This is Lucy.  Doesn’t she have the best ears?

I was driving through Michigan on my quest for fabulous farms and decided to drop in on Marshall, one of my favorite small towns.  It’s about half way between Chicago and my home town of Saginaw and a great place to stop for lunch and go for a walk to drink in the houses.

That’s where I met Lucy.

Every summer Marshall has a fantastic garden walk, and one year I spotted a For Sale sign on one of its most distinguished residences.  The Cronin house is an Italianate mansion build in 1873 by a local dry goods merchant whose name is still on a building on Marshall’s main street.  Alas, it was not in my budget, as you can imagine.

Six years later Lucy lives in the Cronin house, which has been beautifully restored. Lucy’s person is only its second owner — the house stayed in one family until the elderly grandniece of the original builder passed away.

The house is for sale

The Cronin house is for sale again, for only the second time ever.  Lucy is staying with her people, who are moving nearby.

And these are a few of Lucy’s neighbors.  They really know how to choose great paint colors, and clearly enjoy gardening.  Good to be Lucy.

Marshall also has a lovely little farmers market.  But that’s for another post.

Photos of Marshall, Michigan compliments of Janine MacLachlan, RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Field trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.