05/24/2007

Not your everyday estate sale

Proceeds to benefit restoration of historic house

By Vanessa McCray

vmccray@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
From left, Old Mission residents Joan Cole and Carol Prucha transport books dating back to the 1800s in preparation for Friday and Saturday’s estate sale of the Dougherty Historic Home Site.

OLD MISSION — Near the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula sits a house that was a home before Traverse City was a town.

And much of the contents of this historic frame building have been sorted, tagged and priced for a weekend estate sale to benefit the restoration of the Rev. Peter Dougherty's 1842 house.

History buffs and antique aficionados can purchase items accumulated in the house over the decades at a sale that runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Peninsula Township Hall on Center Road.

Browsers and buyers could stumble upon a Roy Rogers coloring book, dozens of chairs, plates, bureaus, children's toys, books and a bundle of wire hot dog roasters. It's more than a century's worth of belongings and furnishings stashed away by various owners of the home. The artifacts have been carefully culled through and cleaned, with the most historically significant saved for when the house is restored and opened for public exhibits and tours.

But that still left members of The Peter Dougherty Society with mounds of memorabilia, the sale of which benefits the home's restoration.

"They saved everything. You name it, we probably have it,” said volunteer Mary Ellen Byrne.

The missionary Dougherty's home was at the center of his village work and subsequent owners operated it as an inn. The 10-bedroom house hasn't been occupied in decades. Community fundraising secured the township's purchase of the house last year, and the society wants to raise $1 million over the next several years for the home's restoration and operation.

Volunteers nicknamed themselves "The Eliminators” and have been sorting the home's catalogued contents in preparation for this weekend's sale, said Barbara Rowlett. Wednesday, a group bustled about the township hall moving merchandise, marking prices and marveling at now-extinct appliances.

Take the Niagara ball bearing clothes mangle. Tagged at $175, the contraption presses water out of wet laundry. There's a deck of Old Maid playing cards, stacks of records — including a Glenn Miller fox trot — and a $65 Remington Rand typewriter.

Antique appraiser Susan Feiger, who assisted with the sale, said a few items they found in the house date to 1840. She said wading through the collection of items lodged in the mission house likely was the largest such undertaking in her decades-long career in antiques.

The contents give clues about some of the home's previous inhabitants. Byrne concluded someone who stayed there liked to dance — the proof is in the plethora of 1920s and '30s dance tunes. One child must have had an itch for the Wild West, because of the plentiful cowboy toys and related paraphernalia.

And then there's the generations of sewing machines, kept even after newer technology replaced older models. A bread rising pan and old scale, Christmas ornaments and a pair of spats round out the array of items discovered when volunteers explored the old house.

"You couldn't get through it,” said Bill Cole. "You had to crawl over stuff.”

Cole said organizers plan to focus their preservation efforts on three significant periods in the property's history: the mission, farming and resort life.

"So many people have gotten behind this,” said township Supervisor Rob Manigold of the effort to secure the house and surrounding 15 acres.

A $20,000 donation from the Oleson Foundation will help pay for an archeological study. A structural analysis and historical research for the site are also planned.