![contraltoblock](https://ss.sites.mtu.edu/cca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sha_ContraltoBlock-1200x900.jpg)
by Kiel Vanderhovel and Derek Dykens
Architect: Cowles & Eastman
Location: Corner of Second and Hecla Street, Laurium
Built: 1900
![contraltoblock](http://ss.sites.mtu.edu/cca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sha_ContraltoBlock-300x225.jpg)
As announced in the newspaper, Peter Contralto planned to spend $10,000 on a two-story commercial building. The building would be 50 feet in width and 60 feet in depth. The possible uses for the Contralto Building could be a store, saloon, or offices because of the interior spatial arrangement.1 Cowles & Eastman designed this building for Contralto which is currently being used as an apartment complex.
The main entrance to the building is on the corner, surmounted by a round tower. Large store windows at ground level have been filled in. Three-part windows illuminate the second floor. The walls are rough-faced Jacobsville sandstone. The cornice has been removed.
![contraltoblockdetail](http://ss.sites.mtu.edu/cca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sha_ContraltoBlockDetail-768x1024.jpg)
Notes
- Kathryn Bishop Eckert, “The Sandstone Architecture of the Lake Superior Region” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1982), 449.