Bournique Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, National Park Service

Jackson, Dan

The Bournique Homestead is located on North Manitou Island, within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, in Leelanau County, Michigan. It lies in the southeastern quadrant of the island, about one-tenth of a mile inland from the eastern shoreline and three-and-a-half miles south of the North Manitou Island Village, which features the island’s only dock. The North Manitou interior, a designated wilderness area, must be traversed by foot. The Bournique Homestead cultural landscape is 2.44 acres in size and comprises a small complex of contributing features that date to the historic period. Standing structures include a residence, ice house, and two privies. Additional features include the ruins of a garage and a wash house, footpaths, a driveway, a number of wells and cisterns, and vegetation. Alvar Bournique, a Chicago-based dance instructor, filed a homestead claim for 120.2 acres of North Manitou Island land on July 3, 1903. He constructed the main residence, a Creole-style log cabin, the following year. Over time, the Bournique family increased their property holding to 400 acres and developed substantial agricultural operations that included the cultivation of orchards and a horse breeding program. They only spent their summers on the island, but employed local families to manage the property throughout the year. During the summer months, the Bourniques were active participants in the island’s social community, and often hosted dances. Alvar Bournique died in 1938, and three years later the family ended their active occupation and cultivation of the property. The Bourniques’ island holdings were acquired by the Angell Foundation in 1959 and later by the National Park Service (NPS) in 1984. The Bournique Homestead has remained abandoned since 1941, although the NPS continues to preserve and stabilize the remaining structures. The Bournique House has been determined eligible for the National Register as a contributing component of the nationally significant Manitou Passage Maritime Landscape, which is described as “a concentration of maritime related historic sites, geographic features and native habitats with few modern intrusions” (SLBE Draft HPMP 1999, Appendix 1). The Cultural Landscape Inventory evaluates the Bournique Homestead as individually eligible for the National Register at a local level of significance under Criterion A for its association with the development of recreational and agricultural settlements on North Manitou Island, and Criterion C as a rare example of Creole style architecture in the Great Lakes region. The period of significance spans from 1903, when Alvar Bournique filed the homestead claim, to 1941, when the property was last occupied by the Bournique family. An updated determination of eligibility (DOE) incorporating the entire Bournique Homestead cultural landscape was provided by the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office (MI SHPO) on September 8, 2014.

Bournique Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, National Park Service

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