Elberta was first settled in 1855 and incorporated as South Frankfort in 1894. It was renamed Elberta in 1911 after the local Elberta peach.

In 1867, the Frankfort Iron Works was established and a large blast furnace was constructed. During its existence, Frankfort Iron Works gave the Village of Elberta the notoriety of having the largest and most extensive manufacturing works in Benzie County. The original building contained a blast furnace where the iron was smelted; a boiler arid engine, stone and ore crusher and platform. The casting house, constructed of brick, is where die first iron was produced July 1, 1870.

The first railroad was constructed in 1870 and was laid from the Frankfort Iron Works, along the east side of Frankfort Avenue, and was used to transport wood to die blast furnace. The original rails were made from wood strips later replaced with iron. Next to the Frankfort Iron Works building, two residences were built on a bluff approximately 20 feet higher than the general level and fronted Lake Betsie.

These residences were used by officials of the company during its operation.

The Frankfort Iron Works ceased operations in 1883. The Frankfort Iron Works property passed to the Toledo, Ann Arbor and Northern Michigan Railway, later renamed Ann Arbor Railroad Company in 1892. The furnace buildings were converted to a roundhouse arid machine shop located west of the subject site, parts of which are still standing. The grounds were used for the tracks and switches, and a depot. On the bluff, near the houses used by the officials, a large wooden water tower was constructed and used for filling the boilers of the steam engines.

Also in 1892, the Ann Arbor Railroad Company built warehouses which held several hundred rail car loads of flour during transit. The company also built a grain elevator alongside die west slip. The elevators were 80 to 100 feet tall and were used until 1916, when they were demolished.

Coal was stored on the grounds between the railroad tracks and Lake Betsie when the ferryboats burned coal for fuel. In 1925, the company built a 400-ton reinforced concrete, automatic, electric locomotive coaling plant on the east end of the subject site. In the late 1950’s, the ferryboat engines were converted to diesel and the coal dock was closed.

In 1982, MOT, (Michigan Department of Transportation) the owners and operators of the Ann Arbor Railroad Company and car ferry service, terminated all operations in the Village of Elberta.

From the “History of Elberta” by Allen B. Blacklock