Selling Governor's Residence on Mackinac Island Bad Idea

Gain Would Be Small in Comparison With Damage to State's Image

February 26, 2003
By: Dave Rogers

One of the really bad ideas in the ongoing state budget cutting dialogue is to sell the Governor's Mansion on Mackinac Island.

Two Republican senators, Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema of Wyoming and Appropriations Chair Shirley Johnson of Royal Oak, threw the mansion into the mix, apparently as a bargaining tool with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat. We hope there is no political pique in this Republican proposal to deny a member of the opposite party one of the finest "perks" any public official in the United States could have.

This shouldn't even be on the table. The Lansing State Journal has come up with 100 ways to cut the budget to eliminate the $2 billion in spending needed to balance it, and the mansion is not on the list.

The storybook 24-room governor's summer residence was purchased for $15,000 in 1945. It might bring upwards of $1.5 million. But should Michigan deprive this governor, and future governors of both parties, of what supporters call "a jewel in Michigan's crown" because of a temporary budget crunch? We hope state legislators are not that shortsighted.



It's not that Gov. Granholm needs the residence. With the challenges facing her, she'll probably scarcely use it. But the psychic effect on the people of Michigan would no doubt be significant. What a loss it would be, for a lousy million or two dollars! The Mackinac Island residence is part of what makes Michigan special, and is symbolic of the importance of our tourism industry tothe economy and to our national stature.

Bob Traxler, retired state legislator and Member of Congress, weighs in on the issue with authority, being a resident of Mackinac Island and a longtime devotee of the place.

"Governor (John) Engler raised nearly $1 million in private money for the restoration of the cottage and I'm sure the people who gave the money would be deeply insulted if it were to be sold," says Traxler, who is probably the only person who as a young man worked in a tea room on the island and ended up a member of the Mackinac Island State Park Commission. He later moved on to trustee of Michigan State University and then retired.

Former Gov. James Blanchard acquired a housefull of period furniture as his contribution to the mansion's stature.

And it's not as though the state's first cottage is a totally private enclave used strictly for the governor's private luxury vacations. In fact, says Traxler, the residence serves a real purpose. It is used to entertain "people, like Washington types and others, who can do something for the state," he adds. In addition, the cottage is open one morning a week for public tours, hosted by a group of volunteers who are summer residents of the island.

Dennis Cawthorne,former legislator who heads the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, warns that the property might revert to the federal government if the building were to be sold. He says there is a reverter clause in the deed which might cause that to occur.

According to Traxler, the land belonged to the federal government and after Fort Mackinac was placed on permanent furlough in the 1880s, Mackinac Island became the nation's second national park, Yellowstone being the first.

Michigan acquired the island in 1895 after agreeing to maintain it. Summer vacationers built "cottages," some of which can truly be considered mansions, on the land under a special lease from the state.

A Chicago man built the present Governor's residence in 1908 and it changed hands only once or twice before the state acquired it for a proverbial "song" after World War II.

I've only seen the summer residence a few times, never been in it. That's true for probably 99.9 percent of Michiganians. But the 5,700 square foot, 11 bedroom Victorian cottage high on a hill over the Straits of Mackinac is a symbol of Michigan's glorious history.

Would the British do away with Buckingham Palace or Westminster Cathedral? Would theFrench tear down the Louvre or the Palace at Versailles? Should the U.S. sink the Presidential Yacht because times are tough? Of course not! Those ideas are as preposterous as those of the two senators.

When the carriage tours go by the residence, carrying thousands of visitors from far flung parts of the globe, we can point to the three story, 24-room mansion and proudly proclaim: "That's the Governor's Summer Mansion."

As far as we know, no other state can make that claim. Let'skeep it that way.