EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

MARQUETTE–The Office bar and restaurant in downtown Marquette is again for sale. The lounge at 154 W. Washington St. was purchased from Larry Simmons late last year by Larry and Debra Swetich of Marquette. Although it is on the market, the lounge is still operating. The business was idle from the spring of 1987 until the Swetichs opened the doors in late February of this year. Officials with ERA Racine’s Realty, which is marketing the property, said $130,000 is being asked for the business only. Coupled with the building, the asking price is $215,000.

90 years ago

MARQUETTE — “I am positively astonished and amazed at the splendid conditions I found inside the walls of the Marquette prison,” declared United States Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, of Grand Rapids, after he had inspected the prison yesterday morning. “This is my first visit to the Marquette prison and I want to that it is an institution in which Michigan may take a great deal of pride. It is hardly conceivable to me that an institution of this kind could be so immaculately clean and that there could be such a spirit of co-operation among inmates for carrying on their work. There is every evidence of strict discipline and good order, but there is no evidence of a spirit of dissatisfaction such as one might expect to find in a prison in which there are so many long-term convicts.”