Sheldon Street 1906 Contributed by Paul Petosky This is a well-built village of five thousand people, located on the southern slopes of Portage lake, ten miles from Lake Superior on the west and fourteen miles from the mouth of Portage river. It is the northern terminus of the Duluth, South Shore & Alantic Railroad, and lies on the Mineral Range and Copper Range railroads. The latter is owned chiefly by Houghton capitalists and has its general offices in that city. Houghton, in fact, shares with Hancock and Calumet, the honor of being the most important administrative and executive center of the copper interests in the Upper Peninsula. It is connected with its sister city across the lake not only by the railroad bridge of the Copper Range line, but by a fine passenger bridge which was completed in 1876 by the Portage Lake Bridge Company. The Houghton County Electric line furnishes complete seivice to the village itself and connects it with Hancock. Laurium and Calumet, with branch lines to Lake Linden and other points. Houghton has a number of magnificent buildings which would be creditable to a city of any size, including its court house on a most commanding site overlooking the business district; Masonic and Odd Fellows temples; one of the handsomest and best conducted hotels in the Peninsula; aud also one of the most elegant club houses in Northern Michigan, It also has a handsome high school, built in 1899 which would now be valued at $100,000 and which accommodates 250 of the 1.950 pupils which enjoy the privileges of its public system of education. Houghton has four ward schools, and employs altogether sixty-two teachers. |
