R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Storefronts shown are part of the Escanaba Central Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. Despite the status, property owners are encountering difficulties trying to preserve structures like the North Star building (red), which experienced a partial facade collapse on Christmas Day.

ESCANABA — The North Star building on Ludington Street is due to be repaired after dropping some of its upper-story western facade onto the roof of the neighboring building on Christmas morning.

The structural integrity of the building, 1210 Ludington St., which houses Ever After Decorating on the ground floor and apartment space above, is not compromised, and there is no threat to safety. However, the brick facade — which covered a wooden wall behind it — caused minor damage to the building next door when it began to collapse and hit the roof of KCL Embroidery & Kreations.

About a week before giving way, the wall of bricks was bulging outward, seemingly detached from the face behind them, said Jeff Khollman, who owns 1215 Ludington, home of K Flipperz. As the damaged spot is on the side of the North Star building, above the roof of the immediately-adjacent neighbor to the west, it was not visible from the sidewalk in front of the building in question nor the rear, which is where the owner usually entered.

With a vantage point from across the street, Khollman took a couple photographs and notified some neighbors, “because I knew it was going to collapse,” he said.

The building in question is sometimes called the “North Star building” for the capital lettering and symbol that have decorated the structure for 132 years. Erected during the era in which the city experienced a boom from the lumber and iron industries, 1210 Ludington is part of Escanaba’s Central Historic District.

Now painted bright red with gray accents, the front of the two-story commercial building is one of the most eye-catching in downtown Escanaba. The front facade features four pilasters rising up to a pressed metal cornice topped with a gable, finials, and marked with its construction date — 1892 — and the name of the society that once occupied it — North Star, an organization of Swedish-Americans that was part of the Scandinavian Aid and Fellowship Society.

Property owner Amanda Castor was out of town at the time when she received a text message with a photograph of the bulging facade on Dec. 19. Unable to leave Green Bay, where she said she was accompanying a family member undergoing surgery, she immediately called her insurance company, Secura.

“They got ahold of me, it was phenomenal, within about two hours saying they were having a structural engineer inspector and the insurance adjuster come (the following day) at 1:00,” Castor said.

She also notified Kerri Lancour, owner of KCL Embroidery next door, of what was going on.

“She’s been really good about keeping me in the loop,” said Lancour. “Right away, she got in contact with who she needed to get in contact with.”

Recalling what happened to Wickert Floral at 1006 Ludington St. in 2019 — the roof collapsed, and the building was a total loss — Castor said that she was greatly concerned, fearing the worst, and was relieved when a thorough interior and exterior inspection on Friday, Dec. 20 showed that the apartments and business were not in danger. She visited neighboring businesses to thank Khollman for spotting the problem and an employee of C2AE for notifying her.

Expecting a report from the insurance company the following week, Castor continued to check on the building each morning.

Early in the morning on the 25th, Christmas Day, the facade finally blew out.

Castor called Lancour and Escanaba Public Safety to inform them. She asked Lieutenant Jeff Erickson if she should also call the fire department, but was reportedly told there was no need as the departments were in communication.

Also on Christmas, a video surfaced online, taken from outside K Flipperz on the south side of the street, showing the collapsed portion of the brick facade — around the middle of the wall on the second story, around a window of the apartment. The blocks appeared to have been stacked just one brick thick against the wooden side wall.

It is unknown at what point in time the facade was built, but photographs from the 1930s show the wall was already then lined with bricks. Castor, who has owned the building for 11 years, said that while the west exterior wall was clad in brick over the wood, the eastern side is covered in tin.

Confirming that code enforcement checked in on Monday the 30th, Escanaba City Manager Jim McNeil said that there is no danger to pedestrians on the sidewalk below.

Insurance company Secura issued a letter to Castor on Dec. 27 — though she didn’t receive it until several days later — stating that they deemed the damage to the old building “wear and tear” and would not be providing coverage.

Now, the small business owner is in a bind. It will be her responsibility to clean up and make repairs.

Lancour said that after the bricks fell atop KCL Embroidery, her son went up on the roof to check it out. While nothing fell through, she said the rubber roof was “punctured” and would likely need to be replaced.

Castor told the Press on Jan. 2 that her intention was to go up the following day to begin to remove the fallen and falling bricks and get it to a secure point. After the old brick facade is fully removed, she hopes to replace it, perhaps with tin siding similar to what’s on the east wall.

“Whatever it’s going to cost to repair is the scary part,” Castor said. “I’m a small business owner … I’m concerned that it’s going to cost more to repair than the building is worth.”

Her troubles and concerns are not unique. Across the city, historic buildings are showing signs of decay, and many once-occupied lots sit empty, evidence of structures that couldn’t be saved.

At the regular meeting of the Escanaba Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) on Dec. 16, City Council Member Karen Moore said that downtown building owners sometimes approached her to ask how they could get help maintaining their historic properties, but that answers were hard to find.

The HPC is working on completing its annual report for the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) about goings-on in the city — a requirement for all certified local governments. The commission identified “funding and manpower” as the biggest challenges to preservation, and said that due to those issues, Escanaba is “losing historic inventory each year.”

The North Star building is one of the oldest landmarks remaining on that inventory.

“This building is a key landmark of Escanaba’s long established Swedish heritage,” states the listing for 1210 Ludington on the National Register of Historic Places. Architect John Moe, the general contrator for the building, also designed the Norwegian Lutheran Church in town, which has since been converted to a residence.

The HPC is looking into activities like creating markers for historic homes and potentially forming a new historic district, but meanwhile, a district that already exists is struggling.

It’s been just 10 years and change since the Escanaba Central Historic District was entered into the National Register of Historic Places, and some of the buildings it contained then are now gone.

Another address in the district that was, similar to 1210, deemed “contributing because of the important Swedish community association” was lost in 2024. Though it most recently housed Trinkets and Treasures before being claimed by fire last January, 1011 Ludington was once occupied by the “Medborgaren,” a weekly Swedish language newspaper that began publication in 1892.

An observer downtown can look up and see that many remaining structures are showing their age through crumbling bricks, crooked chimneys, toppled signage and more.

On a mission to preserve the one in her care, Castor has contacted the Downtown Development Authority and is looking to see what resources may be available to help restore the North Star building.