Glen Haven: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, National Park Service

Jackson, Daniel

Glen Haven Village Historic District is a component of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, located in Leelanau County, Michigan. The 13-acre district was first listed on the National Register in 1983 and amended in 1990. It is significant under Criterion A and B in the areas of maritime history, transportation, commerce, and outdoor recreation, with an 1857-1931 period of significance. In 1999, the park recommended elevating the significance of the historic district to a national level in the area of maritime history and the Michigan SHPO concurred. Glen Haven was an ideal fueling station for Great Lakes steamers due to a deep bay and the long dock built by founder Charles C. McCarty. He built the Sleeping Bear Inn circa 1864, and built a sawmill on the northwest shore of Little Glen Lake to cut cordwood in 1868. Glen Haven soon became an important lumbering town and major entry port for settlers. In 1870 McCarty sold out to the Northern Transit Company (NTC), a steamship line. In 1878 NTC sent 26 year old David Henry Day to manage Glen Haven operations. Day then purchased the village and surrounding area in 1881. Forming the D.H. Day Lumber Company, Day balanced logging with conservation methods. A tugboat towed logs across Glen Lake to the sawmill and by 1907 a railway ran from the mill to the dock warehouse. Day supervised all village construction and barred outside investment. He housed the workers and deducted rent from their salaries, otherwise paid as coupons for the general store. The Day family lived above the store. Behind it was an icehouse, granary, slaughterhouse and croquet lawn. A storehouse generator powered the village. The nearby Day farm provided meat and milk. Two livestock barns once stood next to the inn. Other Day Company buildings include the Bookkeeper House, Glen Haven Post Office, Butcher House, Sawmill Foreman House, Railroad Engineer House, and Blacksmith Shop doubled as a carpentry shop. To the rear were tennis courts, a curling rink, and an ice skating rink. At the north end of Main Street is the Glen Haven Canning Company, built by Day in the mid‑1920s. After the 1923 sawmill closure, it supported a new industry, canning cherries and apples from area farms. Open into the 1940s, it helped Glen Haven survive the Great Depression. A promoter of recreation and tourism, Day bought two steamships in 1881and formed the first scheduled passenger service between Chicago and Cheyboygan. In 1920 Day donated land for D.H. Day State Park, Michigan’s first state park. He also served as Michigan’s first state park commissioner. Day began a resort development project called Day Forest Estates that ended with his 1928 death and the onset of the Great Depression. Beginning in the mid‑1930s, Louis and Marion (Day) Warnes operated a popular dune ride business out of the store. By the mid‑1940s, individuals outside of the Day family began to buy Glen Haven property, and the area remained a summer destination. On 10/21/1970, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was established, and the NPS began acquiring Glen Haven tracts. The last occupancy rights expired in 2005. The NPS maintains the Glen Haven Village Historic District, with buildings restored to reflect the area’s historic period of significance. Four noncontributing structures visually compliment the village’s architectural continuity. Through preservation and restoration efforts, Glen Haven has retained integrity as a cohesive cultural landscape.

Glen Haven: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, National Park Service

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