Grand Hotel carriage driver looks on as he waits for passengers at the entrance to the hotel.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)

---

Who Says Nothing is New on Historic Mackinac Island? Have a Look at Our Pix

Richard and Jane Manoogian Art Museum Now Occupies Old Indian Dormitory

August 29, 2010
By: Dave Rogers

Symbolic of what's new on Mackinac Island is the Richard and Jane Manoogian Art Museum.

Remember the Indian Dormitory that served island children as a school for more than 100 years?

It's now a fascinating art museum with loads of hands-on activities and exhibits. The Manoogians also have graced the Grand Hotel with dozens of fabulous rare art pieces that have to be seen to be believed. Who said French Impressionism wasn't interesting?

The wealth of the Taylor, Michigan, Manoogians comes from owning Delta Faucet, Masco Industries, Behr paints, Thermador appliances, brass, etc. It all started with Armenian immigrant Alex Manoogian (1901-1996), a Detroit machinist who invented the world's first one-handled floating ball faucet.

The Manoogian collection of more than 1,000 paintings by 19th century American artists is reportedly valued at $250 million.

The former family mansion on the Detroit River was the unfortunate site of a wild party during the Kwame Kilpatrick reign as mayor and gained its tawdry reputation as a result.

---

---

---

---

Dolores and I sat on the lawn at the Iroquois Hotel and watched huge colorful kites depicting fish and fowl being launched, filling the blue skies over the Straits with floating art.

A couple of new bits of history, to us at least, surfaced on our brief trip last week. First, we learned that during the Civil War several Confederates, one a general, had been held in old Fort Mackinac from May to October 1862.

Also, thanks to action introduced in Congress in 1990 by Bay City's J. Robert Traxler, the old Post Cemetery has remained a federal property and is spruced up for tourists.

Recalling his college days working as a waiter on the island, Traxler, now an island summer resident, rescued the post from economic oblivion by getting Congress to leave it on the list of official military cemeteries.

The Fort Mackinac post cemetery is one of four places in the U.S. where the flag flies at half-staff 24 hours a day and where unknown soldiers lie buried. The others where the flag is lowered 24/7/365 are Arlington Cemetery, Virginia, the Punchbowl in Hawaii, and Gettysburg.

The venerable Grand, reputedly the largest summer hotel in the country, now has air conditioning and television in all its rooms. Not all that much more is new at the Grand, but martinis are now $12 a pop!

Ivy covered "horses" prance on the front lawn of the Grand, amid floral splendor that keeps a battalion of gardeners at work incessantly.

The island drips with history, of course. G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams is likely the most famous burial in the Protestant Cemetery. In order to lie in the rocky ground on Mackinac one has to have been born on the island or have been a resident 15 years, as was Williams, one of the state's more popular governors.

---

---

---