More than just home to the City of Ironwood offices, the Memorial Building is both a living memorial to local war veterans and a tribute to the community spirit that built it. American Legion Post No. 5 and the Ironwood Women’s Club led the effort to raise more than $500,000 in bonds for the building, a feat receiving national attention because Ironwood’s population was only 17,000 in 1922. Even Chicago’s war memorial couldn’t match that effort, despite that city’s far larger population. Remodeling in 1996 cost more than $1.6 million; evidence of continuing community support for this multi-purpose building.

People who come here on city business should pause to take pride in the Memorial Building’s history and finer features. The cornerstone was laid on November 11, 1922 to commemorate the armistice that ended World War I four years earlier. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the building boasts 47 stained glass windows; a World War I “doughboy” statue; bronze tablets honoring local men who served during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War I; murals of local iron mines; “lunettes” with scenes of the area’s early history; a 1,500-seat auditorium; a gymnasium; and a swimming pool. Tours are available.

During the preparations for the observance of 1955 Gogebic County Michigan Week, May 15 through May 21, we should take the occasion to realize the local historic lore and the beauties oftentimes forgotten or ignored. For instance, while we busy ourselves in our daily responsibilities, too many of us do not even know that here in the City of Ironwood in one of the structures, is a bronze tablet reading as follows:

“This building was erected in 1922 by the people of Ironwood as an enduring tribute of appreciation to our loyal citizens who have in every crisis, rallied to the defense of our government and the high ideals of liberty and humanity upon which it is founded”.

The structure is, of course, the one known officially as the Ironwood Municipal-Memorial building, the plans for which were drawn by the architects, Charles E. Bell and C. LeRoy Kinports. These men encountered and overcame many obstacles in drawing the plans, because of the peculiar shape of the ground set aside for the building and because of the bed rock that had to be excavated.

The real purpose of this feature article is not to discuss the cost of the structure, but merely to review some of the esthetic features of the Memorial building that we neglect to notice during our daily business routines.

The lobby is reached through a main entrance at the corner of McLeod Avenue and Marquette Street. The walls of the lobby are made of Tennessee marble wainscot ten feet in height. In the frieze above the wainscot are painted murals of the iron ore mines of 1922, in the City of Ironwood and on the Gogebic Iron Range. The local mines painted in these works of art are the Norrie, Ashland, Pabst, Aurora and Newport.

In the center of the lobby, erected on a Wausau granite base, is a life-like bronze statue of an American “doughboy” in action. It was made by the John Harsch Bronze and Foundry Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The model from which the casting for the statue was made, was the handicraft of Walter A. Sinz, a Cleveland sculptor associated with the Cleveland School of Art. The model was made from a living figure and it is an exact reproduction of a World War I soldier. The statue represents a “doughboy” running to go over the top in battle. The bronze figure is larger than life size.

Just above the staircase leading from the lobby to the second floor, and facing the lobby is a beautiful memorial window consisting of six panels. The center panel is a reproduction of a scene in the Battle of the Argonne, with airplanes hovering above the town, shrapnel bursting in the street, and heavy artillery firing from camouflage, with tank corps, and the artillery assisting.

The panel on the right in the memorial window is a Civil War scene at Fort Sumter while the window on the left represents Moro Castle, a scene during the Spanish American War. In the three small windows above the main panels are the insignia of the American Legion Civil War, and Spanish American War.

Turning north from the lobby of the Memorial Building is the main foyer which leads to the auditorium. Small semicircular spaces are formed in the foyer by the intersection of the wall with a so-called vaulted ceiling. These spaces are comparable to the “lunettes” in the Congressional Library, and they cover the full length of the foyer. In these spaces or “lunettes”, located between each column or pilaster, are mural paintings representing all of the industries on the Gogebic Range. There are several art paintings of our recreational beauties resulting from God’s gifts of nature. One picture is of special historical importance as it shows Father Marquette, the pioneer missionary, administering the Christian faith to the Upper Peninsula Indians.

In concluding this article, it is with the sincere hope that the information has been an inspiration to our readers to look about them for our historic lore….”the whisper of the forest tree, the thunder of the inland sea, which unite in one grand symphony”.

On “The Great Seal of the State of Michigan” are words in Latin which should always be a reminder to us that, “If you would see a beautiful peninsula, look around you”.