The many-sided house in Harbor Springs was built by Ephraim Shay,  In 1891 he designed and built a hexagonal shaped house with six wings opening off the central core with a tower on top, still extant. The interior and exterior walls were stamped steel. He is the inventor of the Shay Locomotive Patented in 1881, and operated by a gear-drive mechanism. Its great traction and ability to operate on tight curves made it a favorite with logging and mining firms. Built in Lima, Ohio, thousands of Shays were operated by railroads throughout the world. Several were used on Shay’s Hemlock Central railroad which began here and ran about fifteen miles to the north. Shay, born in Ohio in 1839, was an inveterate mechanic. He built the Harbor Springs waterworks and later donated it to the city. His firm experimented with boats and automobiles, and one winter he built sleds for the children of the town. In 1888 Shay moved to Harbor Springs where he stayed until his death in 1916.

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I love driving around Coldwater looking at all the historic homes. This magnificent house stands not far from the downtown business district. The historical marker that stands in front of it reads

This impressive Second Empire style home with a mansard roof was constructed in 1875 for Jay Chandler (1850-1884) and his young bride Frances. On this site from 1847-1871 had stood the Parrish flouring mill. Jay, the fourth son of locally prominent Albert Chandler, followed his brothers into the family hardware business. Albert founded the Coldwater Sentinel and served as the city’s first mayor. Jay Chandler sold his home to Lucius Wing in 1882.

Lucius M.Wing (1839-1921), Civil War captain, county sheriff, and prominent businessman, purchased this residence in 1882. That same year he served a term as mayor. Making notable contributions to the industrial, financial and social life of the city, he was the long time president of the local bank, a manufacturer of cigars, and the founder of the Bon Ami Social club. The house remained in the family for three generations until acquired by the Branch County Historical Society in 1974 for use as a historical museum.

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Kalamazoo has a plethora of large Victorian-era homes, but this house nestled among the buildings in downtown stands out. It was slated for demolition in the 80s to make way for a parking ramp. Fortunately, it was restored by Lou and Annette Conti and converted into a bed and breakfast known as the Kalamazoo House. The home was built in 1878 for the family of David Lilienfeld, a wealthy German immigrant. He and his brother owned the D. Lilienfeld & Brothers Cigar Company. In 1932 it was converted into a funeral parlor until its date with the wrecking ball. Thankfully it was saved. I am sure I would not have stopped to take a photo of a parking ramp.

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Michigan has some beautiful Queen Anne Victorian-style houses and the Heather House is one of the finest in the state. Located in Marine City on Main Street it looks out at the St. Clare River watching the enormous steel freighters passing by.  Construction of the home was finished in 1885 by retired ship’s captain William Sauber who emigrated to Marine City from Germany. He worked in the shipyards and became general manager of the Marine Sugar Co. I can imagine him sitting on the front porch watching the  freighters going by and longing for the days sailing on the Great Lakes.

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John J. Makinen, Sr., (1871 – 1942) built this house in the small town of Kaleva using over 60,000 pop bottles, most of which came from his business, the Northwestern Bottling Works. The bottles were laid on their sides with the bottom ends to the exterior. A native of Finland, Makinen moved to the area in 1903. He completed the house in 1941, Unfortunately, he died before his family moved into it. In 1980 the building was purchased by the Kaleva Historical Society, which renovated it to house the Kaleva Historical Museum.

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North of Alpena on the east side of Grand Lake is the small town of Presque Isle. If you have ever traveled through the town you may have seen this log cabin that sit’s near the road. It has an interesting story to tell on the historical marker that stands next to it.

In 1858, German immigrant John C. Kauffman (1833-1913) left Buffalo bound for Chicago aboard a ship that later ran near Bell Bay. John walked ashore and made his way to Burnham’s Landing at Presque Isle Harbor, where he found work cutting firewood for lake steamships. In 1861, John married Elizabeth Woodruff. During the Civil War, he served in the 13th Independent Battery, Michigan Light Artillery. His unit was with the 13th New York Cavalry during the search for President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. It helped capture one of Booth’s accomplices. Kauffman returned to Presque Isle after the war. There he served as township supervisor. He was postmaster for the last fifteen years of his life.

John and Elizabeth Kauffman applied for a 149-acre homestead in Presque Isle Township in 1862. He built a log cabin near Grand Lake, but drifting snow off the Lake forced him to move it in 1876. John marked each log to make reassembly easier. Using a team of oxen, he and his family skidded the hand-hewn logs up the hill to this site and rebuilt the cabin. Nearby Grand Lake made the cabin a popular tourist stop in the summer. Visitors remembered John sitting on the porch in his military uniform every Fourth of July, telling stories of his service. After John died, his family loaned, then deeded, the cabin to the Grand Lake Association. The building has served as a community center, recreation facility and gift shop.

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This beautiful old house built by Issac Cappon stands near downtown Holland. He was born in 1830 in the Netherlands and came to the United States when he was 17 years old. he came to Michigan’s Holland Colony in 1848. Here he worked as a laborer in a local tannery. With his experience working in the tannery, he was the founding partner in the Cappon & Bertsch Leather Co. which was founded in  1857. When Holland incorporated in 1867, Cappon became its first mayor.

After the devastating fire that destroyed Holland in 1870, he began construction of his Italianate style house which was completed in 1874. It remained in the Cappon family until the death of Isaac’s daughter Lavina in 1978. After Lavina’s death, the home was willed to the city of Holland and is now used as a museum.

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This brick house in Fremont was the home of Daniel and Dorothy Gerber. If you have cared for a baby or not that last name is probably familiar to you. I know when my kids were babies we went through a lot of those little jars of baby food with the Gerber label on them. In 1927, When the Gerber’s children were babies, a physician recommended they eat strained vegetables. After cooking and painstakingly straining the vegetables she told her husband that there had to be a better way. Daniel’s family owned the Fremont Canning Company. They could can pureed tomato sauce, why not strained vegetables.  After a little bit of trial and error, they came up with their first five flavors. They were a big hit and within six months Gerber baby food was sold in stores across America.  Ther Gerber house is now a bed and breakfast and the Gerber processing plant in Fremont still produces Gerber products.

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