SIGHTSEERS
Traverse City's Up-and-Coming Travel Destination
by Randy Karr

Finding the historic Village at Grand Traverse Commons, an off-the-beaten-path travel destination in Traverse City is not easy. No billboards tout its existence and only one sign along Division Street points the way.

The best way to find this historic venue is to follow the blue hospital signs leading to Munson Medical Center. Adjacent to the hospital, you will see Victorian-Italianate buildings, crowned by castle-like turrets, which once housed mentally ill residents at Northern Michigan Insane Asylum, later known as Traverse City State Hospital.

These hospital buildings were constructed in the late 1800s, applying architectural concepts advocated by a Quaker doctor, Thomas Story Kirkbride. He believed the best therapeutic environment for the mentally ill could be achieved by housing patients in architecturally attractive buildings and exposing them to the beauty of the natural world.

From Building 50’s sunny rooms and screen porches, patients enjoyed pleasant views of landscaped lawns and arboretums planted with native Michigan trees. This building, as well as other abandoned State Hospital buildings, is the focal point of the largest historic preservation and adaptive reuse development in the United States.

The buildings, located on 480 acres of preserved parklands and historic arboretums, are being transformed into a hip neighborhood where people can live, work, play and shop. About one-fourth of Building 50, which was once slated for demolition, has been restored. Its first and garden levels now contain retail and commercial space and the second, third, and attic levels feature loft-style condos.

Building 50, renamed The Village, is the epicenter of this trendy development. The first tenant to move into was Trattoria Stella, an Italian restaurant featuring fresh produce from local farmers and award wining wines from Old Mission and Leelanau Peninsula wineries.

A number of other restaurants and specialty shops have since opened along the quaint alleyways of the Village’s Mercato, an indoor market place with the ambiance of an Old World European village. Complimenting this atmosphere is the sound of music in the halls and the display of art on the walls.

More retail space, situated across the street from The Village, includes Left Foot Charley, the region's first urban winery and tasting room and Higher Grounds Trading Co. Roastery & Brew Bar, a coffee shop selling fair trade, organic, shade-grown coffees. Both are located in the former State Hospital’s laundry building.

A stone’s throw away, in the old State Hospital fire hall, is the Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery. The bakery sells hearth-baked, organic breads made in a 35-foot deep, wood-fired, brick oven. An oven similar to this once provided hearth-baked breads for the patients and staff at the Traverse City State Hospital.

Also part of neighborhood at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons are farmers’ markets, social gatherings, artist receptions and concerts. Soon, there will be an Italian-style piazza with fountains.

In 2007, The Historical Society of Michigan presented the developer, the Minervini Group, its State History Award in recognition of their "outstanding restoration and preservation of the former Traverse City State Hospital, now known as The Village at Grand Traverse Commons.”

An abandoned Northern Michigan landmark is once again a vital Northern Michigan landmark, albeit a recycled one.

For more on the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, go to www.thevillagetc.com, or call 231-941-1900.

© 2008 Randy Karr