Frank Russel Rounds (1861-1945) was an American carpenter, He lived on

Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( ; french: Île Mackinac; oj, Mishimikinaak ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ; otw, Michilimackinac) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac an ...

and became known for building the Round Island Lighthouse - one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. He built many Mackinac buildings, including the Little Stone Church, the boardwalk and the

Wawashkamo golf club The Wawashkamo Golf Club is a nine-hole links golf course on Mackinac Island in the U.S. state of Michigan. The course was laid out by Alex Smith in 1898. The golf course retains many of the features of a nineteenth-century golf links, includin ...

Career

Rounds first came to the Island in 1887 as a worker for the Grand Hotel. Rounds was a multifaceted craftsman. He contracted in October 1898 with Lewis L. McArthur to lead the landscape construction of the Wawashkamo golf course. The golf links opened in 1899 as built by Rounds and his crew, and became the oldest course in Michigan on which golf is played on the original grounds. (Other Michigan golf clubs are older, but moved or re-landscaped their grounds.) Historic Wawashkamo hazards such as the "chocolate drops" on the 8th and 17th hole were raised by Rounds and his men with fieldstones uncovered during the landscaping. During the first decade of the twentieth century, Rounds' expertise with

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

s and durable mortar led to enduring additions to Mackinac Island architecture. The Cudahys hired him at Stonecliffe, where Rounds and his crew built the safety wall at Sunset Rock, the bluff-top overlook recently acquired by the State Park. The historic fieldstone gateposts at Stonecliffe and Grand Hotel are almost certainly his works. Two of Rounds's Grand Hotel gateposts still survive on the west side of the hotel facing West Bluff Road. Rounds was a participant in the Golden Age of Mackinac Island summer travel. The period of active building on Mackinac Island was winding down in the 1920s and 1930s, Rounds continued to operate his carpentry shop off Astor Street, helping to repair and maintain the buildings he and his neighbors had built. The Rounds family maintains artifacts and scale models of Mackinac Island buildings at the Robert Stuart House City Museum. Rounds Family Plot.jpg Littlestonechurch.jpg Frr headstone.jpg Round Island Lighthouse Michigan.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rounds, Frank 1861 births 1945 deaths American carpenters