Frank Rounds
Frank Russel Rounds (July 9, 1861 – September 9, 1945) was an American carpenter who lived on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
He is best known for building the Round Island Lighthouse, one of the most photographed lighthouses. He also helped build many Mackinac structures, including the Little Stone Church, the boardwalk, and the Wawashkamo golf club.
Rounds first came to Mackinac Island in 1887 as a worker for the Grand Hotel.
In October 1898, he led the landscape construction of the Wawashkamo golf course, which opened in 1899 and is the oldest course on its original grounds in Michigan. He and his crew used fieldstones and strong mortar, creating features like the “chocolate drops” hazards on the 8th and 17th holes.
He built stone features at Stonecliffe and Grand Hotel, including the safety wall at Sunset Rock. The historic fieldstone gateposts at Stonecliffe and the Grand Hotel are largely his work, and two gateposts still stand at the Grand Hotel today.
Rounds remained active during Mackinac Island’s Golden Age of summer travel and, after the 1920s, ran a carpentry shop off Astor Street, helping to repair and maintain the buildings he and others had built.
The Rounds family preserves artifacts and scale models of Mackinac Island buildings at the Robert Stuart House City Museum.
He was married to Rose (Rumlow) Rounds and Lottie Agatha (Joli) Rounds, and they had nine children. He died on September 9, 1945, in Mackinac Island and is buried at the Protestant Cemetery there.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:14 (CET).