Port Sanilac Garden Gala Brings History and Dinner Together Sept. 13
PORT SANILAC, Mich. — The Port Sanilac Garden Gala will bring food, music and local history together Sept. 13 while raising money for the Sanilac County Historic Village & Museum, a 10-acre complex containing 17 preserved and restored buildings.
Port Sanilac Garden Gala Supports a Historic Museum
The Sanilac County Historic Village & Museum will hold its Garden Gala Home Dinner Fundraiser from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, at the Bellaire Motel & Lodge, 120 S. Ridge St. The event will feature a seasonal meal prepared by chef Clint Frenette, live music, and seating in the motel’s gardens. Tickets are $75 for 2026 members of the Sanilac County Historical Society and $90 for the general public.
The gala is part of the museum’s Home Dinners fundraising program. The museum says members receive early access to the dinners and that the events have historically sold out quickly.
A Dinner With Deep Port Sanilac Roots
The setting gives the fundraiser a distinctly Port Sanilac feel. The village promotes the Bellaire as a historic motel known for renovated rooms and extensive gardens. The property sits along Ridge Street, a short walk from the harbor and only a few blocks from the museum.
17 Historic Buildings Need Ongoing Care
For the historical society, the dinner is also a way to support preservation work that becomes more demanding as the buildings age.
The Sanilac County Historic Village & Museum covers 10 acres and contains 17 preserved or restored structures. Its centerpiece is the Loop-Harrison Mansion, the Second Empire home built in the early 1870s for Dr. Joseph Loop, Port Sanilac’s first physician. The museum says construction took three years and cost about $11,000.
Loop arrived when the community was still known as Bark Shanty. Port Sanilac’s own history traces the settlement to lumbermen who came to the Lake Huron shore in the 1830s. The village was renamed Port Sanilac in 1857 as the community grew around lumbering, shipping, farming, and lake commerce.
The mansion eventually passed through the Loop-Harrison family. In 1964, Capt. Stanley Harrison, Loop’s grandson and a longtime Great Lakes and ocean sailor, donated the mansion and seven acres to the Sanilac County Historical Society.
Today, the property holds far more than the mansion. Visitors can see a one-room schoolhouse, general store, log structures, the Deckerville train depot, a historic church, a dairy museum, a military troop train car, and the Barn Theatre. Some buildings were moved to the grounds after local preservation efforts saved them from demolition or loss.
That collection also brings an ongoing financial burden. The museum describes itself as self-funded and says donations help pay for building maintenance, artifact care, educational programs, lectures, and operations. In 2026, the society also began offering $300 annual sponsorships for individual historic buildings to help cover repairs and long-term upkeep.
The Garden Gala arrives late in a busy museum season. The museum’s calendar includes farmers’ markets, lighthouse tower tours, lectures, performances, and other fundraisers. Two days before the gala, historian Andrew Kercher is scheduled to present “Demon in the Gale,” a free program on the devastating Thumb fires of 1871 and 1881.
The Port Sanilac Garden Gala Brings History Up Front
The gala takes a different approach. Instead of placing history behind glass or presenting it from a lecture podium, the museum is tying preservation to a social afternoon built around food, music and one of Port Sanilac’s best-known gardens.
Organizers have announced Frenette as the chef but have not yet published a detailed menu or named the musicians. Tickets are available through Eventbrite, and the museum warns that its Home Dinner events tend to fill up quickly.
For a historical society responsible for 17 old buildings, a pleasant Sunday meal has a practical purpose: helping pay to keep Sanilac County’s past standing.
