Save Our Island | Mackinac Island Town Crier

MackinacIsland ADVERTISEMENT PLEASE HELP US SAVE A PART OF OUR HERIITAGE The McNally Cottage in the PANORAMA BELOW, is located to the left along the shoreline of the Harbor, one of only two buildings still recogniz-able today one hundred years later, right along the shore… The McNally Cot-tage is virtually identical today to one hundred years ago.., representing the last remaining open shoreline along the entire Harbor front roadway, the very last opening to this historic beach… and along with the Chippewa Hotel, one of only two such still recognizable features from this original Harbor photo… the last piece of the original shoreline, the original contours of the land running right up to the cottage and right up along the side yards of the cottage, the original contours of the ancient harbor… The ABOVE Photo, from a decade earlier, actually dated as 1898, the Cot-tage is visible to the left; right next to the Irish family from the great Irish po-tato famine of 1848, connected to the Grocery trade (a butcher) and the children. Working class people, year around residents, connected to other Irish Catholic families still here today. This family which was with us from 1848 to 2007, and from 1889 in this building, represents the oldest continu-ously operated tourism trade boarding house/bed & breakfast, and home, on the entire island; a working class family, a poor immigrant family, an Irish Catholic family, with a connection to a place and business and a family house, across all dimensions, there is not one other building on the entire island which compares across so many dimensions, the lives of ordinary people, the emer-gence of a tourism economy, and the in-terconnected multi-generational fami-lies intimately connecting and defining the island across that entire expanse of time, to us. This cottage was built during the Na-tional Park era, on Mackinac Island, when Mackinac Island was the United State’s 2nd National Park. This is it’s “period of relevance.” …A style of building reminiscent of nu-merous Civil War photos, of which this family which owned this cottage, lived through. Because it unites us to our own ancestors, the lives of more ordi-nary people, not just the wealthy, this story has a character-defining feature, unlike any other on Mackinac Island. Mackinac Island was not only the 2nd National Park in the United States, in 1875, just 3 years after Yellowstone, but the first popular National Park in the World, as the United States was the birthplace of National Parks the world over… The cottage was one of the first busi-nesses downtown catering to the pio-neering visitors to the first popular national park EVER and the oldest Bed & Breakfast and the longest continuous family-run business, ever, on the is-land… But there is more still connecting this family story to a farther and deeper history in the past… a story of Reli-gion, family ties, and a far deeper con-nected story about to be lost… ...Lost Forever Mackinac Island ca. one hundred years ago… Pictured Left: Detail from the panorama photo above. (including the dual ancient chimneys) Pictured Right: And 100 years later compare. No significant change from its historic period of relevance TODAY ...The Following Story is Updated from last week...just before All Souls Day... -from your sister community of Mackinac Island, we are two of the state’s oldest communities, representing the oldest history of the State of Michigan, and being most tied together economically and historically, we quickly need estimates for moving and replacing the cottage from St. Ignace area contractors… ca. 1900 Downtown Mackinac Island: The McNally Cottage to the left, possibly about to be demolished November 1st, with Fort Mackinac above in this photo in the distance... THIS IS WHAT WE’VE LOST, WE COULD LOSE Save Our Island, a nonprofit 501c3 • P.O. Box 1276, Mackinac Island • (906) 847-3594 • abc123@aol.com <pagedata>11:0.018181907:1.00163054:1.00227714:-0.00591282221</pagedata>