• Mother's Day-What'sUP May 11 - 11:20 pm

One beloved mother named this cabin using the first two letters of the names of her five children: Graveraet, Ann, Otto, Louis, and Marie (Granot Loma). Today's Shoebox Memory takes us north of Marquette and just southeast of the Huron Mountain Club, where this structure was built in 1919 on a granite loma (flat, broad-topped hill) by notable U.P. banker Louis G. Kaufman. Back in 2002 when the Pasty Cam visited this neighborhood with Dan Urbanski, Granot Loma was mentioned in the conversation. But we were reminded of it again in our May 10 Pasty Central Day in History, as this is the lodge referenced in regard to Fred Astaire's U.P. visits.

Many other famous people have visited this U.P. estate (or considered buying it), such as Gerald Ford, who wanted to make it his retreat from the White House, and Mohammed Ali, who also tried to buy it back in the 70's. There's lots more history on the web, like this nice write-up by Tyler R. Tichlelaar. Our thanks to Private Island Magazine and James Radford for today's memorable glimpse of life in the U.P. Also, Granot Loma has its own website.

Have a nice Mother's Day, and have a good week :o)

Would love to stay there, and then we saw that it
was for the rich and famous, lol. That leaves us
out. But what a great place it would be to visit!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you pasty cammers out
there and a special Mother's Day to my own mom,
June Durocher! Wish I could be there with her but
next month is coming fast!

Wow, that is a nice place, but I would have to come out of retirement and get a job to stay there. Too rich for my blood. Happy Mothers Day to All Pasty Moms!

Very impressive,to say the least!

I might not be rich, but I'm famous; does that qualify to stay there??? ;-)

Beautiful!

First of all. Happy Mother's day to all the Mother's out there. I hope your day is a very special one. That is a beautiful building placed in a beautiful setting. There are an awful lot of chimneys to feed. I wonder what they use to heat it. I guess I'll never be rich because I've always thought that spending money was a lot more fun than counting it.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there. Have
a great day!

Greetings and Happy Mother's Day:

Actually Mrs. Marie Kaufman (Young) had eight children in all.

JTinChicago

Duane,

The real estate listing in Mary's link "Private
Islands" states there are 30 stone fireplaces
in 50 rooms. No mention of alternate heating
system. The most interesting factoid I saw in
the listing was the great room's 18 foot
fireplace mantle was made from a timber that
surfaced after the 1899 shipwreck of the
schooner "Independence".

A half mile to the west at 46°42'7.02"N
87°33'13.81"W there are several buildings also
labelled Granot Loma in Google Earth, one
almost as large as the lodge. The real estate
listing does not mention them, it only speaks
of two structures in need of renovation.

This grand lodge reminded me of another one,
albeit smaller about 15 miles west-southwest of
Watersmeet. It was built by the previous owner of
the company I work for. When he sold the company
to a large Finnish company (that I still work
for), the 7500 acres and buildings were donated
to Notre Dame University. It is now an
environmental sciences research center. It might
make a good feature for Pasty Central some day.

I agree, Shirley. Beautiful.

Cool place and nice pix, I think I'll buy it! lol

Granot Loma: A nice building, but I find the interior "design" to be somewhere between grotesque and hideous.

I spoke to a friend that snowmobiles around Big Bay.
He went to a News Years party there recently. He
said there are 3 large boilers supplying hot water
heat.

Having had a personal tour a couple of years ago, there are 2 propane tanks up the hill from the main house that are the size of the propane delivery trucks that we see around here. And all of the fireplaces are functional.
The basement doors on the house that face the lake are for loading their boats and jet skis right into the basement for safe storage.
All of the metal hardware such as hinges used in the original construction were hand crafted in a blacksmith shop up by the barn.
A very interesting place. I guess I'll just have to keep playing the lotto.