Some of Dan Scott’s favorite childhood memories are sitting in his grandmother’s home in Northport playing King’s Corners, a card game.

This home, one yeaer from its 150th birthday, was one a boarding house. It has been renovated by the Scott family of Northport.

On summer days, Scott would ride his bicycle into town from the family home in Leelanau Township and stop by the home owned by Charlene (Fredrickson) Rogers. It’s located on the corner of Main and Bay streets in Northport, across from the village beach.

“I’d come to town just about every day, with my baseball glove because there was always a game going on. I’d stop by grandma’s house, put my glove on a chair, and we’d talk and play King’s Corners,” he said.

When it became apparent that his grandmother would not be able to continue living in the house, Scott was afraid the fountainhead of many of his best memories would be lost forever. He and his wife, Joan, committed themselves to preserving a piece of not only his family’s history, but that of Northport’s.

The Scott’s enjoy their home near Woolsey Memorial Airport, but bought and renovated the Rogers house to keep it in the family and for use as a summer rental.

“We bought it from my grandma in August and started renovating it not too long after that,” he said.

The place is a Northport icon, one of 21 homes featured in the Historic Northport Walking Tour.

It was built in 1858 by Samuel McClelland. He moved to the Northport area that same year with seven tons of store goods to open a store in the town once called “Waukazoo.” His brother Wallace arrived shortly later, and operated a store while running a boarding house. The brothers lived next door each other.

Scott’s great-great-grandfather bought the McClelland house, and it has been in the Rogers family ever since. Wallace’s house no longer exists.

Brenda (Rogers) Scott, Dan’s mother, and her six brothers and sisters grew up in the five-bedroom home.

“We had my grandmother living with us for a while, too. There was always something going on in that house,” she said. Her parents, Henry junior (nicknamed “Junie”) and Charlene were busy as well raising seven children and keeping the house going.

Brenda Scott enjoyed growing up in the house.

“It was the best. We could go across the street and go swimming and mom would watch from the kitchen window. The train tracks went right by our home, so we could see the trains go by,” she said.

Dan and Joan Scott were ready to assume responsibility for bringing the family house into the 21st century. It was structurally sound, but suffered from a restrictive design and an interior that was closed off and dark.

“Grandma had a tiny window right in front of the kitchen sink so she could look across the street and see the beach,” Dan Scott said.

Starting in September 2006, Dan, Joan, his sister Kristi Collins, their parents and friends began the task of demolishing the interior.

“We took everything down to the studs. We only kept the outside walls and the roof. We removed all the interior walls and uncovered what turned out to be a fantastic wood floor,” Scott said.

Demolition took about three months. With plans looming for a Fourth of July celebration with family and friends, the Scotts wondered if they would be done in time.

With the help of plumbing and electrical contractors, and friends like Jeanette Egeler, Mike Kreigo and Mike Morgan, the Scotts were put the finishing touches on the home over the weekend before Independence Day.

The nine-month demolition and restoration process recreated a home that retains the grandness of history, yet with an open new design that will appeal to family and visitors. The Scotts expanded the existing porch on the south side of the home, and enlarged the kitchen area. Gone is Grandmas’s diminutive window, replaced by expansive views of Northport Bay.

The house still has five bedrooms, one downstairs and four up, two bathrooms and a large backyard with patio area. Scott left interior color schemes and decorating to Joan, who chose light but vibrant colors such as asparagus green, mint blue, and “Tequila Sunrise” yellow. Dormer windows brought views of the Bay to two upstairs bedrooms

The Scotts plan to partially pay for the house and renovation with summer rentals.
Such a large-scale renovation is bound to turn up lost treasures. Scott said they found a sailor’s peacoat stuffed in one of bedroom walls upstairs, and a 500-gallon cistern underneath the floor of the old kitchen.

“I know it was a boarding house at some point before the family bought it, so finding the peacoat was really neat,” he said.

The cistern was used to gather rain water. Instead of removing the large, bowl-like structure, they filed it in with sand to help make the floor more stable.

Scott is a roofer by trade so putting on a new roof was no problem. Many of his friends were contractors who did not receive payment for their work.

“I had the guys do some work for me, and when the time comes I’ll return the favor,” he said.

Dan and Joan have all the “stuff” they took out of the house. and haven’t had a chance to go through it all. “We don’t know what we have. It’s been all a blur, getting the house ready for summer,” he said.

Brenda Scott said watching her son and their family pull together to renovate the house has been a fulfilling experience.

“That they took this on, this huge project, I have no words to say how proud I am,” she said. “My son dreamed of owning this house. It was a big undertaking for them (Dan and Joan) and the way it has turned out is inspiring,” Scott said.

Community members have kept track of the work. “There wasn’t a day that went by when we didn’t have someone stopping by. We gave a lot of tours as we worked and everyone seems real pleased with what we were doing,” Joan Scott said.

Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that work on the house brought a lot of visitors. Dan Scott said it was not unusual for his grandparents to sit out on the porch and have people come up to visit.

“I remember grandma would be out on the porch and someone would drive by and wave to her and she would wave back. I’d ask ‘Grandma, who was that?’ She would say ‘I don’t know, they wave at me so I wave back,’” Scott said.