New Chapter in History for French Outpost
By Ryan Schlehuber

Mackinac Island’s French Outpost begins a new chapter with the expected purchase by Grand Hotel, its Cadotte Avenue neighbor. The site has always been a popular place for locals, as it has grown from a small food stand to an entertaining family restaurant.

Many Mackinac Island elders remember the site as Mary’s Pantry, owned by Mary and Myron Bloomfield. Even farther back in history, it was known as Pond’s Stand, owned by Mrs. Bloomfield’s parents, Archibald and Agnes Pond.

The Pond family is better known historically for Augustus Pond’s involvement in the 1860 Pond versus People case, where he pleaded self-defense after killing a man who entered his home. The case coined the term, “A man’s home is his castle.”

Archibald and Agnes Pond provided a wonderful place at Pond’s Stand for local children to visit, remembers Jeannette Doud, a long-time resident of Mackinac Island, who often visited there as a child.

“That is where we would go to get penny candy and licorice,” she said. “They had the best hot

dogs, pop, and ice cream.”

Mrs. Doud said the Pond’s daughter, Mary, along with their other children, helped run the business. When Mary’s Pantry replaced Pond’s Stand in 1922, Mary, who was married to Mr. Bloomfield by then, more or less manned the business herself while also caring for her mother, who was confined to a wheelchair.

“Mary served homemade meals there,” said Mrs. Doud. “It was great. She worked hard.”

At that time, the building was a long, narrow structure with a push-up awning and a counter from which candy, sandwiches, and beverages were sold. It even had two nickel slot machines, said Mrs. Doud, who remembers going to the pantry with her cousin, Bessie Chambers, and her uncle, James Chambers, to play with the machines.

“It was a very, very popular place,” she said.

Mary’s husband, Myron “Stubby” Bloomfield, held many jobs on the Island, working at the docks, on the Grand Hotel golf course, as a night watchman, and “almost anything to make a dime,” he told the Town Crier in 1972.

Their son, Myron Jr., who died in 1969, was the Island’s chief of police.

The pantry was expanded in 1933 to include a dining room and a small kitchen. The next year, after Prohibition was repealed, beer was added to the pantry’s selling stock.

“With an investment of $40, guts, and credit,” said Mr. Bloomfield, he and Mary bought the pantry from her parents in 1941. They built another addition in the back of the building in 1944, expanding the dining area.

The Bloomfields sold Mary’s Pantry to Dr. and Mrs. Rex Orr in June 1972, though Mrs. Bloomfield continued to help, cooking and serving as cashier. The Bloomfields later retired to Dallas, Texas. Both are now deceased.

Mary’s Pantry was torn down and a new building was erected by the Orrs in 1973 and renamed French Outpost. The Orrs’ daughter, Sandra, who eventually became owner with her sister, Debra, managed the bar and dining room in the summers for her parents.

The interior had a 1700s French Canadian general store theme, with walls paneled in rough wood and decorated with snowshoes, animal traps, saws, and other antique implements. The sit-down bar was at the rear of the building and dressed with old photographs depicting memorable Island events.

Compared with the Outpost’s full menu today, back then it served only short-order food.

In 2000, the Orr sisters renovated the site to how it looks today, with a full bar in the front, dark stained wood tables and chairs in the spacious dining area, comfortable leather seats by a stone fireplace, outdoor patio seating, and a band stage both inside and outside. The expansion made room for seven retail shops, both in front on Cadotte Avenue and in back, on Mahoney Avenue, rented to Island merchants.

“We have a lot of memories from the French Outpost, but the biggest ones are of the staff and people we have worked with over the years,” said Debra Orr.