D. H. Day House

Family in front of the house in 1919 knitting Cootie catchers for WWI.

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Quick Facts

Amenities

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Wheelchair Accessible

D.H. Day built this simple two-story frame house in Glen Haven in 1890 as a birthday present for his wife Eva, but she preferred the convenience of living above the general store she ran while raising a family, so Day employees and other family members lived in the house. According to Day's granddaughter, Pat (Day) Bennet, her father Bill Day had a garden straight back from the house by the apple tree.

The attached garage was originally the village paint shop, then the Glen Haven post office. It was moved here in 1941 when the house was remodeled.

The blue spruce on the knoll between the store and Day House was planted there in 1989 by Day's daughter, Marion (Day) Warnes. She planted it to commemorate the one hundredth year anniversary of her parent's marriage. Before the spruce, a cut tree was placed on the knoll (same location) and decorated with Christmas lights each year for about forty years.

Local Native Americans

There were two Indian families who used to work for D.H.Day; the Westmans and the Jacksons. According to resident Newt Sheridan, John Westman was a well-liked man, a real hard worker.

Elizabeth Westman. John's daughter talks about growing up in the area:
"I was born in Glen Haven, the youngest of seven children and a member of the Ottawa tribe. We lived in a long building built by Mr. Day. The building was a short way from Sleeping Bear Inn. There was a slaughter house nearby, and we got some meat from there. We used to cook in a three-legged iron kettle with no top on it. We put hog's heads in there and made head cheese. We caught fish and had many fish frys. We saved the grease and fried doughnuts in it. We did all our cooking outside. We were share-croppers too, so we had enough food. We were given brown stamps for shoes and green stamps for vegetables.
Mother taught me how to make baskets. We used the black ash for weaving when we could get it. We sold our baskets down by the pier and at the Tanawatha Resort. When the noon dinner bell rang there, all the people came-some days, Mother made fifty dollars. She also took orders for more baskets. We were busy in the spring gathering maple syrup and making sugar candy. We sold that too."

There were about thirty Indians living in our area. They were all related. The name of the other family was Jackson.