• Sunday-What'sUP November 7 - 08:10 pm

In search of Paradise Gardens...

On a fall evening about 12 years ago I was working with a satellite installer in Calumet, where we were trying to establish an Internet up-link for the fledgling Pasty.NET service. He was from out of town, and had noticed a sign down by the airport on his way in, with the word "Paradise" in its name. In the 10 years I had lived here at that time, I had never been to the Paradise myself. So when he suggested for late dinner that we give it a try, it became my first and only experience at Paradise Gardens.

It was set out in the woods on Oneco Road, not far off of US-41. The first things that caught my eye were the painted murals on the walls. The owners at the time were a couple named Paul and Ginger, and the food, as I recall, was very good - especially after a hard day's work. But the atmosphere was so smoky I could hardly breath (which is probably why I never had much interest in returning).

Fast-forward to the summer of 2010, when we did a Shoebox Memory about a Mystery Artist. The grown-up little girl who was trying to find his identity is Donna Stefani, and her search led her to the Paradise to examine the murals. In the intervening years, the establishment had closed, but Donna was able to get inside and take pictures of the pictures. The first one above is cropped out of an aerial view that hung over the bar:

Thanks 4 sharing.

When I make my Sunday calls today, I will ask if anyone knows
about Paradise Gardens. It was news to me.

My wife grew up next to the Paradise Gardens and as far as she knows Frank & Sally Stukel were the original owners. She hasn't a clue as to who painted the murals. Someone mentioned awhile back that one of the last owners sold the murals to someone downstate.

Thanks for updating BridgeCam; alas, it's still not running but at least it's a more recent picture. The camera angle seems a bit different -- I like it.

Regarding Paradise Gardens, my mother's cousin Joseph Stefanec and Kate Stukel owned or ran it at one time, later moving to Wisconsin. I met with their daughter Gertrude about 8 yrs ago as I have done Slovenian genealogy about 15 yrs.
I found an article I saved from the Daily Mining Gazette about Paradise, dated March 22, 2006. The owners, the Monettes, were told most of the older paintings were painted by Frank Pentzald and the large paintings by C.O. Estenberg.

The Paradise Gardens brings back a lot of memories from my "younger" days. Knew Frank and Sally quite well. They tended bar at the time I went there.
Frank's brother Rudy, owned Rudy's Bar in Hancock.
I thought the murals were painted back in the depression years-----------late 1930s-------as part
of a program to employ people.
Wish I could remember all the murals. some were of
the Keweenaw ----scenes you would have seen back
then. Jack & Vivian Brown owned that place for some years. too.

Nick Karjala from Ohio emailed these scans from pictures he took back in the 80's. The owners at the time were Jack and Vi Brown, Jack being a high school friend of Nick's brother. The ladies sitting at the bar were members of a bowling team, and Nick wonders if any Pasty Cammers recognized them:

I don't recognize anyone, but they are definitely pounding a few down :)

I believe the 3rd lady from the right is or was a Gustafson possibly.

I have to make a correction I meant to say from the left.

I can identify at least one of the lady bowlers. The lady in tan is Janine Persha Wales, now currently living in the Stanton area. The lady next to her with the blue looks like it might be her older sister, Patricia or TC?

It's 4sale:
http://www.century21northcountry.com/PicturePopup.aspx?mls=1054361
Looks like some paintings are still there.

Dennis...would that be the Gustafson's in Brevort? They make excellent jerky.

Thats my uncle jack and aunt Vi. He worked at Tech while owning the bar. my Grandma, his Mom was Emiline brown of hancock and quincy hill. Jack and my Dad Jim brown went to hancock high in the late forties and early fifties.

The pic's of the Paradise Inn brought back some memories as a young boy. The Mamdan Hayseeds band played at the Paradise on Saturday nights back in the "thirties". The band consisted of six musicians. My Dad, Ben Masnado, was the manager and kept the records. I have some of his papers and find that the band got $13.00 a night back in the year 1935. One dollar was kept for car expenses and the rest, $12.00, was divided among the six members. Two bucks a night.. It was during depression and kept food on the table....

The Paradise was my favorite hangout back in the 80's when Jack and Vi owned the place; wonderful people. They ran a tight ship so to speak and kept it spotless.

They always served a great whitefish dinner when I was there!

As for Paul and Ginger -- they are alive and well living in Houghton. A little more info on the history of the Paradise after the Browns had it. They sold it to one of their employees who ended up losing it to the bank. It sat empty for a while when we bought it from SNB-Bank. We cleaned it up, opened up in 1995, put the kitchen in and ran it more as a restaurant for the next 5 years. We sold it to Mike and Sharon Monette from Lake Linden. They have since closed it, and it remains forsale. For the record, during our tenure -- we had a great time running it, met alot of really great people, and served up alot of (what we have been told by many) great food.

Thanks Charlie for running another article on this. Are there any other of those scans sent to you that weren't posted here?
I'm at this very moment up at the MTU archives doing research on the Paradise.
I've discovered that my mystery artist is Ole Estenberg, who painted all of the paintings there. I've received conflicting info, but the murals may have been by an artist named Frank Pentzuld, & painted previous to the paintings going up in the 30 & 40s. At this time tho, I'm uncertain whether the murals remaining on the walls are the originals.

I forgot to add that I'm looking for anyone who knew Ole Estenberg, or anyone who has or knows of anyone who has his paintings. I'd like to interview them & obtain photos of their paintings.
They were sold at auction when the contents of the Paradise were sold.
I'm also looking for the date of that auction so I can locate anything in the Mining Gazette about it.
I'm writing an article on him for the August 2012 Superior Signal & would like to include as much info as possible for it

My husband and I bought the Paradise in 2000 from Paul and Ginger. There were two sets of murals. The original set was painted by Frank Pentzuld. Not sure how many years later Ole Estenberg painted the paintings that most remember. Estenberg's paintings hung over the original murals. If you look up above false ceiling in the bar you can see the tops of the original murals. The first picture you see on this post would have been one of Frank Pentzuld's. There is so much history to the building, beginning during prohibition. At some point the Daily Mining Gazette did an article about the place when we owned it. Had a great time and met so many wonderful people while owning the Paradise....The neighbor to the bar recently purchased the building. Somewhere I have many pictures of the bar and the paintings. And I can tell you some of the stories that were told to me. At one time I tried to get the historic park people to help with sharing the information about the history of Paradise, but had no luck in getting anyone interested in the amazing history of the place.

Can whoever has the pictures & postcards send good quality scans to me please?
I'm working on an article on Ole & the Paradise & would like to add some of this to it.