Historic Home with a View-For Sale!

Robin Witkowski of CENTURY 21 Signature Realty

(989) 414-7140

License: 6501406805

185 N Lake Street
Harrison, MI 48625

by ANGELA KELLOGG-HENRY

Cleaver Managing Editor

Some may lament that Harrison doesn’t have as many historic or older buildings as other small communities around us. There certainly is, we just need to look closer and do a little research. The house at 185 N. Lake Street has a had a view of Budd Lake since it was built in 1880, 145 years ago. That’s not likely to change since it overlooks Saxton Park owned and maintained by the City of Harrison. The house piqued my interest as it recently went up for sale.

In Harrison it doesn’t get much more historic than 1880. When the courthouse burned in the county seat of Farwell in 1876 it was decided the county seat would be moved to Harrison, still a wilderness. Temporary buildings in Farwell and Harrison served as the county seat until the courthouse was built in Harrison in 1880. The jail was built in 1885 completing the county seat complex in the same location it is in today.

Coincidentally, a former resident of this home, Oliver Gosine arrived in Harrison in 1880 although he didn’t live in the house until later. Local residents may remember many of the other residents of this unique home in Harrison.

The house at 185 N. Lake Street was built by the Wilson family, two brothers and their cousin, who in every sense of the word were founders of Harrison. Farwell and William Hotchkiss Wilson along with their cousin William Henry Wilson were in business together and ran a mill operation in Vernon Township, Isabella County prior to purchasing 1800 acres around Harrison to lumber and built a mill on the shores of Budd Lake. The Wilson Brothers moved their families to Harrison in 1881 after they finished three large homes, also on Lake Street. Only one remains today at the corner of Lake and Main Street. They built over 25 homes to house their mill managers, workers and their families.

In March of 1880 the Clare County Press reports, “Wilson Brothers have built their camps and are slashing off the timber from their addition to [the plat] of Harrison, preparatory to erecting their buildings. They will put up a saw mill, twenty-five dwellings, a boarding house and a store. This firm will prove a valuable acquisition to Clare county.”

By April of 1880 the Press reported, “Wilson Brothers have the frame of their mill nearly ready to raise. They have 1,500,000 feet of logs in the lake and are adding thereto at the rate of 75,000 feet a day. Most of their machinery is on the spot.”

In May of 1880, the Johnson House opened, now the Harrison District Library building. By August of 1880 the Wilsons had sold all their city lots and prepared to add an additional plat to the City of Harrison. Once it was logged over, they also donated 4 acres for a cemetery which is the Maple Grove Cemetery that borders the north city limits.

What is very interesting about the early buildings is the lumber grew very near here, was milled here, and remains here as these early structures. In the basement of the Harrison District Library some of the beams and boards still have bark (or live edge) attesting to how quickly they were built.

I’ve addressed this before in regard to Harrison’s downtown area and the perceived lack of historical preservation. Harrison’s downtown buildings were built almost overnight out of wood in the 1880s and 1890s. The buildings were old and in terrible shape by the 1920s and 1930s and many were torn down. Harrison only had the county seat to keep from becoming a ghost town or a small lake community like the dozens that surround the city. Less than 400 people lived in Harrison in 1920. In the 1940s after the war and tourism started to boom, buildings and businesses started to go up but very spread out, nothing like the downtowns of neighboring communities like Gladwin and Clare.

So, there are definitely many buildings and houses as old as this house; the original (southernmost) part of the Harrison District Library building, John J Carton Masonic Lodge #436-formerly the Wilson Opera House, as well as dozens of other private homes and a few businesses in the City of Harrison.

Here's your chance to own a piece of Harrison's rich history without paying waterfront taxes! See listing by Robin Witkowski, Century 21 Signature for more information. Call Robin at 989-414-7140.

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