Empire’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Empire. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Empire was founded in 1851. It was incorporated as a village in 1895 with E. R. Dailey, the head of the Empire Lumber Company which was the main employer here, as the first president of the village. The city was named after the schooner "Empire", which was icebound in the city during a storm in 1865.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Empire’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Empire’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewLake Michigan, 1900: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Empire
See all 1 →
Empire, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Empire is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Empire has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Empire School in Empire, 0.1 miles away.
Empire and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Lake Michigan (1900) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15From Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (4) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.