unsafe. When Cliffs Shaft engineers presented company president William G. Mather with proposals to update the headframes, Mather suggested that, because of the prominence of their location, the headframes combine practicality with architectural beauty. The company retained George Washington Maher, a Prairie School architect from Chicago's Condron Company, to design the new headframes. Maher came up with a distinctive obelisk-shaped, Egyptian Revival design for the headframes. The company immediately began building the new headframes around the old wooden ones. The new headframes were of reinforced concrete, with an interior measurement of 33 feet square at the base, eventually tapering to 21 feet square at the top. A pyramidal roof brought the full height to 96 feet 9 inches. The structures are substantially similar, but mirror images of each other. The positions of interior beams were largely determined by available openings in the wooden headframes being built around. Work continued from July into December 1919.
Cliffs Shaft Iron Mine, Ishpeming, MI
One of two 1919 headframes of the Cliffs Shaft Iron Mine, Euclid Street between Lakeshore Drive and Spruce Street, Ishpeming, Michigan. The Cliffs Shaft Mine is a former iron mine, now a museum, located on Euclid Street between Lakeshore Drive and Spruce Street in Ishpeming, Michigan. The museum, operated by "Marquette Range Iron Mining Heritage Theme Park Inc.", celebrates the history of the Marquette Iron Range. The site was designated a state of Michigan historic site in 1973 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992
In 1919, Cliffs Shaft engineers determined that the two wooden headframes atop their A and B shafts were deteriorating and would soon be unsafe. When Cliffs Shaft engineers presented company president William G. Mather with proposals to update the headframes, Mather suggested that, because of the prominence of their location, the headframes combine practicality with architectural beauty. The company retained George Washington Maher, a Prairie School architect from Chicago's Condron Company, to design the new headframes. Maher came up with a distinctive obelisk-shaped, Egyptian Revival design for the headframes. The company immediately began building the new headframes around the old wooden ones. The new headframes were of reinforced concrete, with an interior measurement of 33 feet square at the base, eventually tapering to 21 feet square at the top. A pyramidal roof brought the full height to 96 feet 9 inches. The structures are substantially similar, but mirror images of each other. The positions of interior beams were largely determined by available openings in the wooden headframes being built around. Work continued from July into December 1919.