Biddle HousePosted December 10, 2013Market Street Represents 1820s-eraYour ExperienceSmell hearty stew simmering in a cast iron pot over the open hearth fireplace. Card wool with carding paddles and spin it on a spinning wheel. Watch knitting and quilting. Immerse yourself in early 19th-century domestic crafts, and ask questions. The costumed historic interpreters are ready to explain these crafts and more. Period furnishings transform this “middle-class” reconstructed house to an era when Mackinac Island was the center of the fur trade. The historic building also includes period settings and furnishings.HistoryBuilt in the late 18th-century, the Biddle House was owned by the merchant class (present day “middle class”) Edward Biddle family for several generations. Edward Biddle, from a prominent East coast family, was an American who took up permanent residence on Mackinac Island after the War of 1812. He married Agatha, a local Odawa-Metis woman who lived all of her life in the region. They purchased the house in 1832, although they may have lived there before this time.
