Mackinac Island — Going back in time isn’t cheap.
The operator of the historic Grand Hotel spent $20 million over the past six months to restore its original elegance and design with such care that some visitors may not immediately recognize the subtle differences. Things feel brighter and fresher, yet tradition is undisturbed.
“You can go anywhere and get luxury. But this is special. There’s no other place like it in the world,” said Marlene Brewbaker, a retired dentist and church music director from Okemos. “Every time you open the door to your room, it’s like a birthday present. I could go to Italy. But here they know your name. It feels like family. For the past three years, I’ve been coming for opening day. I can’t be here for the closing because it makes me cry.”
Grand Hotel is tucked on an island between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan with views of the Straits of Mackinac. Visitors reach the island by ferry or plane. Island travel is by foot, bicycle or horse-drawn carriage. Cars are banned.
For the first time in 90 years, visitors to Grand Hotel will walk on an uncovered wood porch, this version built with ash wood from Thermory, a company based in Estonia. The naturally enhanced wood can withstand the 120-degree temperature swings on the hotel’s front porch.
Twenty rooms and five suites have new fabrics and wall coverings from the original Dorothy Draper & Co. design house based in New York City and upholsterers in West Palm Beach, Florida, that helped make the hotel famous. The bright summer stripes — coral pink, jonquil yellow, lilac purple, mint green and ocean blue — and bold floral prints are meant to bring the garden feeling outside into the hotel that opened in 1887.
Antique furniture has been treated and repainted in original colors by expert teams from Kindel in Grand Rapids who worked through the winter and spring on-site. Handcrafted mattresses are from Capitol Bedding, a family-owned business in Grand Ledge. Architects have made interior and exterior changes and worked to keep the integrity of design while adding basics such as air conditioning.
The wall behind the check-in desk is gold leaf now. Custom carpet arrived from Ireland, laid at the entrance and in suites. New shops along the garden terrace now offer upscale clothing lines plus athleisure in partnership with Lululemon and others, plus home decor that includes porch rockers, porch side tables and blankets. Handmade glass Christmas ornaments are made in Poland for The Grand.
Every detail matters to Grand Hotel President David Jurcak.
“You’ve got to go to these two bathrooms up here. You do. It’s worth the trip. Go through the art gallery, up the stairs, to the men’s and women’s bathrooms. They’re absolutely fantastic,” he told an opening day crowd on May 1 to laughter and applause. “Money well spent!”
When replacing carpeting, he suggested that the team cut 200 4×4 squares that featured the famous geranium and ivy design. Collectors gobbled them up for $1,000 apiece. Fewer than 10 remain.
Loyal patrons actually devote entire rooms in their homes to the Grand Hotel, one of the many large wood-frame hotels built by railroad companies during the Gilded Age to create travel destinations. Many visitors came from New York and Chicago during July and August; guests booked by season.
“There was no middle class. These were children of the robber barons and the leisure class,” said resident historian Bob Tagatz, a popular lecturer. “They wanted to get out of the filthy industrial cities. We had letters from guests who hadn’t seen the sun in a week; there was so much soot. Chicago would have heat waves, and there were dead horses everywhere.” Cities smelled awful.
Updates in the hotel include a new installation of vintage Grand Hotel and Mackinac Island photos from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s and other archival materials. The hotel is always on the hunt for lost treasures.
“We have 388 rooms (including the four-bedroom cottage), and each is different. We’ve pulled favorite fabrics and colors from the archives,” said Rudy Saunders, deputy director of design at Dorothy Draper in New York City. The Cincinnati native grew up visiting The Grand with family.
“Guests who come want nothing to change, but you have to keep things fresh. It’s a fine line we walk,” he said. “We understand what people like and how far we can take it.”
Investing in history
These latest restorations for the 2026 summer season bring the investment in the historic hotel to $120 million since 2019, when Denver-based KSL Capital Partners bought it for an undisclosed price from the Musser family, owners since the 1930s.
Fact is, staff and longtime guests weren’t thrilled about the change in ownership: “We were all worried when the Mussers sold the hotel,” Brewbaker said. “This company hired someone who brought in beige chairs. I was angry. I was hot. It felt like they were changing The Grand into the Chicago Hilton and destroying the character of the hotel.”
Hotel executives took notice. That’s when they brought in Jurcak, a preservationist who recommitted to the old style.
But then the company recruited Jurcak in 2021, and guests, including Brewbaker, said he specifically and intentionally worked to restore trust. Jurcak had an established history with historic hotels and understood the investment and value.
“Our owners believe we need to be good stewards of this national historic landmark, a jewel of Michigan,” Jurcak said. “It was named a top destination by Travel + Leisure. If you don’t invest in property, it’s going to fall apart. And we’re never going to be that person. We talk to Dan Musser on a regular basis.”
Shifting from family ownership
Musser, an Ann Arbor resident who’s chairman emeritus of the hotel, viewed his family as caretakers of history. They invested more than $100 million in restoration themselves.
An old hotel takes work, love and money. Musser said he’s grateful to the new owners for their speed of investment.
“They’re doing a lot of things Dad and the family and I had talked about and hoped for. But they have deeper pockets and can do so much (more) quickly. We had planned to redo all the bathrooms, about 400, and said it would take 10 years but probably more like 14. They did it in two winters. The front of the hotel, again, was on our list. I’m confident we would have gotten it done, but it would’ve taken us quite a bit longer.”
While KSL owns Grand Hotel, Davidson Hospitality Group, which specializes in lifestyle and travel properties, operates it.
“The new owners are taking our traditions and history and amplifying it. I am not active in major decisions, but they do ask my opinion from time to time,” Musser said. “If there’s private equity with a heart and soul, they’re it.”
Record revenues continue
The hotel opened for the season May 1 and will close with a special ceremony on Oct. 26.
Please note: Guests and locals advise never to say “The Grand Hotel” but only “Grand Hotel” or “The Grand.”
First Lady suites for Laura Bush, Jackie Kennedy and Barbara Bush — along with the enormous presidential suite — are among those remodeled, in consultation with the White House Historical Association and the staff of each first lady.
“This room is designed to make you feel you are the first family,” Saunders said, noting the color and design touches throughout that include a handmade ceiling medallion or carpet rimmed with a White House china pattern.
Businesses around the island, a tiny 3.7-square-mile summertime destination that attracts families mostly from the Midwest, often pair their seasons with the popular Grand Hotel.
“Grand Hotel put Mackinac Island on the map,” said Todd Callewaert of Grosse Pointe Farms, whose family has had an island presence for half a century. They own Mary’s Bistro, Ryba’s Fudge Shop, the Island House Hotel, the Pancake House & Grille, the Seabiscuit Cafe, Starbucks and Pine Cottage Bed & Breakfast. “All the little families owe a debt of gratitude to The Grand’s existence.”
Island lodging businesses have reported revenue records every year since 2021, according to Tim Hygh, executive director of the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau. “More people from around the country are coming to the island. We’re concentrating (marketing campaigns) on high heat and humidity markets, such as Memphis, Louisville and St. Louis. That’s why we trademarked, ‘Mackinac Island: America’s cool-cation destination.’”
At The Grand, July 4 is already sold out. Loyal guests include sixth-generation visitors. Jurcak has seen a spike in visitors from Texas, noting that United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines all offer direct flights from Dallas and Houston to Traverse City.
Special events have evolved at the hotel to include Michigan and Oregon wine dinners. “Titanic” and “Somewhere in Time” weekends attract movie fans who arrive in period dress. And murder mystery weekends have become a mainstay at The Grand. Free morning history lectures at the hotel are a popular attraction for island visitors.
‘Our last hurrah’
Melissa and Tyler Jorgensen drove to St. Ignace from Omaha, Nebraska, to take the ferry to the island for opening weekend. Melissa knew Grand Hotel from the History Channel. Tyler said his parents had come years earlier, and recommended spending time on the porch. A friend watched their little girl, Jordan Morgan, while the couple enjoyed a murder mystery weekend. “This is our last hurrah before our second baby in October.”
Patricia Wilson, a mortgage underwriter from Green Bay, Wisconsin, goes to the Grand Hotel every year in May and October to solve murder mysteries, and loves sitting in the rockers on the porch. “It’s not Cracker Barrel,” she said, smiling.
Included in the renovations this year: The “Jane Seymour” and “Somewhere in Time” suites, with furniture, artwork and subtle touches inspired by the 1980 Hollywood film. (You’ll notice a penny above the door, which has significance to movie fans.) The breathtaking third-floor view overlooks the Mackinac Bridge and Round Island Lighthouse.
The movie attracts thousands of people every year. It isn’t unusual to check in young guests named Elise McKenna, the character played by Seymour in the film, Jurcak said. “The reason they’re here is because of the movie.”
Hidden secrets
Behind the scenes, architect Gene Hopkins of HopkinsBurns Design Studio in Ann Arbor points to massive investments that reveal a deep commitment to the future. The legendary porch, itself a destination for more than a century, was covered with plywood with a traffic coating used for parking decks.
“We talked to the Mussers about the front facade restoration and it being a huge undertaking,” said Hopkins, who has worked on the hotel for more than three decades. “When David Jurcak asked what we should be doing, we said the front facade. David said he wouldn’t do it unless we brought back the original wood deck.”
Whether it’s modifying design to include ramps that allow all visitors access or updating steps or changing dormers, every detail in The Grand matters, architect Tamara Burns said.
Back in the day, seeing fire sprinklers was a selling point because it suggested safety. These days, those elements are less visible as they blend into and become part of the restoration process. Additions to the hotel have required structural revision. Something so basic as updating the porch required raising it an inch or two to create a level platform, which meant doors must be modified. Every touch to the hotel has a ripple effect, Burns said.
“It is, I think, even more iconic than the Michigan State Capitol, which is gorgeous and we helped restore,” Hopkins said. “People save up their money to experience The Grand. It’s an incredible responsibility to ensure the experience is once-in-a-lifetime.”
Memories then and now
Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan, said his grandmother went to the Grand Hotel and the legendary Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, when travelers called their visit “the cure.”
“My grandmother believed that sitting on the porch and looking at birds going by was restorative,” Gordon said. “It was not like a vacation or a trip. It was something completely different. Even with a mountain of money, you can’t replace The Grand. You can’t put a dollar value on it.”
Aside from the powerful history, Grand Hotel represents success, elegance and beauty in a state known for hard work and hard times, he said. “Symbolism matters.”
Keeping The Grand’s integrity and bold style while performing necessary maintenance and updates is a difficult but crucial balance.
“They have to put money into the hotel that it needs. There’s a legacy. We have fourth and fifth-generation guests who come,” Jurcak said. “When you come to our place, you’re not looking at history from the outside. You live it like guests did 140 years before. We sell individually gift-wrapped memories.”
Phoebe Wall Howard’s car culture column runs every other week in The Detroit News. She also writes a weekly “Shifting Gears” column on Substack at phoebewallhoward.substack.com. Contact her at phoebe@phoebehoward.com.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Exclusive: Grand Hotel plumbs its past with $20M restoration
Reporting by Phoebe Wall Howard, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
