About : fantastic furniture hall stands
Title : fantastic furniture hall stands
fantastic furniture hall stands
- [voiceover] supportfor destination michigan is provided by the cmu bookstore. t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, maroon and gold memories, and an official outfitter of adidas apparel at the central michigan university owned and operated cmu bookstore. online shopping seven days a week at cmubookstore.com. the cmu bookstore, online at cmubookstore.com,
on campus in the university center, and gameday locationsat kelly shorts stadium and the cmu events center. - hi and welcome to destination michigan, where we explore the beauty, creativity, and destinations in our great lakes state. tonight we're gonna meet some outstanding michiganders, and we'll travel across the mitten, to visit the communities that make michigan unique.
here's a glimpse of tonight's travels on destination michigan. coming up we're going onan exclusive excursion of earl young's mushroomhouses in charlevoix. - [stefanie] next, grab some popcorn and go back in time at the us 23 digital drive-in in flint. - [courtney] and tour the fourth largest historic house museum in the united states, located in rochester. - then we take you to darling botanical company
in traverse city, where youdon't need to have a green thumb to create something beautiful. - plus we're going to have a very unique wildlife experience in big rapids, michigan. (upbeat, inspirational music) - tonight our journey starts with storybook homes that visitors are constantly rubbernecking to see. earl young was a born and raised michigander who built these mushroom homes decades ago out of stone.
leaving his legacy behind in charlevoix. (water trickling) past the park, thebridge, and the harbour, off the beaten path. we head to the back roads of charlevoix that are filled with well-framed and slightly whimsical structures with a signature style. these "mushroom houses", asthey're affectionately known as, attract people from all over.
oogling and staring at the famous stone homes built by earl a. young. - i think the whole community has embraced earl's love of rocks. it may even say earlyoung under "rockhound" in the dictionary, because he never found a rock he did not love. - [courtney] in the late 1920s, earl young began to build his first 10 stone houses,
naming the area boulder park. over the next several decades, he continued to leave his legacy and talents along the streets of charlevoix. thanks to the charlevoixhistorical society, we got an exclusive earl young tour. - this is where he really started his residential community. he would sell you a lot for $100, and his ads even said, "it's cheaper than rent."
and he was probably right, at that time it was. then he ventured on to the triangle area, where we have the half house and the mushroom house, and then into somecommercial work as well, through the 50s and the early 60s. beautiful weathervane terrace, the weathervane restaurant, and the lodge hotel. - [courtney] you'll seehis work all over town. in businesses and in privately-owned homes.
he wasn't actually a trained architect, but that didn't stop him from creating 31 structures. each with their own artistic spirit. - each home very very different. we have one that we call the pagoda house, which has a bit of an asian flare to it. we have one that we call the owl house, because of its very unique windows. we have the half house,which is just that.
when he ran out of room, he stopped, and put up a wall. there is the mushroom house, which gets its name right from its roof line. and so each one ofthem is so very unique, and very very special. from the open rafter tails to the unique windows, some are gothic, some are very playful, lots of hidden doorways. just have a wonderful, unique feel to each home.
- [courtney] these unique houses are individually owned. they're not open to the public to tour the insides or the grounds. each property is private. so it's important for spectators to be respectful as they walk, bike, or drive around town to tour them, and of course, see the different types of michigan rocks they're made of. you'll see local limestone, fieldstone,
glacial boulders, slab onaway stone, and red sandstone too, on his buildings. - earl had a unique vision. he could look at a stoneand he knew immediately if it had potential or if it didn't. - [courtney] now while the historical society offers some guided group tours, new in 2015, they'll have a booklet for sightseers to follow along with for self-guided tours.
details throughout describe the homes that range from as smallas 500 square feet, up the largest one, the sucher house. - earl did not necessarily make floor plans. and the largest home, which is about 2300 square feet, sits on the lakeshore. when he walked the property with mr. sucher, in 1947, mr. sucher was the acting ceo of speedway 79. but when earl walked the property with mr. sucher,
he said, "from here, iwant you to see 1/3 sky, "1/3 water, and 1/3 vans. "and the fireplace will go behind me." that's how he worked. he knew what he wanted,he could visualize it. he had it up here, and then it was up to his wife, usually, to put it on paper for him. but mr. sucher really took a bit of a leap of faith.
and you can see, by allowing earl free reign, he created just a true masterpiece in this beautiful home, with the open rafter tails, the three-part whimsical chimney, the lazy eyebrow dormer, and the way it sits beautifully on the shoreline, it really does reflect everything that he hoped it would. it is quite a dandy. (bicycle gears clicking)
- [courtney] and mr. sucher wasn't the only original homeowner who took a chance on earl's creative ways. - anyone who commissioned an earl young house, was committing an act of faith. because they didn't knowwhat they were getting until they got it. there is no cookie-cutter-ism about earl young's buildings at all.
each one is designed to fit on the lot for which it was destined to be. and that was his philosophy. do not alter the lot unless you absolutely have to. the house has to go on it as it is. - i think it's amazing, these buildings have been here since the early 20s, and yet even today they make people (gasp) ooh and ahh, and just laugh out loud.
and that's what i think is so compelling about these houses. they're so unique, eachone in its own way. they go from kind of early basic to very whimsical, and they are a very very special legacy for charlevoix. - there is a magic aboutthe earl young houses. there is always someone, maybe two or three, distinguishing features about it, that make you stop, look, and wonder. where does this imagination come from?
this creativity. this ability tovisualize what you want, and have it still so powerful, so delicate, so whimsical, over half a century after he built them. the man was astonishing in his imaginative abilities to create a unique living space. - so next time you're visiting charlevoix, even if it's not to specifically look at earl young's mushroom houses, take an extra look around.
the story goes thatearl used to leave rocks in random places around town, because he felt every place could be embellished with a big boulder on it. so even now you'll not only find stones on buildings, but also spread across the city. to contact the charlevoix historical society about more earl young material, feel free to visit their website. now, drive-in theaters once defined america's summers.
and there wassomething freeing about watching a movie on the big screen from the comfortof your own car. well that same magical feeling still exists today, at the us 23 digital drive-in theater in flint. here's destination michigan's stefanie mills, taking us back to the good old days. - [stefanie] they come from near and far. little kids, big kids, moms and dads,
even the family dog. some are here for the first time, some are on a first date, but all are here to check out the summer blockbusters on the big screen at the us 23 digital drive-in in flint. (upbeat country music) - on a friday or saturday, we could get in here probably around 1000 people on a good saturday night. - [stefanie] this drive-in first opened in 1952,
and it's been bringing hollywood movie magic to life ever since. - [johny] it was first opened by the warrington family, who owned and operated it over 60 years. unfortunately the owner passed away about six years ago. that's when our company took over. and when i first saw it, i'm like, "wow, this is great! "it's outdoors, and families are coming, "people are coming and just having a good time."
- the drive-in got its start in the 1930s, at its peak, michigan had more than 130 drive-ins. today, the us 23 drive-in is one of about eight remaining in the state. - and it's even better now, the digital i think is a good move, it provides sharper, brighter picture. especially outdoors with the full moon, it's tough to see a dark scene sometimes.
but now with digital, that's not a problem. - [stefanie] three huge screensfill the theater complex. in june of 2013, the new owners installed three digital projectors, a move vital to the drive-in's survival. - prior to that,since inception, everything has been film, so the movie companies were starting to phase out film, requiring a lot of theaters to reinvest in their business,
and to purchase these pricy equipment, which could range up to$75,000 per projector. for indoor theaters, some had 10 screens. and drive-in theaters, for instance this one, you could do the math, we have three screens. so that was a challenge, luckily we got financing, and we kept the place open. - [stefanie] open and thriving. the concession stand here is just about as popular
as the main features. visitors line up to get their fill of food and drinks, like popcorn and drinks. before the sun sets, you can also catch a popular tune or a country song on the radio,hear a tigers game update, have the kids play games on the large grassy areas, or just settle in your spot as you wait for the show to start. - just being able to sit outside,
and the chair in the back of the truck is way more comfortable than movie theater seats. (laughs) so we can snuggle under one blanket. - the drive-in itself is different from any other experience, especially indoor theater. you have your space, bring your kids, if the kids fall asleepyou can still enjoy it. bring your lawn chair, sit in front of your car. - [stefanie] the first round of films air just after 9:30.
there's usually no interference. visitors can stick around for the second round of flicks that begin at 11 or so. but sometimes, that can lead to some added suspense for drivers. - usually i stay prettylate, and sometimes, i would stay until bothmovies are finished, so that's like till 2:30 in the morning. so and then what i would do there is
people would bring in the radios that they rented, and i would have to go out and jump cars, which like, we get a lot of cars that die, like so many, we have like three boxes, and they're all being out, like especially on the weekends. - [stefanie] it doesn't matter if you're the first to arrive or the last to leave, with plenty of parking spaces, a great, positive vibe,and warm summer weather,
here you're guaranteed to have the best seat in the house. - the drive-in is open from april through october. between the 4th of july and labor day, they're open seven days a week. you can check out their website for current features and showtimes. well, as a michigander,you're well aware of the automobile industry's early days, and the large impactthat came from detroit.
tonight we visit a nationalhistoric landmark in rochester; a historic home, builtby one of the automobile aristocracy's most remarkable women, matilda dodge-wilson. in the early 1900s, the dodge brothers, john and horace, were heavily involved inthe automobile industry. they produced parts foroldsmobile, and ford, before establishing dodge brothers motor car company, shortly becoming the fourth largest
american automobile manufacturer. the property you see here, is in rochester. in 1909, john dodge bought the first 320 acres of the now 1500 acre estate, for his family to use as a country retreat. in fact, it's said that john dodge and his brother horace test-drove the very first dodgecar on these rolling farms. well, john dodge tragically passed away in 1920, leaving the property to his children, and wife matilda.
matilda remarried in 1925 to alfred wilson, and soon began expanding structures on the property. including the construction of meadowbrook hall. - matilda and her secondhusband, alfred wilson, with their children, they built meadowbrook hall, between 1926 and 1929. it's an 88,000 square foot house, 110 rooms. - [courtney] not only is it a national historic landmark because of its tudor revival architecture,
meadowbrook hall is the fourth largest historic house museum in the united states. it was a family homefor about four decades, and over the years was filled with pieces matilda was fond of. - matilda dodge-wilson who, she's the one who really was the driving force behindthe decorations of meadowbrook. even though she had interior decorators who helped her, she filled the home withthings that she loved.
she would pick things upin india that she loved and put them in the home. she picked things up inindiana that she loved. so it's this great mix, just like any family home, of pieces andfurniture and paintings that they loved, that spoke to them, and that's what they filled it in. and i think that's whyit feels so comfortable. because we did have children playing in the home,
grandchildren playing in the home. but also, it's just filled with these really extravagant pieces that were picked by someone with a great eye for design. - [courtney] 75,000 pieces havebeen preserved in the home, including everything from the original design blueprints, to famous paintings, tiffany glass, textiles, and furniture. passion for detail is displayed
not only in the pieces within the home, but within the walls, and in every corner. all which you can see, as you tour the magnificent mansion, inspired by countrymanor homes in england. - it's built like an automobile factory, with concrete and reinforced steel, but it looks like it could have been a 500 year old home that was lived in and renovated by different families.
when they decided tobuild the home that way, they went back in 1927 to england, and throughout the u.s., and they took their architect william kapp with them, from smith, hinchman & grylls, and they had him takedrawings and photographs of the things that they loved. and so meadowbrook is this kind of amalgamation of all of these,
the chimneys from hampton court, and then the living room ceiling from the bromley home in england. they had all thesethings that they loved, and they had them really fitted to look like they came to meadowbrook from england, but they were done by american craftsmen, and american materials. it truly is an american piece of art.
we have a lot of different tours that we do give, because of course if you're going through a house like this you wanna open the doors, and see the closets andsee the attic space, see where the maids lived. so we have behind the scenes tours, we change the exhibit up a lot because we do have 75,000pieces in the collection that we want people to see.
so we do change the exhibits. but our general tour you're going to see exactly how this family lived. you'll see their bedrooms, you'll see the ballroom, you'll see their studiesthat they did work in. matilda, when she married alfred wilson, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world. she had just sold dodgebrothers motor company for a record-breaking $146 million in cash.
so she inherited about $30 million in 1925. even though she was one of the wealthiest women in the world, this was a working farm, she went to an office every day, she was a mother, she was a wife, she was a really incredible woman. part of her legacy, beyond all of her charitable organizationsthat she was part of, the trust that she started with her money in the 1940s.
beyond that, in 1957 thefamily had been using meadowbrook hall for years as a community center. and they decided to continue that, and they donated meadowbrook hall, the 1500 acres of farm property,all of the farm buildings, and $2 million to michigan state university, to found a branch campus. that campus is now oakland university. - [courtney] while meadowbrook hall is an auxiliary
of oakland university today, it is on oakland u's campus. meadowbrook hall is completely self-sustained. it costs approximately $6500 a day to run, and it's an extra $1000 on top of that if you want to include daily preservation costs. so they raise everydollar that they spend, with tours, community events, day camps, and weddings.
- it's an incredible home, it has incredible costs associated with it, butwe think it's a really important place to keep open. not only because of thedesign of meadowbrook, and how incredible that is, but also the furnishings, and more importantly, the family who lived in the home. - [courtney] there's so much to see in this home, so much history, so much 20th century life you can envision, and just imagine what it must have
been like to live here. being a child with your own wing, and a hidden staircase up to your playroom. or a mother with two closets, and what looks like a royal bathroom. being the man of the house with your own man-cave for entertaining and heckling. the list, it goes on and on. with so much to see,there's always a reason
to come back and visit again. for details on meadowbrook hall's rotating exhibits, tours, and events, meadowbrookhall.org is where to go to learn more. now, no matter what time of year it is, there's a place in northern michigan that feels like you're in the tropics year round. darling botanical company creates gorgeous arrangements, and terrariums in the traverse city warehouse district.
they say anyone can do it too, and tonight, stefanie mills shows us how. - i knew i wanted to gointo the creative end of a career somehow, somewhere out in the world. it was an idea that ended up taking off, and people really like to engage with plants, they like to be creative, and it's just a matter of making choices that add up intosomething really beautiful. - [stefanie] for megan kellogg,life is all about choices.
she's the force behind darling botanical company that puts people in touch with nature, and their artistic side. - that's a good start. - [stefanie] okay. - terrariums kind of allow you to be a little more creative and free. choose the objects that you want to decorate around. they can go anywhere from super kitschy and hilarious, more into just a very simple, elegant way
to display a specimen. so it's kind of up to you. - [stefanie] at darling botanical, people can come and make these terrariums. they're basically kind of a mini ecosystem, including plants and flowers, soil, gravel, the sky's the limit, really. they're put together in glass containers, that can be closed and opened for care and maintenance.
- the original terrariumwas a wardian case, and it was actually a way to ship plants around the world. wardian cases are really a way to display your plant collection, and create this tropical, humid environment. terrariums kind of allow you to be there are rules, we've broken it down into an open and closed terrarium. an open terrarium is more or less
like a regular houseplant in a glass display. the only difference being that there is not drainage, so we create false drainage. the recommendation foropen terrariums is that you can really doanything that you want. with a closed terrariumwe recommend that you stay away from driedand preserved things. - [stefanie] terrariumsrange in sizes from a necklace all the way up to large aquariums.
it's fun to learn and do, and it's not just for adults. it's a great way to introduce kids to plants and flowers, and teach them how to care for them. - children are really pretty fantastic when it comes to creating these little worlds. sometimes a child will not choose a plant, and will just do different mosses and lichens, and put different animals and creatures all over. going into the other end of the spectrum,
teenagers, it's a way to design and sort of take control and have this little object that you've created foryour own personal space. - [stefanie] while megan began her career making terrariums, in the fall of 2014 she expanded, and moved to a bigger location inside the newly renovated warehouse market, and renamed her store darling botanical company. that allowed her to give new wings to her creative reach.
today, she provides services for all sorts of events, like gardening and weddings, and classes. - my favorite thing is that it ends up being a type of therapy, to just be able to focus on something, to make these different choices, put it all together and compose it, and see how it changes over time. you can always add or subtract, and i think that there's just something
really relaxing to that. - you can stop in to darling botanical company any time to make your own terrarium. or pick up something from the retail store. they host a variety of classes throughout the year as well. well next, imagine seeing life-size animals up close. and not just your everyday, backyard animals. we're talking full body mounts of animals from across the world.
in big rapids, there's a learning environment like no other that offers just that. destination michigan's bob garner introduces us tonight to thecard wildlife education center. - this week finds me in one of my favorite destinations, big rapids, michigan, atferris state university. ferris state is the home of the card wildlife education center, where wildlife mounts and exhibits
are showcased and displayed in a very impressive way, in this 5,000 square foot facility. it was the dream of oneof my favorite people, internationally-known big game hunter, roger card, and his late wife, deborah. the center is home to hundreds of mounts, with each mountcarrying descriptions of the different species along with the habitats they occupy, what they eat, and characteristics that make them unique.
it's more than a trip through roger card's trophies, it's a chance tolearn and enjoy. the entry fee is free,and for me the chance to spend time with old friend roger card, was nothing short of precious, as his journey has taken him to over 50 countries. you've been all over the world, and not just with deb, but you were all over the world for many many years, when did you start your big game hunting?
- probably like, big game hunting started with antelope and mule deer in wyoming, with my father and my brothers. that's where we startedsomething more than a michigan white-tailed deer. and started that probably back in like the 60s. and from there we went up into canada, went moose hunting, and that was a great adventure, and big animals. and it was about that time, in the late 60s,
i was introduced to safari club international. and that is a big game hunting group, has meetings once a month and a convention once a year out in las vegas. and you go to these meetings, and you talk to other hunters. and what a rush! i mean, you're in a room full of guys, and they've been hunting sheep or moose or bears or whatever,
and you can talk to real live people that have done that. it was pretty impressive, i joined the club, and found out in the club, they had this ruralhunting awards program. and it's actually a record of the animals that you got, where they're located at, and the different species from all over the world. and i, "gee this is kind of interesting, "i think i'd like to try for that north american 27."
and so that was my goal, and every hunt was planned to go get a different species of game. i've been taught to make sure you get the biggest you possibly can, we wanna get trophy animals that are past their breeding stage and stuff. so after several years we collected all 27 of that, and then we realized thatthere's more species out there,
and south pacific 17 animals down in the south pacific, australia and new zealand. and then we go on to africa, and there's hundreds of animals over there to collect. - [bob] it's free to come in here and take a walk around the world, is essentially what you're doing. - exactly what it is, there are animals here that they see it in a zoo, it'sgonna be way back in the corner. polar bear for example, younever see those things up close.
and here you can walk right up and look 'em in the eye. the african lion, the leopards, the bongo, we've got animals from all over the world, that are right here within inches of you. we request that people don't touch 'em, 'cause they'd get too much oil from their skin, but they can look at them very very close, take pictures. - well you have an area where you encourage people to touch the skins. - [roger] yes.
- that's right, the staff here has been so great at that, they deal with alot of students, we have what they call the "touch and feel area". when they first come in to the facility, we've got animal skins and skulls and horns and stuff, we want the kids or the adults to actually touchthese things, feel 'em, kinda get that part ofit out of their system, before they come back in to the rest of the animals.
we've been so fortunate in hunting all over the world, i've been to 50 different countries, and collected all thesedifferent animals, it's just been amazing, i've had a wonderful life, and would like toshare that with people. - the card wildlife education center is located in the arts & sciences commons building on the campus of ferrisstate university. to find out more about this facility,
you can visit their website. well now we'll conclude our episode with some destinationmichigan trivia for you. thanks to our visit to the michigan firehouse museum in ypsilanti, we learned that a fire apparatus from detroit set the stage for an oshanational fire truck regulation. so your trivia questionfor the night is, in what year did detroit build this special fire apparatus? the answer, is 1936.
after a fireman died in1935 from hypothermia, detroit started building trucks with fully-enclosed pumpers,requiring firemen to be inside, and sitting down. this eventually became an osha standard 60 years later. well thanks for joining us tonight, on destination michigan. we hope you'll tune in again, and learn more about the state we all love to call home.