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On a quiet street in the village of Port Austin—right at the tip of Michigan’s “Thumb”—stands a 150-year-old brick home witnessing the ebb and flow of local history. The Smith-Culhane House is a stately Late Victorian residence built in the early 1870s that still exudes the charm of a bygone era. Its story is intertwined with the rise of a lumber boomtown, the legacy of an immigrant pioneer and a logging baron, and a modern renaissance as a beloved Bed and Breakfast. From its Civil War-era origins to its present role as Lake Street Manor Inn, the Smith-Culhane House offers a personal window into Michigan’s Thumb region history.
Port Austin’s location on the shores of Lake Huron shaped the story of the Smith-Culhane House. The village lies on the extreme northeast of Michigan’s Thumb, a rural peninsula surrounded by Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron?.
In the mid-19th century, this frontier community blossomed thanks to the timber trade—the vast pine forests of Huron County attracted sawmills and ambitious settlers. Port Austin even briefly served as the county seat (until 1873), and its Lake Street became home to prominent figures in the lumber business?. Even today, the Thumb remains a peaceful, off-the-beaten-path region—a place people visit “to get away from it all.” Against this backdrop of forest and frontier, Richard Smith set out to build an enduring home that would become the Smith-Culhane House.
Origins: A Pioneer’s Home in 1871
The Smith-Culhane House was constructed around 1871 for Richard Smith and his wife, Abbie (Merrick) Smith?. Richard Smith was a Scottish-born immigrant and a Union Army veteran of the Civil War. Originally from Roxburghshire, Scotland, he came to North America as a teenager and eventually arrived in Port Austin in the autumn of 1865, fresh from his Army.. Smith wasted no time establishing himself in the young community—he bought a 120-acre tract of land in 1870 and soon built the brick house on Lake Street as his family residence?. At the time, Huron County was barely a decade old, and Port Austin was a hopeful lumber town on the rise.
Richard Smith’s accomplishments mirrored the growth of the region. In the late 1860s, he served as the Huron County Surveyor and, later, County Clerk and Register of Deeds?. His career took the family briefly to the new county seat in Bad Axe, but by 1877, Smith had returned to Port Austin, opening a book and stationery shop and an abstract office?. Through all these changes, the elegant brick house he built remained a constant—a symbol of stability and success on Port Austin’s Lake Street. The Smiths’ tenure in the house was relatively short-lived, however. In 1883, Richard moved his family back to Bad Axe, and by 1885, he sold the Port Austin property for $1,600 to another rising figure of the era, Cornelius “Con” Culhane?
Architecture: A Victorian Upright-and-Wing Treasure
Architecturally, the Smith-Culhane House is noted for its distinctive upright-and-wing design, a popular 19th-century house form in Michigan. Built of warm reddish-orange brick on a fieldstone foundation, the structure forms a T-shape—an upright two-story section joined at right angles by a one-and-a-half-story wing?.
The gabled roofs of the main wing and its perpendicular upright are adorned with ornate vergeboard trim: curvilinear, vine-like wooden bargeboards tracing the eaves and gable peaks, a hallmark of Late Victorian Gothic Revival flair. Two slant-sided bay windows protrude gracefully from the front, adding light and a touch of grandeur to the parlors inside. Initially, a spacious wooden porch stretched across the front, but this old Victorian veranda was removed long ago (today, a simple canopy marks the entrance) Even without its porch, the façade retains an inviting symmetry and decorative elegance that immediately catches the eye of passersby.
Inside, the house has preserved much of its 19th-century craftsmanship. The first floor features inlaid hardwood floors with a unique geometric pattern in each room?as if each parlor and dining room declares its own identity. The front entry hall and stair hall are dressed in unusual full-height textured wainscoting, a Victorian-pressed plaster-like wall covering that still survives.
Soaring nine-foot solid wood doors (some topped with transom windows for ventilation) connect the rooms, and heavy oak trim frames the windows and doors in a rich, dark finish. The original floor plan—with twin front parlors, a central staircase hall in the upright, and the kitchen and a small sitting room in the wing—remains remarkably intact after 150 years?.
Stepping through these rooms feels like stepping back into the 1870s. Even the outbuildings hint at the property’s heritage: a small gable-roof slaughterhouse structure still stands at the back of the lot, once used for butchering livestock in the home’s early days. All told the Smith-Culhane House is a lovingly preserved time capsule of Victorian-era design, distinguished both by its exterior ornamentation and its finely finished interior.
The Lumber Baron Era: Cornelius Culhane’s Legacy
When Cornelius “Con” Culhane purchased the house in 1885, he was on the cusp of becoming one of Michigan’s notable lumber entrepreneurs. Culhane, an Irish immigrant who had come to Michigan via Canada, had settled in the Port Austin area with his wife Ellen by the 1870s?.
By the late 1880s and 1890s, he made his name as a logging jobber – a contractor who cut timber for the big lumber companies. Operating mainly in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (Luce and Chippewa counties), Culhane became “an important logging jobber” known for his efficient and large-scale lumber operations?. During the peak of Michigan’s lumber boom, when the state led the nation in timber production, Culhane was among those helping to fuel the industry’s astonishing output.
Local lore suggests that the Port Austin house became the Culhane family’s summer home during these boom years.?
Much of Con Culhane’s work took him to remote logging camps near Newberry each summer and fall, supervising crews and railroads hauling millions of board feet of pine. Meanwhile, Port Austin offered a tranquil home base when logging season slowed. The red-brick Lake Street house was a fitting residence for a lumber baron’s family – solid, spacious, and fashionable for its day. One can imagine the Culhanes returning from the northern forests to enjoy the breezy lakeside summers in Port Austin, relaxing on the very porch that once graced the front of the house.
Tragedy eventually struck the Culhane family. In June 1903, Cornelius Culhane was killed in a sudden accident while riding on one of his logging trains in the Upper Peninsula. As a train car jolted to a stop, he was thrown under the wheels and run over?.
He was brought home to Port Austin and laid to rest in St. Michael’s Cemetery, where a large granite monument marks the Culhane plot?. Thus, the stately house on Lake Street became a poignant part of his legacy. Ellen Culhane lived in the Port Austin home until she died in 1923, and the family held onto the property until 1938. Through those decades, the house stood as a quiet witness to the end of Michigan’s lumber era and the passing of an age.
From Family Residence to Bed-and-Breakfast Inn
After the Culhane descendants sold the house in 1938, the Smith-Culhane House saw a variety of uses, typical of an old house that was adapting to a changing world. Over the mid-20th century, it served at times as a boarding house and guest home and even housed an antique shop and an old-time photo studio in some of its rooms?
By the 1980s, however, the grand old home had fallen into disuse and awaited a savior. That savior arrived in 1985 as Carolyn Waller (then Carolyn Greenwood) and her husband Jack. Carolyn first visited Port Austin in the 1970s and, as she tells it, “I just fell in love with the house” the moment she saw the brick Victorian on Lake Street? (michigansthumb.com)
The Wallers purchased and lovingly restored the property, converting the long-time family residence into a five-bedroom Bed and Breakfast known as the Lake Street Manor.
When Lake Street Manor Bed & Breakfast opened in 1986, it brought new life and purpose to the Smith-Culhane House. The Wallers worked to retain the home’s historic character—guests can still admire the antique woodwork and 19th-century architectural details—while adding comforts for travelers. The former parlors and bedrooms became guest rooms, and spaces once used for everyday living were repurposed for hospitality. (For instance, Waller closed the on-site antique shop to make room for more guest space?. The result is an inn that “breathes history,” as one travel reviewer noted, with vintage decor and memories “festooning every nook and cranny” of the house?. (tripadvisor.com)
Many guests returned year after year, drawn by the homey, personal touch that a historic B&B provides. “They’re friends, even though they pay us,” Carolyn Waller says fondly of her repeat visitors, a testament to the warm atmosphere cultivated within this old home’s walls?, (michigansthumb.com)..
A Living Landmark in Michigan’s Thumb
Today, the Smith-Culhane House stands as a living landmark that bridges Port Austin’s past and present. In 2014, it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places (acknowledged under its historic name, Smith-Culhane House), recognizing its significance to local and state history?, (commons.wikimedia.org)
It is believed to be one of the oldest surviving homes in Port Austin, built only a few years after the Civil War. More than just old, it is an excellent example of the gabled-ell vernacular architecture once common throughout rural Michigan?—and rarer now—especially with its elaborate trim and intact interior. In the context of Michigan’s Thumb, a region often overshadowed by the state’s more famous tourist areas, the Smith-Culhane House shines as a proud reminder of the Thumb’s unique heritage. Its walls have witnessed the lumber boom that fueled Michigan’s growth, the personal stories of those who built communities here, and the evolving uses of a home over nearly fifteen decades.
The Historic Inn Reverts Back to Private Residence
?The Smith-Culhane House, formerly Lake Street Manor Bed & Breakfast, has transitioned back to a private residence as of 2021. For those seeking accommodations in Port Austin, the Port Austin Bed & Breakfast at 8526 Lake Street offers a charming stay in a renovated mid-19th-century Victorian home. This establishment features five guest rooms, each with a private bath, and is just two blocks from local shops, restaurants, and the renowned Saturday Farmer’s Market.
Citations
Christensen, Robert O. Smith-Culhane House, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, June 2001. National Park Service.
Chapman Brothers. Portrait and Biographical Album of Huron County. Chapman Brothers, 1884.
Dunbar, Willis F., and George S. May. Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980.
Hotchkiss, George W. History of the Lumber and Forest Industry of the Northwest. George W. Hotchkiss & Co., 1898.
Huron County Abstract Co. Abstract of Title for the Smith-Culhane House Property. Huron County Archives, Bad Axe, Michigan.
Karamanski, Theodore J. Deep Woods Frontier: A History of Logging in Northern Michigan. Wayne State University Press, 1989.
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office. “Smith-Culhane House.” National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, 24 Sept. 2001.
Michigan’s Thumb. “The Garfield Inn: A Step into History.” Huron Daily Tribune, 10 June 2023, https://www.michigansthumb.com.
Port Austin Bed & Breakfast. Official Website. 2024, https://www.portaustinbedandbreakfast.com.
Schultz, Gerard. Walls of Flame: Michigan’s Great Thumb Fires of 1871 and 1881. Wayne State University Press, 1968.
Spring, Ida M. “White Pine Portraits: Con Culhane.” Michigan History, vol. 31, Michigan Historical Commission, 1947.
Taylor, Sprague. Tahquamenon Country: A Look at Its Past. Historical Society of Michigan, 1991.
The Evening News (Sault Ste. Marie, MI). “Culhane Killed.” The Evening News, 27 June 1903
