Beneath Traverse City: Inside the Historic Asylum Tunnels
READING
I am 75% through Her Last Breath, which was highly recommended by a friend, I am totally engaged and can’t wait to see where this goes!! Its about best friends , one a travel influencer, the other a quiet introvert, that go on a caving adventure together (How fun) only to have murder and foul play occur. So twisty, keeping me on the edge of my seat!
A backlist recommendation by Barbara Kingslover, The Bean Trees, is also holding my interest.
Heather, a gripping new mystery/thriller that takes place in the New Jersey Pine Barrens!
It has been a very slow reading month. I have been very distracted with other things and can’t seem to settle into a place of enjoyment with my reading
MUSING
Beneath Traverse City: Inside the Historic Asylum Tunnels
I came to Traverse City for bookstores, wine, and an author event inside a candlelit barn.
I did not expect to spend part of the weekend underground in the tunnels of a former psychiatric asylum.
That’s the thing about Traverse City though. Beneath the lakeshore views, vineyard drives, rooftop cocktails, and beach hotels is a quieter, stranger layer of history that gives the town far more depth than I expected.
Getting there, however, was another story entirely. Traverse City’s airport may be one of the easiest little airports I’ve ever flown into, which almost makes up for the absolute nightmare that is Chicago O’Hare. After what felt like nearly an hour of taxiing upon landing, I then power-walked what had to be twenty-five minutes through terminals trying to make my connecting flight. By the time I finally landed in northern Michigan, the calmness of Traverse City felt even sweeter.
One thing I will say immediately: rent the car. Traverse City is wonderful on its own, but the surrounding little towns, wineries, lakeshore drives, and unexpected stops are what really make the trip feel special. Having a car allowed me to wander through places like Leland and Empire, stop spontaneously at sleepy little bookstores, and once again convince myself to hike Sleeping Bear Dunes despite swearing after every visit that I would absolutely never do it again. And yet somehow, there I was, climbing giant windswept dunes while questioning every life decision that had brought me there.
The drives themselves became part of the trip. Long stretches of blue water, wineries tucked into rolling hills, tiny roadside farm stands, and what is becoming a mandatory stop for me at Arts Tavern for their veggie burger. Some places just quietly become tradition before you even realize it.
I visited Traverse City for an event with Catherine Newman (author of Wreck and Sandwich) held at, French Valley Vineyard, and it honestly felt a bit magical. The event took place inside a barn strung with fairy lights, with endless pours of wine, chilly spring air, and those unreal northern Michigan blue skies that almost don’t look real. Newman herself was warm, funny, and completely lovely in the way you hope an author will be.
I stayed at The Alexandra Inn, a small beachfront boutique hotel with adorable rooms, rooftop lake views, and the kind of quiet mornings that make you want to linger over coffee for hours. Every morning featured a different pastry delivery alongside endless coffee service, though my fellow non-dairy people should note: bring your own oat milk. The staff was incredibly kind and accommodating, though a few off-season hiccups (a broken toilet and an oddly firm no when I asked to borrow a yoga mat for class) reminded me the property is still finding its footing.
View from my room
Most afternoons naturally turned into long scenic drives through Leelanau Peninsula wine country. I made several stops throughout the weekend, though my favorite remains, which a friend introduced me to last summer. While I had heard that Byrs Estate was the must-see destination in the area, I still think nothing compares to the sweeping lake views at Chateau Chantal.
I also found myself returning several times to Taproot Cider House for drinks, conversation, and cozy meals after long days exploring.
And then there was the asylum.
The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, now filled with shops, restaurants, apartments, and cafés, was once the Northern Michigan Asylum, built under the Kirkbride Plan, a philosophy centered around treating psychiatric patients with compassion, routine, work, light, music, and fresh air.
Patients worked on farms and in greenhouses. Women sewed and cooked. Patients attended dances, movie nights, and musical performances. Upon arrival, patients were observed for two weeks before being assigned both housing and work as part of their therapy. The asylum even maintained an all-faiths church to encourage socialization and community.
But beneath the beauty of the brick buildings sits a darker history too.
The underground tunnels beneath the asylum once transported heat, supplies, and staff between buildings. Walking through them now feels eerie in a way that’s difficult to fully explain. The tour moved through the evolution of psychiatric treatment in America: morphine and opium use, forced institutionalization of women for “nervousness,” menopause, postpartum depression, or simply being considered difficult, along with the introduction of electroshock therapy and the era of lobotomies.
One story that stayed with me involved a physician who reportedly refused to perform hundreds of lobotomies on female patients after recognizing the damage being done. Instead, newer psychiatric medications like Thorazine and lithium slowly began replacing some of the institution’s more brutal practices.
The contrast between present-day Traverse City and the asylum’s history is what made the experience so memorable for me. One moment you’re sipping wine beneath fairy lights in a vineyard barn, and the next you’re standing underground learning how easily grief, addiction, anxiety, loneliness, or simply existing outside social expectations could once institutionalize a perso
Traverse City somehow holds all of it at once: beauty, history, softness, strangeness, water, wine, stories, and reinvention.
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