Loop-Harrison
House
Date Visited: August 3, 2019
Stop: #34
Our Michigan Wines and Signs
Quest has been a lot of fun, and as we continued our East Thumb loop on a
perfect summer day, I was struck by the excitement of pleasant surprises that
come with our adventures. Whether it’s
stumbling into exciting festivals [like our trip to Fenton when we stumbled
into their River Fest (visit https://michiganwinesandsigns.blogspot.com/2019/10/deal-me-in.html )], or meeting amazing people [like the owners
at Unwined (visit https://michiganwinesandsigns.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-need-to-relax-and-unwined.html ), or like our hostess at Hoffman Farms (visit https://michiganwinesandsigns.blogspot.com/2019/11/ )], there is always that element of the unknown
that could await us at every stop we make.
Well, we were in for another unexpected surprise as we approached our
next destination. After we completed our
visit to the Masonic and Town Hall, we drove about a half mile south on M-25
and pulled into a very packed parking lot at the Loop-Harrison House. Scratching our collective heads, we wondered
what could be bringing so many people to the site of a Michigan Historical Marker.
Port Sanilac hosts several
events and festivals throughout the year, and unbeknownst to us, we had found
ourselves in the midst of one of them – the annual Civil War Days. The festival usually takes place during the
first weekend in August, and involves Civil War exhibits, re-enactments, Civil
War period dressed people, artillery demonstrations, marching and military
drills for kids, and even a “Best Death” contest. All of this was taking place at the Sanilac
County Historic Village and Museum, a collection of more than a dozen historic
buildings located on ten acres of the original Dr. Joseph Loop estate. Visiting
here is like stepping back in time as you wander through the beautiful gardens
and the Victorian, Edwardian, and vintage buildings and exhibits that are
featured on the property.
The mansion, or the
Loop-Harrison House, is the centerpiece of this property. We found the historical marker near the main
entrance to the parking lot sitting in a garden under a tree.
Construction on the mansion
started in 1872 by Dr. Joseph Loop. It
took 3 years to construct and was built in the Second Empire style, made of
brick, and is 2 ½ stories tall. The
mansion contains nineteen rooms, including a doctor's office, library, and a
third-floor ballroom. It has a mansard
roof, shuttered windows, and two prominent chimneys said to have been
constructed by an Irish mason who just happened to wander past the construction
and stopped to lend his talents.
Joseph Miller Loop was born in
Elmira, New York, in 1814, and lived there until 1933. He moved to Michigan in 1843, but not before
spending some time in New Orleans, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Loop married his first wife just before 1840,
but she died about five years later. In
1846, Loop married Jane Gardner. By
1850, Loop was practicing medicine in Novi. The Loops moved to Port Sanilac in 1854 and
lived in a log cabin on what is now Lake Street. He opened a medical office and became a
horse-and-buggy physician. Loop attended
medical school at the University of Michigan, and graduated in 1855. In 1862, the Loops constructed a clapboard
house and moved out of their log cabin.
This house still stands today, directly east of the current mansion.
The Loops moved into the
mansion in 1875 and lived there until their deaths (Jane in 1895 and Joseph in
1903. The house passed to their
daughter, Ada, and her husband, the Reverend Julius Harrison. They had two sons (Stanley and Fred) and
lived in the mansion until their deaths (Ada in 1925 and Julius in 1933).
Stanley was a Great Lakes
shipping captain. In 1964, he deeded the
mansion and the surrounding property to the Sanilac County Historical Society
to be used as a museum. He lived in the
mansion until his death in 1977. After
restoring the house, the Society has run the mansion as a museum ever since.
Today, the museum is open from
Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day weekend each Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday from 11am until 5:00 pm.
Tours are offered each day with the last tour starting no later than
4:00 pm. All other days of the year,
tours are available by appointment. I
would recommend visiting their website at http://www.sanilaccountymuseum.org/ to learn all about this amazing place.
Again, we could have easily
spent the rest of the day there enjoying the festivities and the history, but
the call to continue our quest was too strong.
We walked around the front yard, walked up to the porch, found the
entrance to Dr. Loop’s office (on the north side of the mansion), walked around
the south side and wandered up to the tent under which attendees were eating
lunch or seeking relief from the hot sun.
There were hundreds of people walking about enjoying the many activities
going on. We even saw Abraham Lincoln
order lunch with Dr. Phineas Gurley from a food stand and sit amongst the
common folk to enjoy the day’s featured fare.
Being a Civil War history buff, this was like heaven to me – it was so
tempting to grab a bite to eat and go sit with Honest Abe and regale in the
history of that era. But we all had our
sights on our next adventure and with a little prodding from Sarah and Kathy, I
abandoned my dream of eating with fake Lincoln and we headed off in the
direction of Lexington, Michigan.
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