Mather Inn

In 1875, Robert Nelson, the founder of Ishpeming, built a hotel in the city known as the Barnum House.[6] Four years later, the Barnum House burned, and Nelson replaced it with another structure he called the Nelson House.[6] The Nelson House stood until 1928, when it too burned. The loss of Ishpeming's finest hotel affected the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which now had no place to house important guests.[2]

Realizing the benefit of having a first-class hotel, William G. Mather, Cleveland-Cliffs president, financed the construction of the Mather Inn as a replacement.[2] Mather hired Boston architect James H. Ritchie to design the building and turned to Warren H. Manning, a longtime associate, to design the grounds.[2] The hotel is considered to be an excellent example of the work of both men.[2]

The Mather Inn opened in 1932, and served the community for decades.[6] In 1959, it served as lodging for the cast of the classic movie Anatomy of a Murder.[6] In the mid-1980s, the Mather Inn Preservation Society was created to sustain it.[6] However, the inn fell on hard times, and in 1987 it was closed and sold.[6]

The inn was vacant for many years, but in 2004 renovations to the building were started.[7] As of 2009, the inn is privately owned and is undergoing a renovation to turn it into luxury residences and office suites.[6][8] As of 2014, the old boiler room and adjacent storage area have been converted into a brewery named Cognition Brewing Company. The brewery plans to serve its beer out of the old pub.[9]

The Mather Inn is a four-story rectangular building, constructed of concrete and steel with a brick facing.[2] The front facade is divided into three bays, with a two-story portico sheltering the entrance in the center bay.[2] The varied fenestration on the front, including bay windows flanking the center entrance and dormers on the hipped roof, make the facade architecturally interesting.[2]

The public areas of the interior are panelled in pine,[2] and include a sunken dining room and men's clubroom.[6] There are forty-seven guest rooms, including three furnished apartments. On the exterior, the grounds contain uniform terraced gardens and a huge boulder rock garden.[2] The inn is still substantially similar to its original state, having undergone few alterations.[2]

• The Mather Inn