Editing Hancock, Michigan (section)

==History==
[[File:2009-0617-CityHall-Hancock.jpg|thumb|250px|left|The [[Hancock Town Hall and Fire Hall]] is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Houghton County, Michigan|National Register of Historic Places]].]]

Hancock is located within Ojibwa (Chippewa) homelands and ceded-territory established by the Treaty of 1842. The founding of the settlement of Hancock began during the summers of 1847 and 1848, when a small group of [[Prospecting|prospectors]] laboring on a rugged hillside (later named Quincy Hill) discovered a sequence of prehistoric [[Ojibwe]] copper mining pits, stretching out for 100 feet along the local [[Amygdule|amygdaloid]] [[lode]]. Upon inspecting one, they realized that the Native Americans were able to take [[copper]] in small quantities through these pits. The discovery formed the basis upon which the [[Quincy Mining Company]] was created in October 1848, under a special charter granted by the legislature.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Hard Rock Mining Era in the Copper Country, A Chronicle of Operations on the Seven Major Lodes of the Keweenaw Mining District|last=Kilpela|first=Tauno|year=1995}}</ref>

The earliest building in what is now the City of Hancock was a log cabin erected in 1846 on the site of the Ruggles Mining Claim, halfway up atop the hillside; it is no longer standing as the site has been taken up by the Houghton County Garage buildings.<ref name="Alexander1">Alexander, p. 1</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Some Copper Country Names And Places|last=Monette|first=Clarence J.|publisher=Copper Island Printing & Graphic Services, Inc.|year=1975|isbn=0-942363-04-3|location=Calumet, Michigan|pages=64–65}}</ref> It was owned by Christopher Columbus (C.C.) Douglass, who came to live there in 1852. The Quincy Mining Company founded Hancock in 1859 after purchasing the land from Douglass and building an office and mine on the site.{{sfn|Eckert|1993|p=468}}<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=A Guide to Michigan's Historic Keweenaw Copper District|last=Molloy|first=Lawrence J.|year=2011|publisher=Great Lakes GeoScience |isbn=978-0-979-1772-1-7}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite book|title=Michigan's Upper Peninsula: A Great Destination|last=Westervelt|first=Amy|author-link=Amy Westervelt|publisher=The Countryman Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1-58157-138-7|location=Woodstock, Vermont}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite book|title=Hancock, Michigan, Remembered|last=Monette|first=Clarence J.|year=1982|isbn=0-942363-19-1|location=Lake Linden, Michigan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stantontownship.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/History-Dateline-points-of-reference.pdf|title=Points of Reference for Stanton Township|date=June 2016|website=Stanton Township|access-date=17 March 2019}}</ref> The city was named after [[John Hancock]], a signer of the Declaration of Independence.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lakeside Cemetery Records {{!}} City of Hancock |url=https://www.cityofhancock.com/history.php |access-date=2023-06-12 |website=www.cityofhancock.com}}</ref><ref name="cofhweb">{{cite web|title=City of Hancock website|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/|access-date= 3 December 2009}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Michigan|last=Hintz|first=Martin|publisher=Children's Press|year=1998|isbn=0-516-20636-2|location=Danbury, Connecticut|pages=[https://archive.org/details/michigan00hint/page/65 65–66]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/michigan00hint/page/65}}</ref>

Hancock's first store was built by the Leopold brothers in 1858; the store also housed the first post office. [[Samuel W Hill|Samuel W. Hill]], an agent for the [[Quincy Mining Company]], platted the Village of Hancock in 1859.<ref name=":19">{{Cite book|title=1877 Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory|last=Clark|first=C.F.|year=1877}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/history.php|title=Historic Hancock - City of Hancock, Michigan|website=www.cityofhancock.com|access-date=2019-06-01}}</ref> On 20 August 1860, Bishop [[Frederic Baraga]] and Reverend Edward Jacker selected lots nine and ten of block eight in the village for the purpose of constructing a church. It was on the northeast corner of what is now Quincy and Ravine Streets. The Quincy Mining Company donated this ground, but for some reason the official paperwork didn't go through for it until 2 July 1875.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Hancock, Michigan, Remembered: Volume II, Churches of Hancock|last=Monette|first=Clarence J.|publisher=Welden H. Curtin|year=1985|location=Lake Linden}}</ref>

In Hancock's earliest days, the village had been within the borders of what is now the [[Portage Charter Township, Michigan|Portage Charter Township]], but on 1 April 1861 the area was set off and organized into a new township called [[Hancock Township, Michigan|Hancock Township]].<ref name=":9" /> The [[Quincy Mining Company Stamp Mills Historic District|Portage Stamp Mill]] was also founded nearby at Portage Lake in 1861.<ref name=":3" /> In 1860, the [[Keweenaw Waterway]] was dredged, widening the then-Portage River to allow more aquatic transportation to Hancock and neighboring [[Houghton, Michigan|Houghton]]. The waterway was initially opened to ships in 1859.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/kewe/learn/management/upload/Houghton-County-South.pdf|title=Copper Country Survey Phase II|website=U.S. National Park Service|access-date=17 March 2019}}</ref>

Also in 1859 was the debut of the Hancock Mine, later called the Sumner Mine before being renamed the Hancock Mine once more. The mine was on Quincy Hill near both Summit and Franklin Streets in an area that is now part of Finlandia Campus.<ref name=":20">{{Cite book|title=Copper Mines of Houghton County, Michigan|last=Kaminski-Hamka|first=Terry|publisher=Copperlady Press|year=2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindat.org/loc-11735.html|title=Hancock Mine, Hancock, Houghton Co., Michigan, USA|website=www.mindat.org|access-date=2019-06-02}}</ref><ref name=":4" />

On 10 March 1863, the Village of Hancock was officially organized and the first officers were elected in the office of William Lapp, the justice of the peace and a pioneer lawyer. Hervey Coke Parke was elected as the first village president. This is considered the founding date of Hancock.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/history-officials.php|title=City Of Hancock History - City Officials - City of Hancock, Michigan|website=www.cityofhancock.com|access-date=2018-11-09}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=History of the Finns in Michigan|last=Holmio|first=Armas K.E.|publisher=Wayne State University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-8143-2790-7|location=Detroit|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoffinnsin0000holm}}</ref><ref name=":9" />

M.J. McGurrin opened the village's first drugstore in 1865. There were also a few small grocery stores where James Artman sold handmade harnesses. The population of the town may have been about 400, mostly miners who had occupied smaller houses near the vicinity of their workplace, the mines.<ref name=":3" />

On 11 April 1869, Hancock was struck by the worst fire in the community's history when a stovepipe in a local saloon where the post office is now exploded and engulfed the building in flames. It soon spread across the village with the help of a strong west wind. The fire destroyed some 150 buildings, including every store in the village and almost all other businesses, the wooden bridges that had stretched across the ravines, and 120 homes. At the time, Hancock had no fire department or fire equipment. This short-lived fire obliterated three-fourths of Hancock. It took two years to rebuild.<ref>Alexander, p. 47</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/historical-pictorial-view.php?target=120|title=HANCOCK FIRE OF 1869 - City of Hancock, Michigan|website=www.cityofhancock.com|access-date=2018-11-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gendisasters.com/michigan/21542/hancock-mi-town-destroyed-fire-apr-1869|title=Hancock, MI Town Destroyed By Fire, Apr 1869 {{!}} GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods|website=www.gendisasters.com|language=en|access-date=2018-11-09}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" /> Famously, [[Mary Chase Perry Stratton]], the founder of the [[Pewabic Pottery]], survived the 1869 fire without injuries.<ref name=":16">{{cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/tour18.html|title=Historic Hancock|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929181645/http://www.cityofhancock.com/tour18.html|archive-date=2007-09-29|access-date=2007-05-16}}</ref>

On 1 March 1871, in response to the devastating fire of 1869, the Hancock Fire Department was officially organized. In an 1883 publication the fire chief, Archibald J. Scott, stated that the fire department had 2,500&nbsp;ft of hose on hand and that the water supply was ample.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Reflections of the Hancock Fire Department, Tragic Village Fire of 1869: Historic Landmark Fires, Bucket Brigades to Fire Engines|last=Maki|first=Wilbert J.}}</ref>

In 1872, the Hancock and Calumet Railroad (H&C RR) and the Mineral Range Railroad (MRRR) began their operations. The MRRR provided passenger and freight service between Houghton, Hancock, [[Dollar Bay, Michigan|Dollar Bay]] and [[Calumet, Michigan|Calumet]].<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Historic Hancock Walking tour| url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/tourstart.html|access-date=2007-05-16 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070410134958/http://cityofhancock.com/tourstart.html |archive-date = 2007-04-10}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite book|title=The Mineral Range Railroad|last=Monette|first=Clarence J.|year=1993|isbn=0-942363-42-6|location=Calumet, Michigan}}</ref> The Mineral Range's yards were along Portage Lake near Tezcuco Street.<ref name=":4" /> In 1877, Gustave Diemal, an immigrant from [[Germany]] and the 1870 sheriff-elect of [[Keweenaw County, Michigan|Keweenaw County]], arrived in Hancock and opened a jewelry and watchmakers shop.<ref name=":19" /><ref name=":9" />

In 1876, Alfred Elieser Backman arrived in Hancock and served as [[Copper Country|Copper Country's]] first pastor of the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland]]. He found a divided community of Finnish Lutherans: some were faithful followers of the Church of Finland, and others [[Laestadianism|Laestadian]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Picturing the Past, Finlandia University: 1896 to Present|publisher=Finlandia University|year=2013|isbn=978-0-9893484-1-6|location=Hancock, Michigan}}</ref><ref name=":21">{{Cite book|title=Finns of Michigan's Upper Peninsula|last=The Finnish American Heritage Center|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2018|isbn=9781467129787}}</ref> Backman later found the situation too unstable and was replaced by Juho Kustaa Nikander, who arrived in January 1885.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /> By 1889, four pastors from the Church of Finland were serving Finnish communities in the [[Upper Peninsula of Michigan|Upper Peninsula]]: Nikander, Jacob Juhonpoika Hoikka (who had served as Nikander's co-pastor), Kaarlo L. Tolonen of [[Ishpeming, Michigan|Ishpeming]], and Johan W. Eloheimo of Calumet. The four pastors met often and eventually founded the [[Suomi Synod]] on 25 March 1890, though they had conceived the idea as early as November 1889.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.finlandia.edu/about/our-finnish-heritage/|title=Our Finnish Heritage - Finlandia University|work=Finlandia University|access-date=2018-11-12|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":21" />

[[Suomi College]] was founded in September 1896 by Nikander, and on 21 January 1900, it completed its first building, now affectionately called [[Old Main, Suomi College|"Old Main"]] on Quincy Street. As many as 2,000 people traveled to Hancock to see the laying of the cornerstone.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":14">{{Cite book|title=Michigan's Upper Peninsula|last=Vachon|first=Paul|publisher=Hachette Book Group|date=April 2018|isbn=978-1-63121-747-0|location=Berkeley, California}}</ref><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.finlandia.edu/about/our-finnish-heritage/|title=Our Finnish Heritage|website=Finlandia University|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-02}}</ref><ref name=":21" /> Like a large handful of historic buildings in the city, it is made of [[Jacobsville Sandstone]]<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" /> and built in the [[Richardsonian Romanesque]] style.<ref name=":8" /> For eight years, Nikander, who served as the college's first president, resided in Old Main.<ref name=":1" /> Also in 1900, the Book Concern of Suomi College was established as the [[publishing house]] of the [[Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America]].<ref name=":9" />

In 1898, the [[Quincy Smelter]] was constructed in nearby [[Ripley, Michigan|Ripley]], [[Franklin Township, Houghton County, Michigan|Franklin Township]], to serve the industrious Quincy Mine. The smelter was built on a site formerly held by the Pewabic Mining Company, which the Quincy had absorbed in 1891.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/historical-pictorial-view.php?target=115|title=Quincy Smelter - City of Hancock, Michigan|website=www.cityofhancock.com|access-date=2019-06-01}}</ref> In 1893 both the H&C RR and the MRRR were administered by the [[Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway|Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railroad (DSA)]].<ref name=":4" />

On 28 August 1896 the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hancock was [[Lightning strike|struck by lightning]], which killed the assistant pastor and then-recently appointed Suomi College instructor Jooseppi Riippa after he had just dismissed 50 children because of the severe weather.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cchi.mtu.edu/copper-country-image-detail?duid=ab59fd5d-03e2-4916-bf52-daa65e25ce73&width=1242&height=732&nid=29742|title=Biography - Pastor Joseph Riippa {{!}} Copper Country Historical Images|website=cchi.mtu.edu|access-date=2019-06-02}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":22">{{Cite book|title=Images of America: Hancock|last=Haeussler|first=John S.|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2014|isbn=9781467112352}}</ref><ref name=":21" />

The Houghton County Street Railway Company (renamed in 1908 the Houghton County Traction Company) also offered street car service from Houghton through Hancock to Calumet, [[Laurium, Michigan|Laurium]], [[Mohawk, Michigan|Mohawk]], [[Hubbell, Michigan|Hubbell]], and [[Lake Linden, Michigan|Lake Linden]], beginning in 1902.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":11">{{Cite book|title=Houghton County's Streetcars and Electric Park|last=Monette|first=Clarence J.|publisher=Greenlee Printing Co.|year=2001|isbn=0-942363-54-X|location=Calumet, Michigan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Images of Rail: Copper Country Streetcars|last=Sproule|first=William J.|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2013|isbn=978-0-7385-9986-1|location=Charleston, South Carolina}}</ref> In fall of 1902 the [[Kerredge Theatre]] was completed by William and Ray Kerredge in response to the wildly popular [[The Calumet Theatre|Calumet Theatre]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Strangers and Sojourners: A History of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula|last=Thurner|first=Arthur W.|publisher=Wayne State University Press|year=1994|isbn=9780814323960|pages= 176}}</ref><ref name=":23">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/historical-pictorial-view.php?target=49|title=(New) Kerredge Theatre - City of Hancock, Michigan|website=www.cityofhancock.com|access-date=2018-12-11}}</ref> Hancock was officially incorporated as a city on 10 March 1903 and subsequently divided into four wards. The then-incumbent village president Archibald J. Scott was elected the city's first mayor.<ref name="cofhweb" /><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.infomi.com/city/hancock/|title= Hancock, Michigan|publisher= InfoMI.com|access-date=August 26, 2012}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

After having broken ground for the construction process in August 1903, on 5 June 1904 the St. Joseph's Medical Center was dedicated in a public ceremony. Built with brick and local [[Jacobsville Sandstone|Jacobsville sandstone]], the new complex was five stories high and of [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance style architecture]]. The entryway was completed at a cost of $78 000 plus $21,396 for necessary equipment.<ref name=":24">{{Cite web|url=https://www.portagehealth.org/for-patients-visitors/about-us/our-history|title=Our History|website=www.portagehealth.org|access-date=2019-06-02}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> In 1906, the [[Scott Hotel]] on East Quincy Street was completed.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/historical-pictorial-view.php?target=49|title=(New) Kerredge Theatre - City of Hancock, Michigan|website=www.cityofhancock.com|access-date=2018-11-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.showmetherent.com/103-East-Quincy-Hancock-MI-49930|title=Scott Building, Hancock, MI|website=Show Me The Rent|access-date=2018-11-19}}</ref> A year later, the [[Copper Country Limited]] line of both the [[Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad]] and the [[Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway]], began operations. The line went to [[Calumet, Michigan|Calumet]] in the north, through Hancock, connecting the Keweenaw to [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], where it began.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8SyLZIIMLMC|title=Milwaukee Road Remembered|last=Scribbins|first=Jim|date=2008|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=9781452914251|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:HancockMich-panorama-1906.jpg|thumb|center|911x911px|Looking East down Water Street around the year 1906|alt=]]

In 1906, the [[Scott Hotel]], adjacent to the previously erected Kerredge Theater, was built and named after the prominent city businessman and mayor Archibald J. Scott. The Scott Hotel was constructed as a symbol of Hancock's size and importance.<ref name=":23" /><ref name=":25">{{Cite web|url=http://www.wuppdr.com/pdf/CCTNB_CMP_Appendices_A&B_2011.pdf|title=Copper Country Trail National Byway Corridor Management Plan|date=2011|website=Western Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Region|access-date=2 June 2019}}</ref> In 1906, the Hancock Mine expanded its operations and sank the No. 2 vertical shaft.<ref name=":20" /> In 1913, the Scott Hotel was host to the high-profile [[kidnapping]], shooting, and beating of [[Western Federation of Miners]] President [[Charles Moyer]] and his bodyguard Charles Tanner at the hands of members of the local [[Citizens' Alliance]] in the Keweenaw and Houghton County Sheriff's Department. This was in response to his pleas to Governor [[Woodbridge N. Ferris]] and President [[Woodrow Wilson]] for proper investigations into the [[Italian Hall Disaster]]. The kidnapping, beating, and subsequent "deportation" to [[Chicago]] by officials of the area has cemented its place in local memory.<ref>''Red Metal: The Copper Country Strike of 1913'' (2013). Documentary Movie. [[PBS]].</ref><ref name=":22" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.1913strike.mtu.edu/aftermath.html|title=Aftermath|date=1 November 2012|website=Tumult and Tragedy, Michigan's 1913-1914 Copper Strike|publisher=[[Michigan Technological University]]|access-date=2 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cchi.mtu.edu/copper-country-image-detail?duid=97bcaa53-fcd4-4fe2-8cfb-e7d71dc762bb&width=1242&height=732&nid=25489|title=1913-1914 Strike {{!}} Copper Country Historical Images|website=cchi.mtu.edu|access-date=2019-06-02}}</ref><ref name=":26">{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/12/28/100670383.pdf|title=Moyer Wounded; Lays It To Plot|date=28 December 1913|work=The New York Times|access-date=2 June 2019}}</ref><ref name=":27">{{Cite book|title=Death's Door: The Truth Behind the Italian Hall Disaster and the Strike of 1913|last=Lehto|first=Steve|publisher=Momentum Books|year=2013|isbn=978-1-938018-03-9|edition=Second|location=[[Royal Oak, Michigan]]|lccn=2013940388}}</ref>

Before [[World War I]], around the time of the tempestuous [[Copper Country strike of 1913–14|Copper Country Strike of 1913–14]], the city population had dropped from its all-time high of 8,981 to 7,527, as many families moved away with the heads of their households to seek a means of living in the factories of [[Lower Peninsula of Michigan|Lower Michigan]] and [[Wisconsin]] or in other [[copper mine]]s in [[Montana]].<ref name=":9" />

Hancock received its second hospital in March 1917, a Finnish hospital called ''Suomalainen Sairaala''. It was also called the Hancock Bethany Hospital, and later known as Dr. Henry Holm's Hospital.<ref name=":28">{{Cite book|title=Amerikan Suomalaisia: Muotokuvia ja lyhyitä elämäkerrallisia tietoja|last=Nikander|first=Werner|publisher=Suomalais lut. kustannusliikkeen kirjapaino|year=1927|location=Hancock, Michigan}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> In 1917 the old First Congregational Church of Hancock, on the corner of Quincy and Tezcuco Streets, burned down. In 1921, the new First Congregational Church of Hancock was completed, though services had begun after breaking ground in 1919.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofhancock.com/historical-pictorial-view.php?target=50|title=First Congregational Church - City of Hancock, Michigan|website=www.cityofhancock.com|access-date=2019-06-01}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

Misfortune came to Hancock after the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|financial crash in 1929]] as mines began to close for lack of a profitable market. Copper at the time sold for only five cents a pound.<ref name=":9" /> The [[Quincy Mine]] closed in 1931, and neighboring mines closed the next year.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindat.org/loc-3842.html|title=Quincy Mine, Hancock, Houghton Co., Michigan, USA|website=www.mindat.org|access-date=2018-12-11}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> By 1934, one third of the families in Houghton County were seeking aid through relief programs. The Quincy Mine resumed its operations in 1937, but discontinued them in 1946, one week after [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] surrendered in 1945, ending [[World War II]].<ref name=":9" />

By 1949 the facilities of St. Joseph's Hospital were no longer adequate to meet the needs of the population, and through funds from the [[Hill-Burton Act]] and lavish contributions of hospital benefactors, the new St. Joseph's Hospital facility on Michigan Street was assembled. The new building was dedicated on 29 July 1951 by Bishop Thomas L. Noa of the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette]]. The first patients moved in on 27 August 1951.<ref name=":24" /><ref name=":9" />

On 29 May 1959 the historic Kerredge Theater, the counterpart to [[The Calumet Theatre]], burned to the ground.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":20" /><ref name=":23" /> Joint preparations with Houghton were carried out in 1963 to install a sewage disposal plant to prevent the contamination of Portage Lake.<ref name=":9" />

During the [[United States Bicentennial]] in 1976, then-Finnish President [[Urho Kekkonen]] visited the Hancock area and entirely filled the [[Michigan Technological University]] ice arena when he gave his official address to the local Finnish-American community.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Hidden Gems and Towering Tales: A Hancock, Michigan Anthology|publisher=City of Hancock, Michigan|year=2013|isbn=9780578117546|location=Hancock, Michigan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.finnishamericanreporter.com/article/event-kekkonen-tulee-kekkonen%E2%80%99s-coming|title=Event: Kekkonen tulee! - Kekkonen's coming {{!}} The Finnish American Reporter|website=www.finnishamericanreporter.com|language=en|access-date=2018-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0204/1511974.pdf|title=State Visits - Kekkonen of Finland|type=PDF|access-date=18 November 2018}}</ref> In 1990, a rundown former Catholic church on Quincy Street was renovated extensively with traditional [[Architecture of Finland|Finnish architectural styles]] and officially became the Finnish-American Heritage Center.<ref name=":8" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.finlandia.edu/fahc/history/|title=History of the Finnish American Heritage Center - Finnish American Heritage Center|work=Finnish American Heritage Center|access-date=2018-11-19|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2023, [[Finlandia University]], which had been in operation since 1896, closed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=jshawhan |date=2023-03-14 |title=Board of Trustees vote to dissolve University, wind up affairs in orderly manner |url=https://www.finlandia.edu/news/board-of-trustees-vote-to-dissolve-university-wind-up-affairs-in-orderly-manner/ |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=Finlandia University |language=en-US}}</ref>