2023.50.92

The large house and cottages that were called Wave Crest have an interesting history. In 1864 the land was part of the Jimmy Haile property. Haile had come to Saugatuck before 1850 and built a large columned house along the lakeshore which was used as a half-way stop between Saugatuck and South Haven. By 1873 Haile's widow, Martha, had sold off a portion of the property and there appears to be a building at about the location of Wave Crest, on the 1873 plat map. By 1913 a small, narrow lot was owned by H. L. Masters, who was the father of the poet Edgar Lee Masters. The son wrote in his autobiography, Across Spoon River: "He ran up a flag on his front yard with the device "Masters Farm" and though he was now sixty-one he was as young as ever and could pitch hay or chop wood with undiminished vigor. He expected to make money out of his eighty bearing cherry trees, and out of his hundreds of peach trees; but he soon found that the market men in Chicago reaped all the profit in them. His reward consisted, mostly, in looking at Lake Michigan which bordered his frontage, and in swimming in its waters, and in loafing at the country store near at hand, where he became friends with the owner and the farmers about." When the postcard, above, was printed, probably in the 1940's, the large house and an increasing number of cottages were owned by the Marcotte family. Mrs. Marcotte was a sister to Louise Hiestand of the Edgewater Inn in Saugatuck, and there was discussion locally about which was the better cook - both were excellent. For a brief period in the 1960's a daughter, Margo Busies, kept the front porch of the main house at Wave Crest open as a Sunday brunch restaurant before purchasing The Old Rail Grill and moving into town. A granddaughter, Spring (Busies) Sweeney now owns the Holland restaurant 'Til Midnight.

SDHS NL Inserts

Winthers, Sally

01/01/2024

01/01/2024