The Blacker House

Robert Blacker arrived in Manistee in 1866 and lived in the house at 111 Maple Street, next to the Ramsdell Theater from 1875 to 1892. In 1892, Blacker built the elegant home on the southwest corner of Fifth and Oak Streets. However, by that time he was so disliked by the local press that they virtually never acknowledged the existence of the new home. In February of 1900, following the tragic death of his first wife four years earlier, Blacker married Nellie Canfield, the daughter of John Canfield, one of the wealthiest lumbermen in Manistee. As the Manistee lumbering era came to end the Blackers started traveling and enjoying a semi-retirement eventually settling in southern California at Pasadena.