Once One of the Grandest U.P. Hotels: Dickinson Hotel, 1937-1987

"PROGRESS" – Sometimes that word works, other times it doesn’t. The following is one of those times when ‘progress’ made a sad, sharp turn. At least, for me it did.

The former Dickinson Hotel in Iron Mountain was an old brick building that sat at the corner of 101-105 West B Street and Merritt Avenue.

It was called the Milliman Hotel when Warren Scherer of Crystal Falls purchased it for $48,000 in March 1937. Re-naming it after the county, Scherer was in charge of operating the Dickinson Hotel until September 1944.

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Scherer turned around and sold the hotel to another man from Crystal Falls, Lou Henry and son-in-law, David Kennedy. The two operated the Dickinson Hotel until November 1969, when an announcement was made of the sale of the Dickinson to a new enterprise, Dickinson Hotel Incorporated. The deal was made in December 1969.

But evidently, money talks louder than sentiment. On Sunday, June 7, 1987, after Sunday brunch concluded, the Dickinson shut down all operation. Three days later, Commercial National Bank & Trust Company bought the property and demolished the whole beautiful building on Saturday, July 18.

Why? To put up a new bank.

Now sitting on that corner is a branch of IncredibleBank. Some old photos of the inside and outside of the former Dickinson Hotel can be seen by scrolling down.