Place Archive

Door County

Small-town commercial landmarks, working properties, and historic religious and civic buildings recur across coverage of the Door County peninsula. The work spans village life in Fish Creek, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay, and Ephraim, with particular attention to long-established local businesses and the Moravian settlement at Ephraim.

5 photos

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Door County Photo Locations

5 geotagged photos

Photos

Ephraim Moravian Church, a white clapboard steeple church, stands in Ephraim, Wisconsin, overlooking Eagle Harbor.
Ephraim Moravian Church stands at the center of Ephraim, Wisconsin, overlooking Eagle Harbor on the Door County peninsula. The congregation formed in 1853 when Norwegian immigrants, led by Reverend Andreas Iverson, settled the area and established the Moravian community that gave the village its name. Built soon after in the same era, the church has served as the spiritual center for one of the few Moravian settlements in the Midwest. It is part of the Ephraim Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Historic stone fire department museum with red doors in Ephraim, Wisconsin.
The Ephraim Fire Department Museum occupies a stone firehouse built to house the village's volunteer fire company, a fixture of this Door County community on the Green Bay shoreline. The building's twin arched bays once sheltered fire apparatus before the department moved to updated quarters, leaving the original structure to be preserved as a museum. Ephraim's volunteer fire service dates back to the early 20th century, when local residents organized to protect the resort village's wood-frame cottages and inns. The museum now displays vintage firefighting equipment tied to the village's history, including antique hose carts and early motorized trucks. Ephraim itself was founded in 1853 by Moravian settlers, and the fire company grew alongside the town as it developed into a summer destination.
Abandoned Chevrolet pickup truck parked beside Gus Klenke Garage, a former Standard Oil station in Ellison Bay, Door County
Gus Klenke Garage in Ellison Bay, Door County, occupies a building that once served as a Standard Oil station. Gus Klenke built a reputation for mechanical skill, repairing farm equipment with scrap metal he salvaged himself. The Klenke family also rented out cottages and sold honey from bees kept on the property. The site once held a cheese factory, linking the garage to the area's earlier agricultural economy.
Goat grazing on the moss-covered sod roof of Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay, Wisconsin.
Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay has kept goats on its sod roof since the early 1970s, an idea credited to Al Johnson and a Swedish visitor named Lars Larson who suggested the Scandinavian touch. The roof itself dates to the restaurant's 1973 expansion, built with a grass-and-sod covering typical of rural Norwegian and Swedish building traditions. The goats spend warm months on the roof and are moved to a nearby pasture during winter. Their rooftop presence has made the restaurant one of the most ed stops in Door County, drawing visitors as much for the animals as for the Swedish menu below.
Dippy's Ice Cream Shop in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, decorated with Halloween inflatables and pumpkins beside limestone cliffs.
Dippy's Ice Cream Shop sits within Founder's Square, a cluster of shops along Highway 42 in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, set against the limestone bluffs that rise along this stretch of the Door County shoreline. Fish Creek was platted in the 1850s and grew as a lumber and shipping port before becoming one of the peninsula's early tourist villages. Founder's Square takes its name from the site's association with the town's original settlers and now houses a mix of seasonal businesses catering to visitors. Each October, shop owners in the square put out Halloween displays alongside pumpkins and mums to mark the transition into the fall tourist season.

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