Thursday, June 7, 2018, Charlevoix return

Joani had done a little research on Earl Young, Charlevoix's favorite architect/builder. She found the historical society had set up something of a museum in the Weathervane restaurant that we wanted to visit. More importantly, today the Cherry Republic was due to reopen their store and I wanted to make sure their products were properly sampled.

Joani talked to the restaurant's manager who was happy to have us view the memorabilia collected on the lower level.

Head down the wide winding stairs to the lower level and then around the corner to the left.

This little used (mostly for storage) room was lined with information about Earl's life and each house he created.

The Weathervane restaurant was originally Argo Milling Co. Earl removed the top two stories and remodeled until the building was unrecognizable. Typical of his style he made liberal use of the area's stone. 

Earl Young designed the roof to resemble a seagull with outstretched wings.

The west end of the Weathervane restaurant facing the Round Lake Channel.

A 15-ton capstone over the main dining room fireplace created a stunning tribute to his masonry vision and skills. The stone had a history of its own. It was discovered as a road was being excavated in Boulder Park. Earl took measurements, moved it, and then left it buried for over 20 years until the place to utilize it presented itself. A hole was left in the roof of the Weathervane to lower the boulder into place. Earl was off on his measurements by 11 inches, so the clearance in the roof had to be enlarged before the stone could be craned into place. He jokingly told the crew that the stone, being buried for so long, must have grown.

While lowering the boulder into place, the floor began to sag under the weight, so back up it went and hung from the crane for four days while the floor and concrete beneath the fireplace were rebuilt with steel reinforcement.

Below the stone is a meteor on the right side that is estimated to weigh as much as the capstone, so maybe dining in the room below could be considered risky.

This fireplace is in the main dining room on the west end of the Weathervane restaurant.

As we walked along Bridge Street, we found the Cherry Republic was indeed open. I exercised some restraint by waiting outside with Sam while Joani went in first. Due to a slight communications mix-up, I thought she was inside an awfully long time, but she had left the store and headed down the street looking for me. She missed the part about us sitting down around the corner. Anyway, I got my turn and, no surprise, the chocolate covered cherries were as good as I remembered - good job Cherry Republic! Oh yeah, we did get another large jar of delicious cherry jam for the road.