Shorewood Cottage Community

Location: Lakeshore Drive at Shorewood Douglas / Saugatuck
Date: 1902 – ongoing

A 27 acre property located on Lake Michigan, Shorewood is one of a number of planned resort communities in Michigan to have been established around 1900 partly an urban response to the ’back-to-nature’ and Arts & Crafts movements. Shorewood’s planner, John Alvord, an engineer and partner of Daniel Burnham, used the naturalist planning approach of Frederick Law Olmstead by having the roadways as path-like and curved to suit the contours of the rolling and hilly dunes. Original emphasis was on the use of natural building materials and in a scale and style fitting to the landscape. All but 3 of the original 26 cottages were built between 1902 and 1930. Shorewood is a private association.