Greilickville | Property History | Mike Dow's Important Gift | Important Role of Rotary
Our History
Greilickville
Greilickville, Michigan is located on the Grand Traverse Bay just north of Traverse City and is also home to the Traverse City Harbor. An unincorporated community in Leelanau County, the area was first known as "Norristown", after Seth and Albert Norris who opened a local grain mill around 1853.
In the mid 1850’s Godfrey Greilick moved his wife and six children from Chicago to northern Michigan hoping to seek their fortune. Godfrey, formerly a well-known architect in Austria, built a small, water-powered sawmill with his sons in the area. The newer steam-powered Greilick Bros. Mill replaced it within a few years. The Greilick’s sawmill was one of the most important mills on the Grand Traverse Bay. In 1883 alone, it cut nearly 8.5 million feet of hardwood lumber. Unfortunately, like many of the sawmills of that era, it was destroyed by fire in 1907. The Greilick brothers were also leaders in important local industries at the turn of the century including shipping, lumber, furniture, door and window frames. In fact, not many other families in the Traverse City area have had more of a formative role in the city's early history and economic growth than the Greilicks. Other industries located in Greilickville in the nineteenth century included a brickyard, brewery, and a tannery.
Greilick Sawmill, courtesy of Ted Wright and Lawrence Wakefield
In 1892 The Manistee and Northeastern Railroad entered the town. The rail station was called “Greilicks” underscoring the importance of the sawmill in the area. Shortly thereafter, this little town on Traverse City’s West Bay would come to be known as Greilickville.
In 1925, Godfery’s grandson, Clarence Greilick, was instrumental in acquiring 450 acres of property south of Traverse City for the local Rotary Club, which would later become known as the Boy Scout Camp and ultimately—Camp Greilick. It is the oil and gas resources under Camp Greilick that enables Rotary Charities and Rotary Camps and Services to undertake their many community good works, including the acquisition and stewardship of the Discovery Center ~ Great Lakes property. [back to top of page]
Property History
The property that is now Discovery Center ~ Great Lakes has an interesting past. It has been home to several industrial and commercial uses over the years. One of the most interesting historical businesses that had a presence on the property was the Parsons Corporation. John Parson, who is known as the father of numerical machining, used the structure that is now home to the Great Lakes Children’s Museum. He was the head of plant that manufactured bombs during World War II. When the war ended, John began the Parsons Corporation initially to make small kitchen units to supply all of the soldiers and their families as they came home and began their civilian lives. However a trip to Greenfield Village to see the first production helicopter in flight forever changed his direction in business. Being an innovator and always looking for a good challenge, he saw great potential in the manufacturing of helicopter blades. He and his chief engineer, Frank Stulen, went on to develop the idea of numerical machining using mathematics. This innovative new idea allowed for the mass-production of complex helicopter blades for the first time. This idea was later adopted and used to aid in the production of many kinds of machined parts in plants around the country. The Parsons Corporation was involved with several projects at different Traverse City locations including the Discovery Center. These included the mass-production of helicopter rotor blades as well as the development of fuel tubes and tunnels that were instrumental in sending the first man to the moon. Other uses of the building through 1986 included Rapid Design Service, Dean Anderson Appliances, Traverse Foreign Car Service and Tom & Irv’s Truck Repair.
In 1973, the south parcel contained two small cottages and a home with a two-car garage when it was acquired from Hoyt Coddington, who lived in and operated his insurance office from the house. The cottages were connected and converted to business use for Scuba North and the docks were built for their boat rental and charter fleet. A pole building (now known as building #4) was built in 1974 for Seese Marine, which eventually became West Bay Boat Works. The home was eventually converted in 1980 to business use for Sail North.
In 1978 Mike Wills started Sail Plan, a non-profit organization dedicated to the joy of sailing. Sail Plan brought in experts from around the country to speak on topics related to sailing. Through this organization, Mike Wills met Mike Dow of Okemos, Michigan.
In 1984, Dow became a partner in Sail North and West Bay Boat Works was acquired along with a lease on the 60 slip coal sock marina from Traverse City Light and Power. Buildings #1, #2 and #3 were constructed over the years for boat sales, service and storage and building #4 was converted to a paint shop.
In 1985, Wills and Dow formed the Harbor Corporation to purchase, renovate and expand Harbor West marina. The boat sales and ships store operations were moved to Harbor West and renamed the Harbor Boat Shop. Service and storage functions continued on the south parcel as the Boat Service Center.
In 1989 the “railroad parcel” lying to the west between the south parcel and the railroad tracks was acquired from Bob Andrews. This parcel was known as the “railroad lot’ because it bordered the rail line that is now part of the TART trail system. A year later the north parcel with the brick building that is currently home to the Great Lakes Children’s Museum was purchased from Arnold Bohn. A small vacant home on the north side of the brick building also came with the property and was demolished.
The Harbor Boat Shop ship’s store and boat sales operations were relocated from Harbor West to the brick building in 1992 and continued until 1996 when the business was dissolved and the building was rented to Harbor Sea Doo and then Bayshore Sports Outfitters. The south parcel and all its buildings were rented to Bayshore Marine from 1996 through 2006.
In 2004, after he and Mike Wills reflected on the potential for the property, Mike Dow approached Rotary with the idea of donating the valuable land, waterfront and buildings with the intent that the property would remain in the public domain. Elmwood Township then undertook an ambitious planning process to evaluate and assess the long-range potential of its shoreline and waterfront in the Greilickville Waterfront Area Study. The Greilickville community was most interested in development of the property as an education center.[back to top of page]
Mike Dow's Incredible Gift
Mike Dow shared this interest. He liked the idea of a location that would house water-related non-profits in the area. He knew this would increase the potential for these organizations to work together and share resources and in turn offer a place of exploration, learning and awareness to the public. However, of all of the interested organizations only Traverse City’s Rotary Camps & Services had the resources to manage the development of such a project. After careful thought and planning, in December of 2006 Mike Dow donated the property to Rotary Camps & Services, the land holding arm of the Traverse City Rotary Club, and the collaboration of the non-profit organizations began.
The property as it looked in the 1960s.
The Discovery Center parcel map
The nine-acre parcel donated by Mike Dow includes six buildings, a dock, a mooring field, a small creek and a significant wetland area.
The Leelanau Trail, which is part of the TART Trail system, runs along the back of the property. With funding from the Department of Environmental Quality, the Discovery Center leadership team is working on creating a natural resources protection plan for the property, as well as identifying the best location for an on-site nature trail connecting the front of the Discovery Center property with the Leelanau Trail. This will allow visitors to access Discovery Center ~ Great Lakes from the Leelanau Trail.
The property also includes 50 feet of West Bay frontage across the street on the east side of M-22, along with a wooden dock and a mooring field. The beachfront, dock and mooring field provide the potential for fantastic learning opportunities, including the future possibility of advanced sailing instruction for Traverse Area Community Sailing.
Valued at more than a million dollars, Mike Dow’s charitable gift will benefit our community for generations to come. The value of the gift is not only in the land, but also in the long-term potential for the collaboration of area non-profits and the promise of an important educational community resource. [back to top of page]
The Important Role of Rotary Camps & Services
None of the nonprofit members had the individual resources or to take on this vast project alone. Each member had their own set of abilities and expertise to add to the mission. However, someone to oversee the entire project was vital for its success. Rotary Camps & Services’ role is to ensure Mike Dow’s intentions for the property are honored and to supervise the gift. This role has enabled the member organizations to focus their efforts on finding their best fit within the larger project
As defined by its mission, “Rotary Camps & Services identifies and addresses community needs and creates new, proactive collaborations primarily through the stewardship of natural resources and access to recreational opportunities. We are the land division of the Rotary family, owning and managing property for public use in the Grand Traverse Region.”
Rotary Camps & Services has also provided important leadership to the creation and launch of the Discovery Center ~ Great Lakes. Three Rotarians were appointed to the founding Board of Directors, which was guided by Rotarian Rob Lovell’s able leadership as Chair for the first three years. Rotary Camps & Services continues to be involved in the governance of the Discovery Center.
Finally, Rotary Camps & Services, with the financial backing of Rotary Charities, has also supported the Discovery Center and the individual organizations with valuable resources for collaborative strategic visioning, site planning, technology assessments, communications development, joint programming, business planning and the first steps toward implementation of many of these items. [back to top of page]