A painting that includes Negaunee’s white house, which was destroyed in a fire in 1879, is seen. (Photo courtesy of the Negaunee Historical Society)

NEGAUNEE — The “white house” is no more, it burned to the ground at two o’clock on a Monday morning in 1879.

When the fire was discovered, a general alarm was sounded, but the engine was not taken out.

Three or four people went out to the scene of the fire just in time to see the last remnant of this historic building succumb to the flames.

The house was unoccupied at the time but was not long to remain so. It was used every summer as a miner’s boarding house, and some parties were to have moved in the very day that it was destroyed.

The building was a very desirable one for a boarding house. There was a squabble among several parties that wanted possession of it. It was openly asserted that it was arson and it very much looks that way.

An untenanted building, standing alone in the woods, is not very liable to burn down in the dead of the night, unless lit on fire.

With the burning of the “white house” one of Negaunee’s oldest landmarks has disappeared. The building was the oldest one in this neighborhood and had quite an interesting history. I

Its name was derived from being painted white, which made it very prominent in contrast to its dark green surroundings.

It was built about 1854 by James Reynolds, for a wealthy man from Kentucky, as a summer resort for a daughter whose health was failing. The lumber used in its construction was hauled by wagon from Marquette through the dense forests.

That was many years before there was any such place as Negaunee. The first summer after it was finished, it was occupied for the purpose that it was built, but never after that. According to the story, the young daughter died before another summer came around.

This “white house” is of interest in the history of St. John’s Episcopal Church of Negaunee. James Reynolds and his wife held church services there every summer during a period from 1857 to 1868, until the present church was built on Main Street.

It then remained vacant until the labor riots when it was used as a barracks for the soldiers that were sent here to preserve order. When they left, the house again remained empty until the Teal Lake mines opened and once again it was used as a summer boarding house for miners. The “white house” stood on a beautiful and romantic spot on the edge and overlooking the lake.

It must have been beautiful and romantic to its occupants during the summer, many years ago when the stillness of the surroundings were broken by the ripples of the water and the moaning of the winds, the singing of birds by day and screech owls by night.

It was always a place for summer parties and picnics. Many loving couples have wandered out to this landmark through the woods or rowed over to it, evidenced by the names that were recorded on its woodwork and plastered walls by men and women long forgotten, some were written in pencil, some with chalk and some engraved in the wood, but they were seen inside and out.

The destruction of this old landmark is to be regretted and whoever set it on fire ought to be pitched headlong into the middle of the lake with a heavy stone tied to his neck was the comment made in the 1879 issue of The Mining Journal.

There was no U.S. 41 back then but In today’s travels when traveling west on U.S. 41, the “white house” would have been seen on the lake shore of Teal Lake Estates.

The painting of “The White House” by Edwin/Edward Schoyyky is at the Marquette Regional History Center, with a duplicate at the Negaunee Public Library and Michigan State University.

Edwin Schrottky appears to have been very active in Negaunee during the 1870s-80s.

Local tradition holds that the artist liked his liquor and that he often painted for saloons. The artist had a studio on the second floor of the Sundberg Block.

He painted local landscapes, altar pieces and murals and died in 1894.