North Manitou Island - Cottage Row: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2012. North Manitou Island - Cottage Row: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975586. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Midwest Regional Office, Omaha, Nebraska / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: The Cottage Row Historic District is located in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Leelanau County, Michigan. It is on North Manitou Island, just over 12 miles off the coast of the northwest portion of the Lower Michigan peninsula. Cottage Row is southwest of the North Manitou Island Life Saving Station, along the crest of the beach ridge that overlooks the station and the Lake Michigan shoreline. The approximately 11.37 acre cultural landscape contains a linear arrangement of structures that includes the Katie Shepard Hotel, the Rhoades Treehouse, the Trude Cottage, the Foote Cottage, the Riggs Cottage, the Blossom Cottage, along with contributing outbuildings and other landscape features. Lot #9, which includes the Shirley Foote Alford Cottage, is a privately-owned inholding. A road that ran along the rear of the lot lines (and is now a foot trail) is within – and defines – the southwestern boundary line. South of the life-saving station, the landscape extends east to the Lake Michigan shoreline to include an open area that was commonly held by all the Cottage Row owners and known as “Cottage Row Park.” The Cottage Row Historic District has been identified as contributing to the proposed Manitou Passage Maritime Landscape National Historic District, which encompasses multiple shoreline properties along the both Michigan mainland and the Manitou islands. Cottage Row is eligible for the National Register at a national level of significance under criteria A and C for its association with use of the island for recreation, its ties with Chicago and Great Lakes commerce, and its importance as an example of turn-of-the-century Great Lakes summer resort communities. The period of significance begins in 1894 when the subdivision was platted and the first cottages were constructed, and ends in 1950 with the death of William Angell. Note: While individually significant, Cottage Row is also a component of a larger cultural landscape that is alternately known as “North Manitou Village” or “North Manitou Island Village.” While the “village” area was never incorporated as a civic unit, the title has come to refer to a specific landscape that includes Cottage Row, the North Manitou Island Life Saving Station, and the adjacent complex of Manitou Island Association (MIA) structures. The use of the monikers “North Manitou Island Village” or “village” throughout this document does not imply a historically formal designation.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2012-06-07
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- MWR , SLBE
- Keywords
- architecture, Blossom Cottage, Cottage Row Historic District, entertainment-recreation, Foote Cottage, Great Lakes Commerce, historic vernacular landscape, hotel, Katie Shepard Hotel, Lake Michigan, life-saving station, lodging, Manitou Island Association, Manitou Passage Maritime Landscape National Historic District, maritime history, recreation, Rhoades Treehouse, Riggs Cottage, service industry, single family dwelling, summer resort community, Trude Cottage, vernacular architecture, William Angell