Real Estate One®

Somewhere in time as you sit on the sun porch of this magnificent home overlooking Lake Huron, you harken back to clippers, schooners, and steamships as they pass through the Straits of Mackinac. In the back stables, the carriages await. Meeting ships arriving at dock conjures images of exotic foods, gifts, visitors, and packages from afar. On this island without motor vehicles, not much has changed. Ships arrive. Carriages roll. Docks fill and empty. A unique place in these United States that endures to this day. Into the front parlor, bedecked with muraled walls and hand-crafted oak, the environs beckon you to sip tea or a dram of scotch by the warmth of the fire. A short jaunt past the media room, and the formal dining room opens for conversation accounting for the remains of the day. If too formal, a walk through the kitchen connects you with the breakfast nook and a bright morning sun. A fire crackles in the hearth warming the wainscoted walls. Up the back staircase to the many guestrooms and around the corner to the master suite. Bay windows overlooking the lake remind you to take a pause and warm an aged brandy in your snifter prior to retiring. With the infrastructure rebuilt and meticulously maintained for these many years, every room is a visual masterpiece. Each foray around a corner or up a short flight of stairs is embellished with ambient lighting and warm inlaid wood panels. A house where no doors need be open or shut. Out the rear door and the oasis of a secret garden sits just across a quiet lane where horses may clomp by on carriage. The original stables remain but remodeled. Above is a fully contained apartment that overlooks the lap pool, fountains, multiple sitting areas, a gazebo, and a hot tub with an outdoor wet bar. The finely manicured hedgerows on both sides provide privacy to which only you, the roses, sedum, and hydrangeas may find solace. As a longtime, multi-generational islander noted, "This is the best house on the island."