The Grand Rapids Press, Sunday, September 12, 1993

(Continued from Previous Page)

FANCIFUL SMURFSVILLE
The whimsical-looking homes in a Charlevoix resort community offer visual surprises inside and out

By Joan Huyser-Honig
The Grand Rapids Press

The lines of the MacGillivray home
are more angular than many
Earl Young creations

Whimsy is present, but not as important to Ray and Jacqueline McGillivray, now in their late 60s. They bought their sprawling villa overlooking Lake Michigan in 1985 after Ray retired from his car dealership in Vassar, a thumb area town.

"We're cold weather buffs and wanted to live near ski slopes," says Jacqueline. "We'd never heard of Earl Young. Basically, we were looking for a house that was on the water, with a view and near town."

They've learned a lot about Earl Young since then, especially after one of the men who helped build the house knocked on the door and asked to show his wife around.

For example Young took great pride in designing each house according to its site.

Earl Young took pride
in using a site to dictate
the design of the house

"The builder told us that Earl Young walked around the lot, faced Lake Michigan and said, 'I want to see one-third sky, one third water and one-third grass. The fireplace will go behind me,'" Ray says.

That fireplace and grand picture windows -- which really do show Young's desired proportions of sky, water and grass -- dominate the MacGillivray living room.

From a copper-tooled fireplace screen painted with two green pine trees and inlaid with a copper spider, limestone radiates out in a sunburst pattern. The same pattern is reflected in nine massive ceiling beams. The beams extend through the outer wall over a patio.

Below the interior beams stands a low table. It was sliced from a gigantic black walnut tree, polished, and set on wrought iron legs. The table, a local antique shop find, was made by Earl Young. One of his daughters told the MacGillivrays that the table used to stand before Young's own picture window.

Yellow neon lights, hidden above the radiating ceiling beams, bounce off the table and transfom the room at night. "We often wonder whether the patterns are supposed to suggest sunbeams or spider webs," Jacqueline muses.

It's a favorite subject when their five grown children, grandchildren and assorted in-laws gather around the fire after a day ton the ski slopes.

"Even when 40-mile-an-hour winds whip Lake Michigan to a froth, the foot-thick walls keep us warm," Ray says.

Except for rounded corners in the back bedrooms, the lines of the MacGillivray home are more angular than many Earl Young creations. The dining room, kitchen and entry area flank the center of the house, facing the street.

The fireplace is in the very center of the house. The living room spans the central area and faces Lake Michigan. Two bedrooms and bathrooms make up each side of the house.

From Park Avenue, the house looks even bigger than it is. The MacGillivrays say that previous owners added a breezeway and a garage.

When the blinds are open, passersby can see from the street through the sets of picture windows to sailboats on Lake Michigan.

At night the MacGillivrays like to stand by an outdoor planter so they can see four sunsets -- the live sunset, plus three more reflected in the living room picture window and leaded glass windows of the back bedrooms.

"I love taking pictures, and after eight years I still see new shadows," Jacqueline says.

Curving walls are part of a traffic pattern that swirls and eddies like waves on the lakeshore.

The 'Mushroom House,' above, owned by Jeanine Wallace, features round outer walls.

PHOTOS / STEVEN HUYSER-HONIG