S/S Ste. Claire

 ship, steamboat, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, historic landmark, museum ship

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Built in 1910 at the Toledo Shipbuilding Company of Toledo, OH for the Detroit & Windsor Ferry Co., Steamship Ste. Claire is a former excursion steamship which carried passengers from the Detroit waterfront to Bois Blanc Island, commonly called Boblo Island, from 1911 through 1991. Built with an all-metal hull and internal structure laid out to accommodate large numbers of passengers in comfort while also having the space for a dance floor and multiple concession stands, the Ste. Claire's design was a near-copy of her sistership S/S Columbia, though the Ste.Claire was slightly smaller in size and carried fewer passengers. Declared to be a historically significant vessel, she was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

Becoming a fixture of the Detroit waterfront during her service life, the Ste. Claire and her sister ferried thousands of passengers from the mainland to the Boblo Island Amusement Park each summer, but as the popularity of the park began to fade in the early 1990s the vessels quickly became unprofitable to operate and at the close of the 1991 season both ships were laid up. Sold thereafter to the Lansdowne Nightclub, Inc, both the Columbia and Ste. Claire seemed destined for conversion into party boats but no actions were ever taken by their new owner and as a result both ships sat essentially abandoned at their Ecorse berth for over a decade. Auctioned off en situ to new owners in 1996, the Ste. Claire eventually found her way into the hands of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy who began initial preservation efforts for the vessel while seeking qualified groups to take ownership and restore her.

Initially transferred to the ownership of the Steamer Ste. Claire Foundation, the ship then became the property of two private citizens from 2001 through 2006 before being awarded to her current owners at the Ste Claire Restoration Project and the Maximus Corporation. In 2015 the Ste. Claire was moved to the Detroit Lime Dock in the Rouge River, then in 2016 to the Riverside Marina on the Detroit River.

The restoration suffered a serious setback on July 6, 2018 when a welding accident started a fire that completely destroyed her upper decks. The hull remains intact and seaworthy, and owners maintain that the restoration will continue.


www.bobloboat.com/
focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NHLS/Text/79001177.pdf
focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NHLS/Photos/79001177.pdf