Articles Written After the House left the Family

Sold to Bible College, then to the City of Lansing, The State Journal of Friday, July 25, 1958

Dodge Mansion Once a Happy House

DODGE MANSION, The Michigan Assessor of June 1974

City Has Mansion But Use In Doubt, The Lansing State Journal, November 28, 1974

Is Old Dodge Mansion a Beauty or a Beast? The Lansing State Journal, November 29, 1974

Jaycees Want Mansion, The Lansing State Journal of April 17, 1975

Frank McLean Lives History, The Ad-Visor of August 1979

They're at Home in the Mansion, The State Journal of Wednesday, October 24, 1979

TURNER-DODGE HISTORY BROCHURE, an undated flyer, circa 1982

TIME PASSAGES, Ambitious plan would restore Turner-Dodge, Lansing State Journal, January 29, 1993

The Carriage House and First Turner House Among Friends newsletter, March 1998 

Occupied by four generations of the Turner-Dodge family, it was sold by the state to Great Lakes Bible College in 1959.  And now it is once again on the block, being considered by the City as a possible location for Fine Arts and Model Cities projects.

It is described as "a happy house" by Marian Dodge Horn, Turner's granddaughter and Patricia McLean Pemberton, his great-granddaughter, both of whom grew up there.  "I remember some frightening stories my grandmother (Mrs. Turner) told me," Mrs. Horn said, "about bears that used to come up to the door and Indians that crossed the trails on what once was their land."  She told the story of Chief Okemos, who always camped on the riverbank although, as a friend, he was invited to stay at the house.  "He liked his whisky," she said, "and my grandfather was a teetotaler.  One day he took his bottle and threw it in the Grand River.  The Chief never forgave him, he never came back."

Mrs. Horn said she liked to come home from school when she was a little girl and visit her grandmother's room where a fire was always burning brightly in the corner fireplace.  "The maid brought in tea and cookies and Grandmother told me about the olden days and we'd sing hymns together."

"All family brides were married in the music room," Mrs. Horn said, "with a reception in the ballroom.  Patty (Pemberton) and her brothers, Rod, Andy and Frank, were ribbon-bearers at mine.  My father, (Frank Dodge) was a delightful man and very convivial.  He invited guests home for dinner so often that my mother was accustomed to keeping supplies for an extra half dozen on hand.  But the Christmas parties in the ballroom were the most exciting parties of all," Mrs. Horn recalls.  "All the family came and my uncle played Santa Claus in red suit, whiskers and all.  He distributed presents to the children and then we'd all sing Christmas carols and dance old-style cotillions and the Virginia Reel."

Mrs. Pemberton, who grew up in the house a generation later, remembers many dances and parties but she will never forget one nostalgic event in the ballroom.  "It was a football party for my brother, Rod, who had been injured in a game and was paralyzed from the waist down.  The team and the coaches put on the party and carried Rod upstairs on their shoulders into a ballroom all decked with red and white class colors.  The whole class came and there were refreshments, music and dancing.  Everybody gave him an autographed football and a watch."  After years of surgery and therapy Rod now can walk with aid and is in the automotive service business with this brother Frank.

Mrs. Pemberton also recalls the impressive Knights Templar funeral for her grandfather, in the house.  Other events she remembers were large benefit bridge parties given by her mother and grandmother in behalf of St. Anne's Guild of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

"As children we loved to play on the riverbanks.  There were ravines and wildflowers and big tree roots that made caves.  We had picnics there in the summer and sledding parties in the winter.  It was a glorious place to grow up."

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The following is the text of an article in The Michigan Assessor of June 1974.  The article has an accompanying photo of the House.

DODGE MANSION
(Great Lakes Bible College)  106 E. North St.,  Lansing, Mich.

Throughout the twentieth century the Dodge House has been the foremost architectural ornament of north Lansing.  It is a massive brick veneer building in Georgian Revival style, the three story central mass flanked by two and one-half story wings.  A two story brick wing is on the west end of the house.  It is situated on the high north bank of the Grand River, on a lot several acres in size.

The most notable feature of the house is the large front porch, its roof supported by two story wooden columns in the Ionic style.  The light simplicity of the columns and balusters contrasts with the heavy, rough stone which supplies the foundation for the porch.  A massive wooden cornice encircles the house and a large porte cochere is found at the rear.  The interior is also in Georgian Revival style, characterized by large, classical doorways and many fireplaces.  Beveled and leaded windows are still present, and the paneled walls and ceiling of a room in the two-story wing are in their original dark oak finish.

Encompassed within this house is the brick James Turner house, constructed in the 1850s.  Except for a few exterior walls, this building has been completely obliterated, but variations in the masonry and color brick make its original outlines apparent.  It was a two-story building with one story wings placed symmetrically at each end.

In 1847 the Michigan Legislature selected a site for the state's new capitol in what was then a practically unbroken wilderness on the Grand River near the center of the peninsula.  James Turner, a merchant at nearby Mason, came by sleigh to inspect the site and immediately decided to settle there.  The location he selected was on a high wooded bank of the Grand, where that stream turns west to begin its course to Lake Michigan.  Known for years as "Turner's Woods", the site had been occupied from time to time by a band of Indians led by chief Okemos.  Turner became one of the first residents of Lansing, and until his death in 1869 was one of the community leaders.  He was active in construction of plank roads and railroads, and a founder of the Michigan Female College.

In the 1850s Turner constructed one of the largest and most pretentious dwellings in Lansing.  [A] bird;s eye view of the town, published in 1866, showed that it was brick, a two story central mass flanked by one story wings.  Turner's widow continued to live in this house after his death.  Frank L. Dodge, a young lawyer and native of Ohio, married one of Turner's daughters in1888 and moved into the family mansion.  Acquiring ownership in 1899, he launched an ambitions project to enlarge and modernize the building.  He selected the currently popular Georgian Revival style and determined to retain the walls of the existing building.  Although a biography of Dodge's son reported that the new part of the house was completed in 1905, tax assessment rolls indicated that the work was probably undertaken over several years.  The assessed valuation in 1900 was $2,100.  This jumped to $3,100 in 1902, $5,000 in 1904, and $6,000 in 1906.

When completed the Dodge House was the largest Georgian Revival building in Lansing.  Although the masonry walls of the Turner house are still visible, the early twentieth century renovations were so different in style that is was in essence a new building.  In fact, a county history published in 1905 congratulated Dodge on his "new house".  Like Turner, Dodge was prominent in local affairs, although his Democratic politics kept him from many offices.  He was [a] state representative for two terms in the 1880s, U.S. commissioner four years, and a member of the city council twelve more.  After Dodge's death in 1929 a bachelor son occupied the property.  Great Lakes Bible College acquired the property in 1958 for their campus, occupying it until this year [1974].

Given the rather late date of the founding of Lansing, there are few truly old houses in town.  Urban renewal and freeway construction have taken their toll of many historic homes, and the Benjamin Davis house, a National Register property that had been the focus of local preservation efforts, was recently damaged by fire and demolished.

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The following is the text of an article in The State Journal of Thursday, November 28, 1974.  Upon request, the Secretary can provide a copy of the article with its accompanying photo of the House.

City Has Mansion But Use In Doubt
by Mike Hughes

First of Two Articles
The Dodge Mansion, once a glittering part of Lansing's social scene, is today a decaying reminder of days past.  The City has agreed to buy it.  The article today, and a second Friday, tell about the old mansion and some proposals for its future.  It is a bigger-than-life enigma, an awesome, rambling question mark.

The Dodge Mansion has been around for 124 years, and right now people aren't sure what to make of it.  The City agreed to buy the place six months ago, but that still left one question:  What do you do with it?  Now that question is still around.  "Everybody on the council has probably got something different in mind," James Blair, chairman of the council's parks committee, said.  By varying accounts, the mansion should be:  A Bicentennial era museum ... an art gallery ... a meeting place for service clubs ... a North Lansing historical center ... a youth hostel ... a tactile museum ... just a big old building in the middle of a very nice park.  Or then again, maybe someone will come up with a new idea.  Councilmen would like to decide by spring.

Whatever happens, the building offers some intriguing possibilities and problems.  It is a giant-sized chunk of local history.  The mansion was built for James Turner back in 1850.  Turner was a big, powerful man - 6-4, 245 pounds, at various points a railroad boss, a mayor, a state senator, and a state treasurer.  His new home was in that same grandiose image.  That was just seven years after the first log cabin was built in Lansing, and Jim Turner's home (now in the inner city) was out in the wilderness.  His wife used to tell of the Indians and bears that would come up to the front door.  The most notable Indian was Chief Okemos himself, a close (but temporary) friend of Turner.  The chief would visit often, but Turner was a teetotaler and the chief definitely was not.  According to the legend, Turner threw away a bottle one day and the chief left, never to return.

Lansing grew up all around the mansion, gradually nudging it into the inner city.  But the family retained eight acres of stunning riverfront land.  As Patricia McLain Pemberton (Turner's greatgranddaughter) later recalled, "As children we loved to play on the riverbanks.  There were ravines and wildflowers and big tree roots that made caves.  We had picnics there in the summer and sledding parties in the winter.  It was a glorious place to grow up."  That "glorious" place stayed in the family for more than a century.  Frank Dodge - Turner's son-in-law, a lawyer, a railroad man, and a notable figure in his own right - bought the place in 1899.  "You could say that was the second great period for the house," Ford Ceasar, a local historian, says.  Dodge even expanded on the awesome tastes of his father-in-law, adding a third story to the building.  The mansion became a glittering turn-of-the-century social scene.

After four generations, the home was sold to the Great Lakes Bible College, which used it as a dormitory.  Later it went on the market again, and that's where the City came in.  Already stinging from the loss of several major historical buildings, groups urged the City to buy this one.  The federal government agreed to pay most of the bill.  In April, the council decided to buy the place for $189,000.

"We didn't buy the Dodge Mansion," Blair insists.  "We bought the land.  We bought an eight-acre piece of property and the building happens to be on it.  We feel it's not right to tear it down."  Would the City pay $33,000 an acre for parkland?  It could in the inner city, parks director Ted Haskell says.  "We paid even more than that for Kingsley Place, where we had to buy houses and take them down."  The land (along W. North Street) was assessed at $189,000 not including any buildings, Haskell says.  And the federal government apparently agreed, because it came up with its share from Open Spaces funds.

That still leaves the City with the job of making it into a park.  Haskell hopes to get much of the work done during the winter, with the help of employment-program workers.  To begin with, all three outbuildings will be torn down or hauled away.  That will leave sprawling stretches of open space on both sides and in front of the mansion.  Haskell talks about adding picnic tables and play fields.  To the rear of the building is a steep, heavily-wooded bank leading to the river.  Haskell hopes to carve some natural looking "vistas" and to create some footpaths to the river.

In theory, at least, the park will be a giant first step towards reviving some aging, fading neighborhoods in North Lansing.  It is already a key part of the Community Design Center plan for the area.  And suddenly an entire neighborhood will be able to share part of the Dodge family's "glorious place to grow up.

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The following is the text of an article in The State Journal of Friday, November 29, 1974.  Upon request, the Secretary can provide a copy of the article with its accompanying photos of James Blair and William Brenke.

Is Old Dodge Mansion a Beauty or a Beast?
by Mike Hughes

Second of Two Articles
Like a lovable pet hippopotamus, the Dodge Mansion is a difficult thing to forget you own. Lansing councilmen insist that they didn't really pay any money for the mansion:  They paid $189,000 for eight acres of stunning riverside park land.

But the mansion happens to be in the middle of that land, and it isn't easy to ignore.  "It's in our park and we want to make sure it looks nice," James Blair, chairman of the council's parks committee, says.

So that leaves the most intriguing question:  What do you do with a 124-year-old mansion in the middle of a park?  And that's where the disagreement starts. 

When the council voted to make the deal, proponents estimated that it would cost $40-50,000 to fix up the mansion.  Later, however, a $60,000 contract was awarded for the exterior work alone.  That brought some stiff criticism from Councilman William Brenke, who insists the building is a "white elephant."  "You'll not feed that white elephant peanuts," Brenke said.  "You'll feed it dollar bills."

Brenke is still an outspoken critic of the idea:  "we paid $60,000 for a leaky roof and a failing foundation.  And no one to this day has found a use for it.  In my home, we find a use for something before we buy it."

But other councilmen insist the criticism is unfair.  No matter what the building is used for, they say, it should be returned to its original style and class.  The $60,000 will be used for basic, necessary things - shoring up the foundation, putting on a new roof, repointing the brickwork, fixing the columns and windows.

That work is expected to be finished before next spring, and by then councilmen hope to have decided on a use for the building.  As some see it, there is a stunning potential. 

"I think we can open it for a museum scaled to a Bicentennial theme," Councilman Lucille Belen said.  "We could furnish it according to that era, and ask people to donate artifacts . . . We could set up a museum that people would like to see." 

Ford Ceasar, a local historian, has similar ideas.  He talks hopefully about linking the mansion to the colorful history of North Lansing. Pat Smith, director of the Community Design Center (CDC), sees the mansion as a start for reviving the area.  "I'd love to see it used as an art gallery or a museum, some high-use thing that would attract a lot of people."  The CDC plan for the area bills the mansion as a "North Lansing Historical Center."

And other ideas have popped up.  You could use the mansion for a fine arts center, a senior citizens center, a community hall, or offices for the city, social agencies, or the parks department. All of those run into one obstacle, Blair says.  They might leave the city with the cost of remodeling the interior, buying furniture, and taking care of heat and maintenance.  After sinking a quarter-of-a-million dollars already, some councilmen may be reluctant to go much further.

In short, if a private, nonprofit group offers to take over the mansion and run one of those programs, the councilmen will probably listen eagerly.  But the city is still hesitant to jump into the business itself.

So far, there have been a few offers to consider.  They include: 
- Impressions 5, a "tactile museum," is looking for a home.  The museum creates exhibits that people can really reach and touch.  It has just received a $9,000 Michigan Bicentennial grant, but it is still homeless.  For now, the group stores its things at the old Marble School in East Lansing, prepares mobile shows, and would like a permanent home in the mansion. 

- Another group, the American Youth Hostels Association, has shown some interest in using the mansion for a hostel. 

- Now the Jaycees have come up with a plan to use the center as a gathering point for service clubs from throughout the city.

"Many service clubs have quite a hard time finding a place to meet," Scott Hillery, a Jaycee, says.  The Jaycees, for instance, can get a meeting room for free - but only by ordering dinners or drinking at the bar.

The mansion might take care of that, Hillery says.  There are enormous meeting rooms on the first and third floors, a kitchen on the first floor, and a series of second-floor bedrooms that could be used as offices.

Duncan Black, an architect and a Jaycee, examined the building and decided that it is fundamentally solid.  "The materials are all there and available for restoration," Black says.  "It will just take someone to do the work."

None of the work would be complicated, Black says.  "It would involve removing paint, insulating the roof, re-painting, and restoring."

From there, a general plan was worked out:  The Jaycees would start by restoring the first floor and possibly the third floor.  ("This could be our Bicentennial project," Hillery said.  "It would involve a massive amount of manpower.")  The various service clubs would share the building.  Each would schedule meetings, use one of the second-floor rooms as an office, restore its own office, and pay for part of the heat and maintenance.

All of that leaves an assortment of questions:  Would other service clubs be interested?  Would other groups (besides service clubs) be able to use the meeting rooms?  And how much would it cost for maintenance and utilities?

For now, the Jaycees say they are only considering the possibility.  "It's something that caught our attention and we thought we'd suggest something," Hillery said.

And councilmen are being just as cautious.  For now, they're still waiting for ideas about what to do with a big old house in the middle of a park.

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The following is the text of an article in The State Journal of April 17, 1975.  Upon request, the Secretary can provide a copy of the article.

Jaycees Want Mansion
by Mike Hughes

There's a big sigh of relief around Lansing's City Hall now.  The City finally has a Dodge Mansion proposal to consider.  In recent months, the mansion became an increasing source of embarrassment for councilmen.  They weren't able to find anyone to use it.

When the council was considering buying the place, ideas were plentiful.  It could be a museum or an art gallery or a cultural center or a Bicentennial center or city offices or community rooms or a North Lansing center or ...  So they bought it.  They paid $180,000 (the assessed value of the 8.5-acre site) for the property and poured another $60,000 into fixing the building's exterior.  Then they waited for someone to come in with a proposal.  And waited and waited ...

"Everyone seems willing to use it if we spend all the money," Councilman William Brenke said.  "It seems that there are plenty of groups willing to use it at more cost to us than to them," Park Board chairman Justin English said.

But what the City really wanted was someone willing to provide some of the work and some of the money.  The only offer it received was from the Impression Five museum.  "It's quite a futuristic museum, and wouldn't really fit into the building's historical nature," parks director Ted Haskell says.  (Impression Five is now aiming for a former industrial building on S. Pennsylvania Avenue.)
James Blair, chairman of the council's parks committee, tried to rally enthusiasm.  He went to various groups, including the Lansing Jaycees, and gave pep talks.  Eventually, that paid off.

The Jaycees first came in with an idea to use the building strictly for offices and meeting rooms for service clubs.  That drew a lukewarm reaction, because people still were dreaming about the museums and galleries and whatnot.  So the Jaycees retreated and came back with a more elaborate plan:  The Jaycees would pour about 8,000 man hours and $8,000 cash (raised through fund drives) into returning the interior to its turn-of-the-century glory.  After that, the place would be available to an assortment of nonprofit groups.

"We've had a terrific amount of interest from other groups," Scott Hillery of the Jaycees said.  Among others, he says, there has been interest from the historical society, the North Lansing Community Association, the Community Design Center, and the Antique Dealers Association.  Those groups would form a nonprofit corporation, [fix] the place, and come up with about $300 a month for heat, insurance and minor maintenance.  The [City] would provide water, electricity and major maintenance.  All of that would have a historical theme of sorts, geared towards an opening on July 4, 1976.

"What excites me about this proposal is that it blends many of these ideas together" Blair told the park board Wednesday.  "What excites me is that someone is willing to spend some of his own money," English joked.

The proposal will stay in limbo for a while.  The Parks Department is getting the site ready for use as a park this summer and the council is pondering uses for the building.  The Jaycee idea was tossed around at both the Park Board meeting and the council parks committee meeting Wednesday.  Most officials are noncommital so far, but Haskell granted that it is "a pretty good offer," and Blair was enthusiastic.  "I really think it's a good proposal," Blair said.  "I think it's an exciting possibility in the area of keeping this open to performing arts, history, all sorts of groups.  It could be a real community catalyst."
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The following is the text of an article in The Ad-Visor of August 1979.  Upon request, the Secretary can provide a copy of the article with the accompanying photo of Frank Dodge McLean on the front steps of the Turner-Dodge House.

Frank McLean Lives History
by Jack Thompson

What is it like to grow up as part of local history?  Frank Dodge McLean of Lansing knows.  His home for many years was the Turner-Dodge House, recently placed on the national rolls as a local historical site.  Mr. McLean is the great-grandson of James Turner, who built the original house, and the grandson (and namesake) of Frank Dodge, who enlarged it.

When Mr. Turner died, the estate went to his three daughters.  Marion Reasoner had the acreage west of the house, now Reasoner Park.  Eva Black received the land farther west, later the site of the Michigan Sugar Co.  The house went to the widow and the ground around it to another daughter, Abby.  Later, Abby's husband, Frank Dodge, bought the house from Mrs. Turner.

According to Mr. McLean the Turner house was square.  When Frank Dodge bought it, he added wings on both sides, a third floor and a pillared facade.  The work was completed in 1902. The Dodge home became a showplace where such notables as William Jennings Bryan were entertained.

"The original walls were 14 inches of solid brick," Mr. McLean explained.  "This made the house very warm in winter and beautifully cool in summer.  The music room alone was almost as big as a normal house.  And we had three pianos in the house."

The basement, which contained the kitchen of the original house, had a marble fireplace and a brick floor.  The mansion had seven other fireplaces as well as two staircases, one in front and one in back.  "The windows were all French plate glass and the floors were hardwood throughout," Mr. McLean said.  "In the library and reception hall the woodwork was all hand carved.  The ceilings were 14 feet high.  We always had a church size Christmas tree."

"It was a little different from most homes," he continued.  "We used to have a lot of formal parties in the ball room, usually with an orchestra.  Grandmother entertained quite a bit when she got back.  There were often meetings of the D.A.R. or the Michigan Bar held at the house.  Living with my grandmother, I got a lot that kids my age would have missed.  She talked about things that happened way back.  I felt I had lived them."

Mr. Mclean's grandmother, Abby Turner Dodge, died in 1947.  In 1958, the house was sold to the Great Lakes Bible College.  At the time, Frank McLean, his brother and their mother were living there.

"The last New Year's Eve we lived in the house," McLean recalls, "we had three separate parties going on - one in the ballroom, one in the music room and one in the library.

Mr. McLean has been active the past few years working with the City on the renovation of the house.
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The following is the text of an article in The State Journal of Wednesday, October 24, 1979,.  Upon request, the Secretary can provide a copy of the article, with the accompanying photo of Pat Pemberton and Frank McLean in the music room.

They're at Home in the Mansion
by Virginia Redfern

A great big historic house where you spent your childhood is bound to evoke a host of memories.

And this was the experience over the past week of Patricia McLean Pemberton and her brother, Frank McLean, who grew up with two younger brothers, Rod and Andy, in the Turner Dodge mansion, now the property of the City of Lansing.

"It was a wonderful place to grow up," Pat and Frank recalled.  "And we slid down every banister hundreds of times.  (This entails two staircases and three stories of sliding - a lot of fun.)

They also reminisced about the hide-and-seek games with the cushioned window seat in the alcove between the foyer and the entrance hall ... a favorite hiding place.  (The seat was hinged and no one would know there was a soul around.  Unless they giggled.)

They also recall with love the formalities of the big house of a different era.  Driving up the circle drive to alight under the port-cochere, family conferences in the library, with velvet portiers drawn and a fire crackling in the classic fireplace, solemn funeral services and elegant weddings in the music-drawing room.  Music for both occasions was played on the grand piano.  And the brides descended the winding staircase. 

"Remember our little, private dinner parties in Grandmother's (Abby Turner Dodge, widow of the late Frank Dodge) room?" Frank said.  And his sister described the little suppers upstairs in their grandmother's big bedroom (where a fire always was blazing) while their parents entertained as many as 24 guests at the oval dining table downstairs.

"This was when we were little," Pat said.  "Later on, we were allowed to join the family for gala parties in the ballroom.  "For these parties, legs were removed from one of the two grand pianos and it was rolled up on dollies - three flights."  Frank and Pat also recalled with impish delight a few off-the-record parties, hosted by the boys but usually including their only sister by invitation.

The punch at these little parties was often spiked with a little recipe from the liquor closet off the master bedroom and bath and next to the watchful eye of the ever-present live-in maid.  They recall Hattie, Rose and Julia among the many over the years.

(Obviously, these impromptu parties had to take place when parents were out and the maid busy in the kitchen.  Her room was equipped with a sink and was adjacent to the back stairs leading to the kitchen and the basement were other toilet facilities were available.)

Pat said she was not one of the brides descending the winding stair.  "I think I'd seen just about enough formal weddings," she laughed, "so Bob (Pemberton) and I eloped."  He used to come over after school, she said, and tinker with old cars in the drive.  Now the owner of Auto Parts, he taught his future bride all about mechanics and eventually they raced together at Daytona Beach, winning many trophies.

Parents of the McLean children were Josephine Dodge and Andrus B. McLean Jr.  Their grandparents were Abby Turner and Frank Dodge and their great-grandparents were James Turner and Marian Monroe.

Pat and Frank enjoyed the "restored" look of the house (remodeling by Lansing Jaycees and redecorating by talented area decorators), but said it was different than in the past.  The woodwork, now rubbed down to natural finish, always was painted white, the walls Wedgwood blue.  "It was more Williamsburg than Victorian in style," they said, in the years they lived there.

Now the scene of a benefit Decorator Showcase tours, it is open Monday and Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Sunday afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m.  Sponsors have asked "please, no children under 10 and no cameras."

It is one of Lansing's major restoration projects, following similar examples set in New York City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago and Grosse Pointe.  After the tours, the mansion will be the scene of community events and meetings.
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The following is the text of an undated flyer, written circa 1982.  Upon request.
TURNER-DODGE HISTORY BROCHURE

Gracefully situated on the bank of the Grand River, this Classical Revival style mansion was the home of prominent Lansing merchant James Turner.  A house, especially one which has stood for many years, reflects the ethnic background, social and economic status, intellectual interests and taste of those who made it a home.  Walking through the house visitors will see a variety of architectural and decorative designs reflecting the growth and changes that occurred through the years in keeping with its residents.

The main section of the house was built for James Turner in 1858.  Drawings and photographs show it with two central stories balanced by one-story wings on either side.  Turner, who came to the Lansing area from New York, found new business opportunities when the Capitol moved here in 1847.  He opened a general store in the first hotel in north Lansing, at the corner of present-day Turner Street and Grand River Avenue.

James Turner married Marian Monroe of Eagle, Michigan, and had a son James M. and three daughters, Marian, Eva and Abby.  Interested in education he helped found the Michigan Female College, now the site of the Michigan School for the Blind.  Turner was also actively involved in the construction of the Howell to Lansing plank road and the Ionia to Lansing railroad.

Turner's daughter, Abby, married Ohioan Frank L. Dodge in 1888 and they purchased the house from Turner's widow in 1899.  Dodge, a Democrat, served in the Michigan House of Representatives and as commissioner of the United States Court.  He gained recognition as a defense lawyer in a case originating from the Saginaw Valley Labor Strike.  For twelve years he was city alderman and was active on several civic boards.

Between 1900-1906 Dodge hired local architect Darius Moon to enlarge and re-design the house to accommodate eleven family members.  Moon's eclectic design resulted in a three-story building featuring stately wooden Ionic columns, a decorative cornice, porches and an additional two-story west wing.  The interior, with its large Classical doorways and several fireplaces, is adorned with beveled and leaded French windows.  This magnificent home hosted family gatherings, weddings and heads of state.

* Historical information provided by the Historical Society of Greater Lansing.

REHABILITATION

After remaining in the family for a century, the property was purchased in 1958 by the Great Lakes Bible College for use as a residency hall.  In 1974, the City of Lansing acquired the site for a park at $188,000.  The following year the Jaycees leased the house and began a project of renovation in cooperation with the Green Thumb Program which provided workers to remove several layers of paint from oak and fruitwood trims and wall coverings.  Lansing Parks & Recreation now administers the use of the house and park as a Center for Cultural Activities.

City, state and federal funds were secured by Parks & Recreation and used to restore the exterior brick of the house, complete a children's play area, gazebo, arbor and a protective deck for the magnificent beech tree.  Care has been taken to preserve the historical integrity of the house, which is the only building in Lansing, except the Capitol, on the National Register of Historic Places.  Grounds and interior improvements progress slowly as monies become available through programs, grants, community and foundation support.  Individuals wishing to support this project should inquire about the newly formed Friends of Turner-Dodge House and Park.

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The following is the text of an article in the Lansing State Journal of Friday, January 29, 1993.  Upon request, the Secretary can provide a copy of the article with its accompanying drawings of the Turner house and the Turner-Dodge House.

TIME PASSAGES
Ambitious plan would restore Turner-Dodge

Lansing's crown jewel, the 1879 Capitol building, is gleaming again, right up to the tip of its majestic dome.  So . . . there's no other historic restoration to fuss over and dream about, right?

Wrong.  The Turner-Dodge House, a much older landmark and possibly Lansing's second-most important building, is badly in need of rescue.  So says prominent architect Richard Frank, who led the painstaking $58.1 million restoration of the Capitol.  He's putting finishing touches on a long-awaited master plan for Turner-Dodge to expertly preserve it and accurately restore it for the next century.

Many Lansingites don't know where the city-owned house is (100 E. North St.), and, what's more, many don't care.  They care even less that 2-by-4s currently shore up the grand sweep its front porch.  We don't realize what we've got on 8-1/2 north-side acres, high on a river bluff near where the Capital City began, says Frank.

With a nucleus that dates to 1850, this house must have been one of the first major structures in the new state capital, which became a city in 1847, he says.  It's one of the few that remain.  "it was home for more than 100 years to seven generations of a family with profound influence on, not only local, but state history," says the expert from Saline.  "It's culturally important and it's architecturally important."  That architecture was changed greatly at the turn of the century, when it was enlarged and redesigned from Greek Revival to Classical Revival by architect Darius Moon.  "That's OK," says Frank.  "This is still one of the ciry's most important buildings."

It was built by big Jim Turner, a 6-foor-4 entrepreneur, railroad pioneer, state legislator and a founder of the Michigan Female College, now the Michigan School for [the] Blind.  It was next owned by his son, James Turner, a state representative and Lansing mayor.  It was expanded to 8,600 square feet by his daughter, Abby, and son-in-law, Frank Dodge, a lawyer, city alderman, state representative and United States Court commissioner.  Its decline began in 1958 when it was sold to Great Lakes Bible College.

The Friends of Turner-Dodge booster group hopes fund-raising will not only preserve the house, but raise mid-Michigan's awareness and enjoyment of the unique city historical park.  The master planning was funded through a $70,000 state cultural grant.  It includes the building's first architectural analysis and the first historical documentation of the interior, right down to the paint colors.  That's fitting for a house on the National Register of Historic Places.

The first $500,000 for recommended restoration work is expected to come from the city parks property tax earmarked for the house.  It has to be approved by City Council first.  That phase calls for:

Structural repairs to seal the stately building from the elements. Beginning of historically accurate landscaping with a garden arbor.  A new sign and improved bus drop-off. Restoration and furnishing of the first-floor music room exactly as when the family lived in it around 1900-1920.

The brickwork, windows and foundation are in quite good shape.  But if the public is to use the second and third floors, a new beam must go into the music room ceiling, Frank says.  When two floors were added to the original wings in 1900, not enough support was installed.  And the wood cornices on each story, part of the roof framing containing built-in rain gutters, must be replaced, Frank says.

What comes next is uncertain.  The second, yet unfunded, restoration phase will cost about $700,000 for electrical and heating-cooling and fire protection systems, plus restoring and furnishing the interior.  The final phase, still without a cost estimate, would some day include building a replica carriage house for educational programs and new parking lots to handle the crowds.  "You have a very valuable resource here," Frank recently told the city Parks Board.  "But if its not taken care of, before long it's going to be a very big problem."

Retiring Friends president Gerald Faverman, president of Public Sector Consultants, has pledged to rally the fund-raising needed to return Turner-Dodge to splendor.  Why save the red-brick elephant?  "This city has almost no vestiges of the past.  This house is an important part of showing people what life was like . . . People need to be in touch with their roots," he says.

But this is not and never will be a musty museum.  Since its purchase by the City in 1974 with a federal parks grant (for the price of the land; the house was a freebie), Susan Cantlon has nurtured its cultural and historical programs for the Lansing Parks Department.  Nowhere else in the state is there a place where the public - especially children - can see, touch and learn about days gone by through many public activities.  Most other historic houses are owned by historic societies, with don't-touch policies, Cantlon says.

Never fully furnished, except during annual Old-Fashioned Family Christmas celebrations, Turner-Dodge House nevertheless has hosted lots of laughter and learning under is 12-foor ceilings in the last two decades.  It has been, until recently, leased for weddings and private parties, and will be again after renovation.  It hosts annual sell-out Mystery Dinner Theater evenings and children's Easter parties.  Children flock to the Summer History Camp where they discover everything from hoop-rolling and stilt-walking to hand-cranked ice cream and old-fashioned songs and crafts.  Hundreds of Girl Scouts from all over the state troop through for one-day visits leading to their Heritage Badges.

Public interest in the house has been high since the first tours in the 70s when people lined up in the rain to come in and walk through the rubble, Cantlon says.  "Today, we tell schoolchildren This is your house.  We're just caretakers.'  They grin from ear to ear."

The old mansion's friends hope enough citizens will care about preserving its future.  Cantlon looks forward to the day she can point out of the same leaded glass windows Abby Turner Dodge looked out from onto manicured grounds and a river view of the gleaming Capitol dome.  She'll help young people see what life was like when the big house on the hill, and Lansing, were young.
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The following is the text of an article in the Among Friends newsletter of June 1995.  The article has a photo of the porte cochere undergoing restoration.

The Look is Old, The Feeling is New

Restore, repair, refurbish, rebuild.  These words are often heard in the House and surrounding park.  The greening of spring 1995 has been accompanied by the ring of hammers on nails and the buzz of saws through wood.  The Christman Co., Lansing general contractors, push to a late June end of Phase One renovations.  The roof, porches, windows, down spouts, and irrigation system have been objects of daily changes.  Most conspicuous is the river side entrance and handicapper access.

The Friends will join Lansing Parks and Recreation Department in late summer, to celebrate the progress, and recommit to Phase Two.

Phase Two will include the remainder of the interior renovation - new heating and cooling systems, electrical and fire protection system upgrades, furnishing spaces with period furniture, and finishing all surfaces in appropriate historical fabrics and colors.

Phase Three will include the construction of a replica carriage house and the completion of the landscaping, parking and grounds work.

Once completed, Turner-Dodge will serve many more functions for the community, its organizations and citizens.  It will house meetings, social functions, educational programs, conferences, and community events.  It will attract tourists to the downtown area.  It will anchor the north end of the river walk and river front development program.  It will provide a very rare historical resource for a wide range of people throughout the state and beyond.

Donations of funds and in-kind contributions of services, materials and labor for Phases Two and Three are needed now.  If you can help, call the Friends 517/483-4220 or 483-7660.

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The following is the text of an article by Elizabeth Homer  in the Among Friends newsletter of March 1998.  Upon request, the Secretary can provide a copy of the article with its photo of Rex Ridenour's mother, Daisy, and brother, Robert, taken about 1942 in front of the Turner-Dodge Carriage House.

The Carriage House and First Turner House

What did the Carriage House look like?  A recent Friends article in the Karen Douglas column of the Lansing State Journal asking for help to find out resulted in two new photographs for the Turner-Dodge photograph collection.

A photo of the river-side view of the Carriage House, looking north, was donated by Rex Ridenour.  At one time the eighteen room Carriage House to the west of the main house was divided into three apartments.  Rex Ridenour lived there from 1939 through 1943 with his sister, two brothers, grandmother and parents.  His photograph shows the architectural detail of the porch, windows and entryway.

The second photograph is a charming painted photograph of the Turner's first home on North Street, believed to be the first clapboard house in Lansing.  The photo was donated by Craig R. Wotring, a military historian and collector.  He acquired the photo some time ago from an estate sale.  It was among some papers.