Robert Stuart House
The Robert Stuart House, also called the Agent’s House or Agency House, is at 34 Market Street on Mackinac Island, Michigan. Built in 1817 to house the resident agent of the American Fur Company, it first hosted Ramsay Crooks and other company staff. The four-building complex included a warehouse (built in 1810, now the Community Hall), a clerk’s quarters (now demolished), and a trading post (altered but later restored).
In 1817 Robert Stuart arrived as Crooks’s assistant, and in 1820 he became the resident agent, a job he held for 14 years. The 1820s and 1830s were busy years for the fur trade, and Mackinac Island was a social center during this time. The fur trade declined in the 1830s, and Stuart moved to Detroit in 1835. As the trade faded, Mackinac became a resort town, and the Agent’s House was used as a boardinghouse during and after the Civil War.
In 1871 James F. Cable bought the whole complex and linked the main buildings with palisades to form the John Jacob Astor House, the island’s premier hotel of that era. It remained the social center until the Grand Hotel was built. The complex was sold to the city in 1900 and operated as a hotel until 1929. In 1941 the buildings were separated; the Robert Stuart House became a museum, known today as the Stuart House City Museum. Many of the items come from Dale Verne Gensman (Rounds) and are kept on semi-permanent loan, donated by his family.
Architecturally, the house is a two-story Federal-style building with side gables on a brick foundation. It has a hand-hewn timber frame clad in clapboard, a shingled roof with dormers, and a front entrance reached by a two-step stairway. The door is flanked by sidelights and pilasters, and the many small-paned windows add to its historic look.
The Robert Stuart House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1971) and designated a Michigan State Historic Site (1965).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:12 (CET).