Felt Mansion / Felt Mansion

Chicago inventor and businessman Dorr Felt built this house as a summer home for his wife, Agnes. Felt held numerous patents, most notably for the Comptometer, the first machine to do complex calculations. In 1919 Felt purchased more than 750 acres of land here and named it Shore Acres Farm. The family stayed in a farmhouse on the property until 1928, when this house, designed by Frank P. Allen and Son of Grand Rapids, was completed. The estate had extensive gardens, orchards, cornfields, a dairy, vineyards, and a small zoo that was open to the public. Agnes Felt died two months after the house was finished, and Dorr Felt died two years later. The Felts´ daughters and grandchildren owned the estate until 1949. That year they sold it to the Augustinian order of the Catholic Church. The Dorr Felt Estate became the St. Augustine Catholic Seminary preparatory school in 1949. The mansion housed priests and students. It also served as a chapel. In1962 the Augustinian order built a new school. Then, in 1967, they leased the house to Augustinian cloistered nuns from Spain. The State of Michigan bought the property in 1977. It used the house for a Michigan State Police post and converted the school into the Saugatuck Dunes Correctional Facility. In 1995 the state sold forty-four acres, including the house and the prison buildings, to Laketown Township for one dollar, stipulating that the mansion be preserved and that it be owned and operated by the public. The Friends of the Felt Estate formed in 2002 and began restoring the house and grounds. The property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.