History refreshed: The Crooked Tree Cottages are designed to reflect the community’s roots.
Text: R.J. Weick
“W
e knew we needed a product that was a true golfer niche—a transient product that would still have good views of Lake Michigan, but be golfer-centric,” said Stephen Kircher, president of eastern operations at Boyne Resorts, in reference to the Crooked Tree Golf Cottages at Crooked Tree Golf Club. “They really create a sense of place. It is an architecture historically connecting them to what was built here in the early 1900s and late 1800s,” Kircher added. Crooked Tree Golf Club is carved along the hardwood-lined bluffs above Bay Harbor near Petoskey and Charlevoix in northern Michigan. The golf club was initially developed in the early 1990s by Steven Matthews and when the nearby Inn at Bay Harbor and 27-hole Bay Harbor golf course was developed in the mid-1990s, Boyne Resorts became a partner in the golfing destination. “The involvement started when the Bay Harbor project kicked off in the mid-90s and
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[Matthews] was already under development of single family lots at that time,” Kircher said. “We then expanded into the product that is now the Crooked Tree Golf Cottages once the hotel and golf course across the street was under development.” The Cottages, which were designed by Gary Nance of Nance Design in Carmel, Indiana, are more traditional in their architectural style and reflect a vernacular reminiscent of the surrounding area and community’s history. Overlooking Lake Michigan on the bluff, the cottages are nestled along the 18-hole championship golf course designed by architect Arthur Hills. “[Nance] has a real feel for architecture. He is a designer, but he works on residential projects like that and captured the essence of a small footprint, shingle-style Victorian cottage,” Kircher said. “They are not 120 years old like many of the cottages of the era with the same architecture, so they are a fresh interpretation. It allows people to have a real sense of place and be in a location where they are surrounded by greenery, golf, and all the Brian Walters Photography