The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island tells you its front porch is 660 feet long and the longest in the world. The two federal documents that actually measured it say 627 and 628 feet. And no organization anywhere certifies the record.
The porch is real and it is enormous. The claim bolted onto it does not survive a records check, and the reason why turns out to be more interesting than the superlative.
Three credentialed sources, three different numbers
The National Historic Landmark nomination for Grand Hotel, prepared by National Park Service architectural historian Carolyn Pitts and dated February 14, 1989, describes the enormous deep verandah “which is 628 feet long.” The separate Mackinac Island NHL nomination, also an NPS document, gives 627 feet.
The Historical Society of Michigan, in a profile written by Katie Mallory, then curator of education for Mackinac State Historic Parks, says 680 feet. The hotel’s own press page says 660. MyNorth reported the original 1887 porch at 440 feet.
The published figures run from 440 to 680 feet. That is a 240-foot spread on one structure, and the two most authoritative documents in the pile are the two that disagree with the hotel.
Nobody keeps this record
Guinness World Records has no category for longest porch, longest veranda, or longest balcony, and Grand Hotel appears nowhere in its records. The nearest thing Guinness actually certifies is the longest covered wooden corridor, the Long Corridor at the Summer Palace in Beijing, at 2,388 feet.
The 1958 Michigan Historical Commission marker on the grounds calls it longest in the world as well. State markers are not adjudications. There is no register, no measurement standard, and no rival claim anyone has filed, which is a very different thing from having won a contest.
The porch that earned the claim was a third shorter
Here is the part no coverage mentions. The Mackinac Island NHL nomination states plainly that “additions in 1897 and 1912 increased the length by half.”
Run the arithmetic backward from 627 feet and the original 1887 porch lands around 418, which lines up with MyNorth’s 440. The world’s longest porch printed on linen postcards in the 1930s was already a porch that had been extended twice. What opened in 1887 was roughly two thirds of what is standing today.
And it was not built in 93 days
The 93-day construction figure is repeated everywhere. It is not in the NPS nomination, not in the Historical Society of Michigan profile, and not on the historical marker.
The NPS nomination says builder Charles W. Caskey, working 300 men through 1.5 million feet of lumber, “finished the job in just over three months.” The Historical Society of Michigan says four months. Construction began in March 1887 and the hotel opened July 10, which is 131 days. Only an April 8 start yields exactly 93.
What is actually documented
Opened July 10, 1887. Built of Michigan white pine hauled across the ice the winter before. Built by Charles W. Caskey of Allegan with his brother-in-law Alphonse Howe, financed by the Grand Rapids and Indiana and Michigan Central railroads and the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 5, 1972, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
Every one of those sits in the Michigan Historical Commission marker or the NPS nomination, and every one is checkable in an afternoon. The porch length is the only number about this building that nobody can pin down.
The person who could close the gap is Bob Tagatz, the hotel’s resident historian. If 660 counts something the federal surveyors left out, he is the one who would know.
Yooper Hub community
The conversation
Know something this story missed? Corrections and additions get read by an editor and folded into the article, with credit.
Real neighbors, real names. A Yooper Hub editor reads your first comment before it appears; after that you’re a known neighbor and your comments post right away. No account required. Community guidelines
Nothing here yet. A sentence is plenty: a correction, a name, or what you remember about this place.
Know a story we should cover?
Help Us Find What Matters Across the U.P.
Send us a local lead, community event, photo, or story idea. The best Yooper stories often begin with a reader.
Sources, credits, and reporting details
Sources & accountability
How this story was reported
Editorial methodNot yet classified
Last verifiedNot yet recorded
Corrections statusNo material correction note is recorded on this article.
More worth reading
