Site of this Manitowoc-born Great Lakes ship captain’s home on Franklin Street will soon be a maritime heritage garden

Often when we see portraits of people from the 19th century, they appear rigid and unsmiling. It makes sense why they seem so stoic when we consider most people during that period only had one or two photographs taken of them during their entire lives. There are, however, rare occasions when laughter and jovial spirits are captured in the lens of a Victorian era photographer.

Of the 55,000-plus photographs at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, there are several images of passengers and crew laughing and smiling, just like the images seen here with this column. These photographs are part of the Capt. Edward Carus Collection and represent a time when he was the skipper of Goodrich passenger steamships from the 1880s to 1920s.

Born on April 15, 1860, in Manitowoc, Carus spent his career as a Great Lakes ship captain. He was regarded as cordial, jovial and sincere. During his career, Carus researched and recorded the maritime landscape of Lake Michigan. However, during the Great Depression, Carus was in financial difficulty, which prompted him to sell his nautical archive. That archive, including more than 3,000 photographs, was eventually donated to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

Capt. Carus passed away following a stroke on Aug. 15, 1947, while sitting outside his home at 1209 Franklin St. in Manitowoc. The Carus house was eventually torn down and buried under a car dealership parking lot.

Coincidently, the former car dealership and the site of the captain’s house are owned by the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. This facility and associated grounds are currently undergoing significant renovations to establish the site as the Wisconsin Maritime Heritage Center.

Recently, a 50-foot-long vinyl mural with historic images from the Carus Collection was installed on the exterior of the Maritime Heritage Center. This mural is in the backyard of where Ed Carus lived his last days.

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Later this year, the asphalt parking lot where his house once stood will be excavated and turned into a public maritime heritage garden.

All this attention about the good captain is fitting, as it seems he may finally get the last laugh.

To explore the Carus Collection online and learn more about the Wisconsin Maritime Heritage Center, visit wisconsinmaritime.org.

Kevin Cullen is interim director and chief curator at Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc ship captain's home will be site of maritime heritage garden