Island Cottage Has Served Nine Michigan Governors

The Lawrence Young cottage on the East Bluff now serves as the official summer residence of Michigan's governor. This image is taken from a post card mailed in 1910. Grand Hotel can be seen in the background. (Post card courtesy of Tom Pfeiffelmann)

The recent news of the death of Michigan's former first lady, Nancy Williams Gram, pushed many Islanders to look up at the house on the hill. The Governor's summer residence on Mackinac Island is a tradition, unique to Michigan, that has helped our Island maintain its status in a fast-changing world.

The story of the Governor's Mansion began in 1901, when the six-year-old Mackinac Island State Park Commission, short of money, decided to lease a choice building lot within the state park for an annual payment that would help maintain and keep up the park. The lessors were Lawrence Young, lawyer and Chicago City Railway elevated-train executive, and his wife, Mabel Young.

The Youngs hired Frederick W. Perkins, of Perkins & Will, to design the house, and Patrick Doud, key local builder, to lead the construction crew. Work took place in 1901-02, and the cottage cost $15,500 to build. Each paper dollar, in those days, could be exchanged for a small gold coin. The Youngs' dollars, in turn, had been agglomerated from the nickels paid by Chicago commuters who used the 'L' train to get to work and back.

It was a long way from the noise of Chicago's Loop to the quiet of the Youngs' Shinglestyle cottage. After the widower Young died in 1924, the strategically located cottage was purchased by Clara Scherer of Detroit. Clara Scherer and her late husband, Hugo, had made their money in Detroit real estate during the boom decades of the auto industry; Mrs. Scherer preferred, however, to travel to Mackinac by D & C steamboat, not by car. She was a member of what was to be the last generation of Mackinac Island cottagers who took for granted the belief that a "cottage" should be fully staffed with servants. The Scherer cottage welcomed Mrs. Scherer's children and grandchildren, who were taken care of by a parlormaid, a cook, and an upstairs maid.

World War II permanently ended the ability of most of America's wealthy to hire a household staff. In 1944, Mrs. Scherer sold her cottage back to the State Park. As was the custom of the Island at that time, the cottage was sold complete with many of its original furnishings, which have remained in the cottage to this day. The Youngs' second floor maple sets are especially prized, as many cabinetmakers find birds-eye maple tough to obtain nowadays.

Judge Ned Fenlon and longtime cottager "Bill" Doyle encouraged the state to transform the Young Cottage into Michigan's first Governor's