Old Main, Suomi College

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

From the record

“Old Main, Suomi College is a four-story sandstone educational building located at 603 Quincy Street on what was formerly the Finlandia University campus in Hancock, Michigan. It opened on January 21, 1900, and housed the Suomi Opisto.”
Wikipedia article Old Main, Suomi College, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 41 National Register listings published here for Houghton County · listed in 1972 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Quincy St., Suomi College campus, Hancock, 49930
When was it listed? January 1972
Category. building
City. Hancock city
National Register reference number. 72000618 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

14 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Old Main, Suomi College between 1992 and 2019, burning about 32 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Debris and open burning	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Recreation and ceremony	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
25 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DOLLAR BAY VFD 0000012 - 2019
12 September 1995	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.3 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
22 July 2002	Misuse of fire by a minor	3.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
11 July 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	HANCOCK FD 0000025 - 2018
14 June 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	QUINCY-FRANKLIN-HANCOCK VFD 2019006 - 2019
7 May 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 May 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
6 May 1992	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Houghton County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 61 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 61 workings within 5 miles of Old Main, Suomi College: 40 past producers, 14 prospects, 7 producers. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Copper, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Copper, Silver, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Sturgeon Clay Pit	Fire Clay (Refractory)	Past Producer
Gedvillas Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Isle Royale Amygdaloid	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1852, 1968
Isle Royale Mine	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1853, 1885
Pewabic Amygdaloid	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1857, 1931
Superior Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Wash Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Isle Royale	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1852, 1853
Quincy	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1856
Quincy Mine	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1856, 1925

Every working recorded in Houghton County

Storms near this property

7 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hancock, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 1995 and 2006: 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Hancock	$5,000	Numerous trees down across Salo Road, Bear Lake Road and along Highway M-203 south of McLain State Park.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Hancock	-	Downburst winds downed or uprooted numerous large trees on Highway M-203. Some trees were three to four feet in diameter. Roof was also blown off of a camp. Damage extended from 3 miles west of Hancock to McLain State Park.
April 2002	Hail	Hancock	-	1 inch diameter hail was reported.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Hancock	-	A large tree blown down.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Hancock	-	News stand blown away.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Hancock	-	Winds damage. 55 mph gust with large tree limbs broken.
July 2006	Hail	Hancock	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Houghton County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Lieblein House	under 500 feet	1980
Hancock Central High School	0.1 miles	2018
Hancock Town Hall and Fire Hall	0.2 miles	1981
Quincy Street Historic District	0.3 miles	1988
East Hancock Neighborhood Historic District	0.8 miles	1980
Houghton County Courthouse	0.9 miles	1975

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 72000618 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Houghton County	All 41 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.