Johnson Vivian, Jr. was born in the United States and attended high school in the area. His father, Captain Vivian had a number of commercial interests, and in 1886, the younger Vivian, with assistance from his father, established J. Vivian Jr. and Company, a mercantile business, in Osceola. In 1894 the father and son established a branch of their mercantile business in Laurium, constructing a building on Hecla Street. At the time, the firm was taking a risk as the store's location was viewed as remote. However, the store was an immediate success, and by 1895 employed 50 people. Other merchants followed Vivian's example, and the block on Hecla soon became the commercial center of the area. In 1903, the store was the largest in the area. Johnson Vivian, Jr. took over his father's business when the latter died in 1909. He continued as a leading citizen in Laurium. He was the president of the State Savings Bank and the Palestra (the Laurium ice rink), a director of the Laurium Park Association, and on the Board of Directors of the Calumet Public Hospital. The J. Vivian Jr. and Company was in business until 1936. Designed by Charlton and Gilbert, the J. Vivian Jr. and Company building was constructed in multiple stages. The original building, dating from 1894, was two stories tall and three bays wide, measuring 58 feet across. This soon proved too small, and in 1898 Charlton, Gilbert and Demar were contracted and a third story was added to the structure. In 1906, a fourth bay was added on the north side, bringing the total building width to 90 feet. A one-story addition to the rear was completed in 1974. The building is constructed in an Italian Renaissance Revival design from brick with sandstone trim. The structure has four bays, each with a two-story round-arched window. A cornice features alternating marble medallions and attic windows. Brick and sandstone piers divide the plate glass windows on the first floor. __Built in 1898 and designed by Charlton, Gilbert and Demar, the Vivian house is located on Pewabic and 3rd streets in Laurium, Michigan. It is a shingle style house with a Jacobsville sandstone first floor and the distinguishing shingles on the second floor. Numerous porches and porticoes project, including a squat round tower at one corner and a porte cochere on the opposite side.