Alexander Agassiz was president of the great Calumet & Hecla Mine since nearly its conception, pulling the once struggling enterprise out of a financial abyss and building it into a massively successful company of impressive wealth and power. Agassiz’s influence reached beyond the company itself and extended to the surrounding communities and towns as well, thanks to the man’s paternalistic nature. As a result both the mine and community suffered a great loss with Agassiz’s passing in 1910. . In honor of that legacy, Agassiz’s son commissioned famed landscape architect Warren Manning to convert a large piece of vacant land adjacent to the mine into a grand community park in his fathers honor. The year was 1920.

Warren Manning was a boston landscape architect who had spent his informative years apprenticing under Frederick Olmsted, the man responsible for New York’s Central Park. Manning shared his early mentor’s thoughts regarding landscape design, preferring to utilize a more “naturalistic” approach in park design in contrast to the more classical tendency to create highly manicured and symmetric garden spaces. His challenge at Calumet was the creation of a formal space within a vacant property that had historically been a very informal gathering space tucked between the mine and neighboring village. Manning’s approach would be a interesting mix of both geometric form and natural abstraction.

The centerpiece of the design was to be a larger then life bronze sculpture of Agassiz himself – lounging on a chair and draped in academic robes – sculpted by Paul Bartlett. The sculpture sat atop a granite base with the following inscription carved into its face: “A man of science who developed a great mine and wrought the welfare of its people”.

As the park’s centerpiece, the Agassiz statue sat within a small circular plaza set near a formalized entrance to the mine itself. Radiating out from the statue were a series of tree-lined paths, each one named after the specific type of tree planted along their routes. These paths joined up with each of Calumet’s main cross streets, starting with Portland to the south and ending with Elm to the north.

The use of these pathway “spokes” seemed to contradict Manning’s philosophy of a more naturalistic approach, but they have a functional role in directing traffic into and throughout the park. This layout also created both a metaphorical and literal relationship between village and mine, worker and company. It also made for a very striking image when viewed from above – as seen in the photo above.

In addition to those radial paths, the park was also outlined by a bordering path which made its way around the parks perimeter. This path was much narrower then the main radial veins, and was lined by plants of a greater foliage density such as Manning’s personal favorite the Lombardy Poplar. These thicker plants created a natural wall, blocking both the sites and sounds of the surrounding mine and village from those within the park’s confines.

This collection of radial and outlining paths was only the first phase of Manning’s grand plan. The paths served to help divide up the park into several “zones”, each one dedicated to a specific recreational activity. While some zones consisted solely of green space, others would be littered with various recreational infatstructure – including not only a children’s playground but also several types of ball courts and sports fields for those patrons of an older age. Here’s a look at one of the park’s original plans showcasing all of these “zones”:

As originally planned Agassiz Park featured a rather well-equiped children’s playground set up on its north-west corner. The playground would feature such amusing novelties as teeters, see-saws, merry-go-rounds, slides, swings, twirl poles, and something labeled as a “gym apparatus”. A formalized entrance complete with a trellised archway fronted Elm Street while a string of benches and a small picnic shelter overlooked the scene. Unfortunately the playground would never fully develop as planned.

For those wishing for recreational pursuits more appropriate to an older mindset, the park was also designed to feature a diverse collection of ball courts and sport fields. In addition to a large football field sitting along Elm Street at the parks north-east end (where the current CLK field sits today) the park was also designed with room for a baseball diamond, hand ball courts, basketball courts, “golf circles” and even a collection of tennis courts. Only the tennis courts seemed to have seen the light of day, as seen in the photo above.

While the park’s northern reaches were dominated by playgrounds and ball courts, its narrower southern was dedicated to more leisurely pursuits such as picnicking and the performance arts. Set just south of the mine’s formal entrance would sit a line of picnic grounds complete with tables and a rather large covered shelter.

I’m not sure if the formalized picnic area was ever fully realized, but here’s a look at one of the less formal picnic spots. This pavilion was set near the mine’s entrance, in front of a path which lead out towards the Elm Street entrance and playground area.

As originally planned Manning filled out the remaining space in the park with a rather ambitious component- an outdoor amphitheater with seating for nearly 1500 people. In both sets of plans I have of the park, this particular part of the park was never finalized and was represented by two different configurations. While one set of plans orientates the amphitheater north to south, a second set (the one I show above) sets the performance area skewed towards Temple Square (where several churches continue to sit yet today). Neither plan was fully adopted, and as far as I now the amphitheater never go out of the planning stage.

By 1923 the first phases of the park’s construction were completed. The formalized paths were laid across the property and the trees bordering those paths were planted. School kids from neighboring schools helped plant a series of wildflower gardens near Agassiz’s statue while a bordering line of trees and shrubs were set up along the park’s perimeter. As the years passed, various other phases of the project was planned to be completed including the installation of playground equipment and construction of ball courts. But to begin the park would simply be a large open green space criss-crossed by a series of tree lined paths.

Agassiz Park was finally officially dedicated in September of 1923, three years after plans for the public space were first drawn up. As the ensuing years passed the grand visions of Manning’s original plans were thwarted by the realities of the copper industry. Though never quite living up to the grand visions of its architect, the park would still become the Keweenaw’s largest and most grand urban public spaces as well as a shining example of what a paternalistic industry could achieve. Unfortunately by the time the twenties winded down Agassiz Park’s golden age had already passed it by. With the coming Depression and a collapsing copper market on the horizon, both the park and its generous benefactor would become marred in the final throes of a dying industry. Neither would ever be the same again.

To Be Continued…