This 3 Story Building is Considered a ‘Yooper Skyscraper’ in Northern Michigan

Yes, there are taller buildings than this 3-story former hotel in rural central Upper Peninsula. But coming out of the flat plains and small towns of the region, this building looks more like a skyscraping tower.

The building is in the photo is the former Pacific Hotel in the village of Chatham, which is in southwestern Alger County about 15 miles south of the Lake Superior shore at Munising. The building sits in the heart of the village at Munising Street and Rock River Road.

It was shared by the Lost in Michigan Facebook page who spotted the building and its stand out qualities compared to the rural character of the countryside around it.

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After spending a few hours driving across the Upper Peninsula I came to the small town of Chatham on M-94 south of Munising. At the sight of this three-story brick building I thought it looked like a skyscraper compared to all the buildings I saw in the small towns I had been traveling through. In the stone above the middle window is carved 1904 THE PACIFIC.

Many in the comments were quick to share that this building was once the Pacific Hotel and does indeed date to the earliest years of the 1900. The building is special in Chatham as it was a focal point of the community for many years, as a blog on the village's history points out:

Much of the past history of Chatham and the entire township is associated with the hotel. Constructed of stone from the nearby quarry, the imposing three- story landmark has lodged early lumbermen, land lookers, traveling salesmen, and school teachers. During the flu epidemic of 1918, the hotel was pressed into service as an emergency hospital.

The building is one of just 4 or 5 structures in the village that existed when the village was founded and is still in existence today.

So should you ever find yourself somewhere in the central Upper Peninsula in the wandering roads between Munising, Gwinn, Marquette and Trenary, look up, you may have found the Yooper Skyscraper that is the old Pacific Hotel of Chatham.