The sign on the roof says it plainly: “John Jacob Astor House.” This view of the famed Mackinac Island hotel is dated c. 1901 in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs catalog and is credited to the Detroit Publishing Co. (The company also used the name Detroit Photographic Co. in this era.)
The Astor House name is part of a bigger Market Street story. In 1871, businessman James F. Cable bought a cluster of former American Fur Company buildings and linked them together to create the John Jacob Astor House, which became a major gathering spot on the island.
What do you know — or what have you heard — about the Astor House and its later life as today’s Stuart House museum complex?
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