62 Isle Royale Street

The building at 62 Isle Royale Street is considered one of downtown Houghton’s most unique buildings. The narrow-fronted, brick structure has an undulating, almost Art Nouveau treatment of the front gable parapet, that suggests a “whimsical German or Low Country-inspired design, . . .”

The Board of Trade restaurant began on Shelden Avenue but moved to Isle Royale Street between 1908 and 1916. It had two private dining rooms and a bar with mirrors at either end. Their “Palm Garden and Café” was a truly elegant place — furnished with red wainscoting, Venetian marble baseboards, golden oak furniture, and ivory gold draperies with gold trimmings – that catered to the business class of Houghton’s golden era. By 1929, during Prohibition, it was listed as a soft drink retailer. After Prohibition ended, the Board of Trade returned to serving alcohol but by the early 1960s its earlier luster had declined.

In 1967 Michigan Tech student Jon Davis bought the building and converted it to “The Library” – conveniently named so students could truthfully tell their parents they were at “The Library.” Initially, it was a casual pub serving fresh cold draft beer with peanut shells strewn on the floor. By the late 1970s, Davis had added a spiral staircase of barnwood that led to a dining room with a circular bar, called “the Homonym.” A former student and patron described it: “The place had red carpeting on the walls and a 1970s vibe and a low ceiling upstairs with a sign that admonished you to ‘Watch out you might get hit Ontonagon’.”  The menu looked like a book. Davis sold The Library in 1989.

In 1995, a fire broke out and the building suffered major damage. Though the façade remained intact, the brickwork was badly burned and the interior was gutted. Within two years, however, the new owners reopened, now with a stucco addition on the north side that included a microbrewery and a wall of windows allowing a great view of the Portage Canal. Inside, the second story was removed. In 1999, The Library brewed their first beer – the first commercially brewed local beer in over two decades. In 2018 the business was sold to Aimee and Tom Romps. The Romps have kept “The Library” name for the restaurant, but renamed the brewery the “Copper Country Beer Company.”

Perhaps it was the whimsy of the building’s design that prompted the owners of the two long term occupants to name their taverns with a sense of humor — a witticism that appears was appreciated by generations of students patronizing both establishments: As a Tech alum commented: “Library? It was the Board of Trade for us in the ‘50s. . . . But we started graduation day, 1956, with a ‘board meeting’.”

Sources: Historic Houghton Walking Tour (c.2000); History of American Architecture SS422 Term Projects (Spring 2000); Keweenaw Time Traveler; National Register of Historic Places registration (1987); Riippa E. and Neely A. (2018, Oct. 5). Tales from the Library. Alumni News.; The Library menu; R.L. Polk & Co.’s Houghton County Directory 1907-1908, 1916-1917. R.L. Polk & Co., Publishers.; Cynthia (2015, Nov. 26). The Library Bar House Soup: Swiss Onion Au Gratin. Motherskitchen.; Image: University Archives and Historical Collections 62 Isle Royale_MTU_E726-M6-08-16_library palm court ad COPY