The city of Houghton’s dramatic transformation of its waterfront began with important infrastructure work – underground pipes and sidewalks – several years ago. That effort was followed by creating inviting community space with a pier to welcome cruise ships and demolishing a 45-year-old blight of a parking structure.
And that, as planned, brought people.
“We had a vision. We built the pier, and once we tore down the parking structure, we were open to the sky,” said Houghton City Manager Eric Waara. “Our world now is one where people listen to music and dance.”
Houghton’s enthusiasm for community got the attention of the Michigan Municipal League, which selected the city for its 2024 Community Excellence Award, a notable achievement from a pool of highly impressive projects across the state.
“Houghton’s project charmed us all with its ingenuity and genuine community spirit,” said Emily Kieliszewski, MML’s assistant director of member experience and learning. “They proved that transformative placemaking isn’t necessarily about big budgets; it’s about big ideas and a shared commitment to making your community a better place. By leveraging volunteers and embracing inventive ideas, they revitalized their waterfront and inspired us all to reimagine what’s possible in our own communities.”
The Connecting Houghton project marks the second community from the U.P. that has won the Community Excellence Award, the first community being the city of Ironwood in 2013.
With a $10 million budget — $6 million invested by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation through grants — an innovative Public Works Department, and tens of thousands of volunteer hours, Houghton pulled off a great feat by creating a waterfront space where visitors and locals want to spend time. They did it in part by joining the waterfront along the Portage Canal, that connects to Lake Superior, to the city’s downtown thoroughfare one block up on Shelden Avenue.
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City of HoughtonHoughton's waterfront before the improvements were made.Infrastructure doesn’t necessarily contribute to the beauty of a community but is essential to maintaining public services and a dependable ease of living by connecting dead-end water lines, replacing aging sewers, sidewalks and roads.
“People don’t care about the waterline under the ground — as long as the water flows and the toilet flushes, people are fine, and I want it that way,” Waara said.
In the 1970s, Houghton had about 400 feet of waterfront along the Portage Canal compared to about four miles today, Waara said. He credits previous city managers for getting the projects started.
“Former city managers Ray Kestner and Scott MacInnes, they built the bones,” Waara said. “They brought us all these parks. We just had to connect them.”
Those waterfront connections will be made beyond the Keweenaw Peninsula as the pier is now outfitted to dock international cruise ships, two of which will visit Houghton next summer.
Along the waterfront, travelers and locals alike can eat at outdoor lunch counters, all of which are handicap accessible. They can move along sidewalks from downtown’s Shelden Avenue. There are four different bench swings — another Public Works creation.
Yet another creation? With increased outdoor eating, trash cans became overrun with awkward, square pizza boxes. Waara went to Public Works and asked about building a receptacle that would operate, more or less, like a mailbox with a square opening for the boxes. They did, and the problem was solved.
“We’re a small town on a small budget, so we had to be creative,” Waara said.
To attract visitors in the winter, a giant, stationary holiday ornament sits near the pier. A volunteer has sewn numerous costumes for the ornament to maintain its relevance and charm throughout the year. At times, it’s a snowperson; other times the planet earth or a jack-o’-lantern. A soon-to-be completed costume will feature the ornament as a red and white fishing bobber.
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City of HoughtonHoughton city officials and beautification committee members pose with the trophy from the Michigan Municipal League.Crosswalks are stenciled with birds and books, and other playful visions.
“I had seen other places that had beautifully painted crosswalks, so I thought we could order stencils, but they’re in the thousands of dollars,” Waara said. “I researched and found the plastic for $54. My daughter and I traced out fish using a projector to project the image and a Sharpee.”
But then a friend of Waara’s, Joe Schwenk of Industrial Graphics, said he would volunteer to cut the stencils on his equipment. That saved more time and money.
“It’s little things like that that make this work,” Waara said.
Murals now fill the downtown, and so do the nearly 100 gardens dotting the landscape.
“A few gardeners started small, adding a few gardens throughout town,” said volunteer Julie Waara (married to Eric) who, along with their daughter, Allison, worked continuously with other volunteers to beautify the space. “The volunteers found the locations within the city with approval of the city, the jail work camp dug spaces, and we got to work.”
The volunteers brought in hanging baskets manufactured by a local metal fabricator; local students planted trays of marigolds.
Another celebratory event is now having the space for the dropping of the ball on New Year’s Eve. But this is the Keweenaw, so instead of a ball, they drop a chook — a soft winter hat.
This past New Year’s was the first chook drop, and Waara wasn’t sure if it would draw a crowd. The chook was made with PVC pipe, a few yards of fabric, and 500 Christmas lights bought on clearance. At the top are 15-ounce cups glued together and LED lights on flashing mode.
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City of HoughtonHoughton's waterfront at night and decked out for the holidays.“By 11:15 that night, there were maybe 30 people, which was a good start,” Waara said. “By a quarter to 12, it was like zombies coming from everywhere. There must have been a hundred people. There were all these kids from different countries — (Michigan Technological University) students — joining us, and a couple even got engaged that night.”
Waara said the successful project was built by the hands of the people of the Keweenaw Peninsula and is an example of how the people of the Keweenaw work together.
“Winning this award validates the thousands of hours of volunteer work; winning this award validates Public Works and all of the stuff I asked them to do,” Waara said. “It’s about partnerships, volunteers, and good old-fashioned DIY. We’re a work in progress. Accomplishing something like this, it’s not about being perfect. Don’t worry about being perfect. Think about making things better.”
Paula McCambridge has been writing and editing for more than 25 years. She won her first awards for feature writing and ongoing news coverage at the Daily Mining Gazette in Houghton, Michigan.