Pointe of View Gallery is a little “non-conforming” gallery on Astor Street connecting Mackinac Island’s Main Street to the first main street of Mackinac which is called Market Street. The little building was built between 1908 and 1912. The roof has only been replaced once in it’s 100 years. That replacement process is a funny story for another time. I have many people come in the store with “Remember When” stories. The first person with the earliest history was a woman who said she lived here in 1972 with three other girls. It was employee housing with only a toilet and a sink. I didn’t ask what she did about bathing… we live on an island so I imagine the lake is a huge bath tub to many. I then had a young (ish) island guy painting my front door one day. He said, ‘do you remember when this building was a video arcade?” I stopped in my tracks! I had totally forgotten, but then I had a flashback. I was newly married. Had taken three months off from work, and was here with my new husband who’s family had businesses on the island. I had a little Yorkshire Terrier that took up some of my days but by and large, I was pretty bored. I know because I have many pictures of “Ted” with my AE1 Canon…in black and white posing for ‘his mom’. I also know I was bored because I would bring a roll of quarters to the arcade and play Ms. Packman. I felt like the oddest duck, old at 26, and female but I loved the game. So I looked at the painter and said, incredulously, “How old were you then?!" He said, 5 or 6! Here we were almost 40 years later in the same building. I don’t know what happened to the store for a while… but around 1994- 1996 Gracie reminded me that she owned the Western Shop in the building. We had a local rummage sale at community hall and she talked about all the horse paraphernalia she sold and how much fun she had. After that, Ben Horn, from an old island family, opened a “vintage” store that had native American objects, pop, water, knives and other assorted, unrelated and possibly underground items as a recent visitor told me. It wasn’t here too long before the most lucrative of the operations moved in. That was Peter Mirabelle. He adopted it and eventually opened up the Birkenstock store. It did very well and he was here selling the popular shoe until 2015. I still hear people go by and say, ‘That was the old Birkenstock Store.” I marvel at how many shoes he could get in the store with seating and salespeople. It is really so much more. It is single oak boards laid inside to make a slate board perfect for hanging and rehanging art. It is only about 700 square feet but you can do so much with that amount of space. It has a wonderful window to look out, and the open door allows you to hear 10 year old boys banging the horse head hitching post handle across the street at the Mustang. I didn’t notice it until a friend who had used this building for a Human Resource office through COVID (2020-2021) pointed it out. Now I hear it all the time. Thanks Ryan! Peter came in and said he loved looking at all the activity going by throughout the day. I have to say, I see most of the ambulance runs, sometimes a fire truck. I watch the hay wagon go by with the hay that comes fresh off the Coal Dock at the base of Astor Street. I get to see the horses come back to the island three abreast with their winter fur. I get to see them leave again in the fall. The drays deliver supplies to Starbucks and Patrick Doud’s Irish Pub restaurant out in front. There is an impish horse who likes to knock over my bike with his nose. They sort of look alike (sorry horses) so I have to figure out his name so my bike stays out of his way. May’s Fudge owned this building and rented it out through most of these years. Victor Callewaert and Marvin May had a friendship and Victor was given right of first refusal at Marvin’s death. When he passed this building came with the fudge shop. So here sits Pointe of View Gallery for the time being. The geographical location of this little building provides great scenery inside and out.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2023
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