Elmwood

Appointed Indian agent in 1822, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864) requested that the government provide a suitable structure to house the agency. Obed Wait, designer of Michigan’s territorial capitol in Detroit, directed the construction of this building. Nearly one hundred feet in length when completed in 1827, the Federal-style building originally had a two-story central unit flanked by two single-story wings. While at Elmwood, Schoolcraft, explorer and ethnologist, collected materials for his pioneering works on Indian culture which scholars still use. These inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha.” Charles T. Harvey lived here during the mid-1850s when he supervised the building of the canal and locks at Sault Ste. Marie. Elmwood’s substantial alterations during the past 150 years reflect its varied uses and inhabitants.