by Dany Peavey, Stevan Sliger, John Krystof, and Travis Dvorak
Architect: Charlton, Gilbert, & Demar
Location: 308 Pewabic St., Laurium
Built: 1900
This grand house was built for Susan Daniell, widow of mine captain John Daniell. Susan Edwards, born in England in 1849, immigrated to the Copper Country as a child. She married John Daniell in 1869. They lived at Copper Falls until 1876, when Daniell became head of the Osceola Mine. In the early 1880s, he spearheaded the development of the very successful Tamarack Mine. Daniell died in 1898.1
The Daniells had eight children, seven of whom were living at home when Susan undertook construction of this new house. The children were: Alice, age 28 in 1900, at home; John, 26, a civil engineer who went on to become president of the Wolverine and Arizona Mining Company and a vice-president of the Calumet Gas Company; Richard E., 24, a clerk in a mine office; Anna, 22, at home; Edwina, also known as Winnie, 18, at home; William, 17, at school; and Marian, 13, at school. By 1910 her oldest son, Joshua, an artist, had moved back home. By 1920, besides Joshua the only other child living at home was Marian, along with her husband, a dental surgeon named Carrol W. Pratt.2
The Colonial Revival-style house stood two-and-a-half stories tall with a side-gable roof. Two-story bay windows flanked the central doorway. Gable dormers flanked a shed-roofed dormer. A porch across the front and a porch across the side were both crowned with balusters. In the 1970s, when the building served as a home for the elderly, a large two-story addition with a yellow-brick first story was built on the south side. Probably at the same time a large gable-roofed entrance was added to the front and the whole of the original building covered with vertical wood siding.
Buildings by Charlton et al. in the Copper Country
- Michigan Mining School, Engineering Building 1894
- J. Vivian, Jr. & Co. Building 1894
- Kroll Block 1897
- Vivian House 1898
- Hancock Town Hall and Fire Hall 1899
- Ruppe Block 1899
- John Rees House 1899
- Wolverine Copper Company Superintendent’s House 1900
- Wright Block 1900
- James R. and Virginia Cooper House 1900
- Susan Daniell House 1900
- St. Anne’s Church 1901
- John C. Donahue House 1901
- Michigan Mining School, Mining Engineering Building 1902
- Michigan Mining School, Chemistry Building 1902
- Hall Building 1902
- Michigan College of Mines, Gymnasium and Clubhouse 1906
- Calumet Manual Training and High School 1907
- Michigan College of Mines, Administration and Library Building 1908
- Ripley School 1908
- Calumet & Hecla Bathhouse 1911
- Michigan College of Mines, Chemistry Building 1922
Notes
- Obituary, Daily Mining Gazette, September 11, 1923.
- 1900, 1910, and 1920 manuscript censuses. City directories.