While the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island is celebrating its 130th anniversary, many history magazines have been highlighting its contractor, “The Famous Mr. Caskey” for making a lasting impression upon the Great Lakes State.
Charles Winthrop Caskey (1851-1933) grew up in Allegan and honed his carpentry skills there before he built the Grand Hotel in just 93 days, in the dead of winter with no electricity.
Mackinac locals called the lofty project “Caskey’s Folly.” But the 35-year-old , burley, self-confident man pulled it off by getting 1.5 million feet of lumber to the remote island under adverse conditions and preventing his more than 300 carpenters from striking.
Caskey was born April 19, 1951, in Barry County. He was one of six children. By the time he was 9 years old, he was living with his parents James and Lucy Caskey in Allegan. His father was a farmer and they lived on a farm just outside of Allegan. His brother, also named James, became a tanner and currier (harness maker) on Main Street with a home on Race Street. He started his own construction business by the age of 28 and lived on Grand Street.
When a consortium of railroad companies desired a large regal hotel for hundreds of guest to stay overnight on the island, Caskey bid for the project and was chosen to build the hotel in the fall of 1886 on the condition it be completed by the summer of 1887 since rooms were already sold.
With a lumberyard in Harbor Springs and St. Ignace, he shipped all of his building supplies to Mackinac Island by boat or sledded by horses across the ice.
Virginia Ransbottom can be contacted at vransbottom@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534.
Above: “The Thompson House” at 319 E. Allegan St. reflects the wrap-around front porch and cross-gabled style of Caskey. (Photo by Ryan Lewis)
Left: The story time room at Otsego Public Library is modeled after the home.
For the full story, pick up a copy of the Sept. 28 issue of The Allegan County News or subscribe to the e-edition.