The Douglas House, also known as the Douglas Hotel or the North Branch Outing Club, is a sporting lodge located at 6122 East County Road 612 in Lovells Township, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 2000 and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2001.

History

Thomas E. Douglas was born and educated in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and moved the Michigan to come to work as a bookkeeper in his uncle's lumber mill in

Saginaw Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

. In 1893, he moved to Grayling to manage the R. Hansen Lumber Company. Riding the wave of the lumber boom, in 1898 Douglas built a sawmill and general store in what was then the small logging community of Lovells. Fire destroyed the general store in 1903, and Douglas built a new store. In 1916, as the lumbering era was winding down, he constructed the Douglas House and established the North Branch Outing Club to draw tourists to the area. He used electricity generated in his mill to power the hotel. With the rise in the popularity of the automobile, Douglas targeted wealthy travelers as club members, and drew members from the new Detroit automobile aristocracy such as

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

and his son

Edsel Edsel is a discontinued division and brand of automobiles that was marketed by the Ford Motor Company from the 1958 to the 1960 model years. Deriving its name from Edsel Ford, son of company founder Henry Ford, Edsels were developed in an effor ...

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

and Horace Dodge, and Charles Nash. Douglas had his daughter Margaret manage the hotel, a position which she occupied until it closed in 1971. Margaret continued to live in the hotel until her death. In 1996, the Douglas House reopened as a sporting lodge known as "North Branch Outing Club."

Description

The Douglas House is a two-story, wood frame, hipped-roof structure covered with

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

. The inside has 20 guest rooms and lavish common spaces which have been altered very little.

References

External links

Fuller's North Branch Outing Club
{{National Register of Historic Places Houses completed in 1916 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Houses in Crawford County, Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites National Register of Historic Places in Crawford County, Michigan