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

30 years ago

MARQUETTE — Touching a brush to the 65-year-old mural he restored on the ceiling of Kaufman Auditorium, artist Dayton Spence feels connected to a storied art tradition. “This is like having the Sistine Chapel in Marquette,” said the 49-year-old Traverse City artist. The bronzed painting, in an oval dome set in the ceiling of Graveraet Middle School auditorium was created in 1929 by an unknown artist working for the Barnett Phillips Co. of New York, the painting indicated the artist learned their technique in Europe, Spence said. “The drawing is right out of the French academy. The scrollwork is Italian.” Restoring the mural is just one part of a $610,000 restoration of the auditorium. According to Tom Baldini, administrative aid to the Marquette Area Public Schools, the district is getting a great deal on the project. Grants are funding the project which will include a new sound system, lights, and a stage lift. “Buildings all over the country are being saved just because they have valuable murals,” Spence said.

90 years ago

NEGAUNEE — Manager “Bill” Goldsworthy, of the Negaunee Rovers, leaders in the Inter-County league, has booked Whalen’s Nighrhawks of Detroit, a classy semi-professional ball team, for a night game to be played Wednesday evening on the high school playgrounds. The Nighthawks carry 16 players and already have won 12 games in the upper peninsula. The team carries its own lighting equipment and will erect a battery of flood lights on the diamond so that the spectators can see the night play. The game will not be started until dark.