North Manitou Island Cottage Row

Cottage Row is a line of small wood-frame summer cottages on a beach-ridge crest above the former North Manitou Life-Saving Station. It is the physical trace of an island resort colony, and a good stop if you like old houses with stories. There were ten numbered lots; some were never built on, and some buildings are gone, so you see a mix of surviving cottages and gaps.

Start at Monte Carlo, also called Blossom Cottage, then follow the village path south along the lots. The former Life-Saving Station sits across the lawn to the west, with cottages lining the path to the east. Stay on the public path and give residents privacy, especially at Foote/Alford Cottage, which is privately owned and occupied. The row is reached on foot from North Manitou village, so plan around boat access to the island and check current access before setting out.

Cottage Row was North Manitou's only speculative resort venture, an early bid to sell the island as an exclusive summer retreat. The cottages faced east over Manitou Passage toward the Michigan mainland for the view and breezes; deed restrictions protected those sightlines, and a maple-shaded boardwalk once ran alongside the row. The colony also brought seasonal cooking, cleaning, and household work to island residents who lived here year-round.

Monte Carlo, also called Blossom Cottage, was built in 1893–94 and is a rare dog-trot bungalow of the northern Great Lakes: its two rooms sit on either side of a breezeway. The Treehouse began as a child's playhouse, became a cottage, and was restored in 2004. Materials from neighboring booths at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition were reused in some island cottages. Katie Shepard's Beeches began as a family home in 1895, then became a seasonal hotel after shared dining ended around 1900; meals came from a separate pavilion until the hotel closed in the early 1930s.