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You can’t drive through downtown Calumet and not be awed by the iconic church at the end of 5th Street.
What people may not know about is the monumental effort that has gone into restoring the historic St. Anne’s Church into a community hall available for public use.
The building was built in 1901 for a primarily French-Canadian Congregation.
Keweenaw Heritage Center Board Co-Chair Jean Ellis said, “The building served as a church for 65 years, until 1966 when the Diocese of Marquette determined that they could no longer support five Catholic congregations in the Calumet-Laurium area. It closed three churches. This was one of them.”
After it was a church, it was home to a deteriorating antique shop until 1994, when Reverend Bob Langseth spearheaded a campaign to raise money to purchase the building for Calumet Township.
Working with the DDA, Langseth helped raise roughly $50,000 and the building was purchased for $38,000.
80,000 volunteer hours later and more the $1.5 million in donations and grants, the Keweenaw Heritage Center can now be used for events such as weddings and concerts.
Ellis said, “It’s a beautiful building! It deserves to be a part of our heritage. We hope that people will begin to use it for celebrations of their own lives and it will be part of their heritage.”
They’ve not only restored a key part of Calumet’s past, but have provided a location that can serve the village’s future.
