Dougherty Mission House

To make a gift by check to The Peter Dougherty Historic Home Site, click here to print a Donor Form PDF or click on the “Donate” link below to donate by credit card or PayPal.

We are currently closed for the season.

Admission: $5 age 12 and over. Free under 12.
Group tours may be arranged by emailing DoughertyOldMission@yahoo.com

Visiting the House in the off season:
Visitors are welcome to walk the year round trails or take a virtual tour of the interior on this website Videos page, the Dougherty Old Mission House Facebook page, or on YouTube at PDS Virtual Tour.

About Dougherty Mission House

This home was built in 1842 by Reverend Peter Dougherty, a Presbyterian minister, with the help of a Chippewa village headed by Chief Aghosa. The Mission was supported by the United States pursuant to the Treaty of 1836. By that Treaty, the Native Americans ceded 14 million acres of land to the U.S. Michigan Territory, qualifying Michigan to become a State. The Native Americans requested the mission be part of the Treaty, and the Mission taught religion, English, carpentry, and blacksmithing, to help them assimilate with the European culture which assumed control of the area. The United States made the payments to the Native Americans in installments over many years, with the final payment being made in the late 1900s.

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The Peter Dougherty Society

Beginning in 2004, a group of Old Mission Peninsula residents collaborated with the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, the Old Mission Peninsula Historical Society, the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation and Peninsula Township to raise over $575,000. Even more funds were raised to restore the house and property. The 1842 home built by Reverend Peter Dougherty, a Presbyterian minister, and surrounding land were acquired. In July, 2006, the home and property were deeded to Peninsula Township. It became a part of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, placing the home and property in conservancy.

In 2006, the Peter Dougherty Society was organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation to restore, maintain, and display the home and grounds. The Home and land were placed on the National Register of Historic Places with State significance in 2011, conserving it for future generations.

The home and surrounding grounds required extensive restoration. Now completed, the House site is an historical, cultural, educational and community center as well as a museum for all visitors. The grounds include the Heritage Trail and Disabled Trail as well as gardens which reflect farming in the late 19th Century. We have furnished the interior with furniture and artifacts appropriate to the period from 1842 to 1910.

This website contains more information about the Mission and Old Mission Peninsula, illustrated by photographs and videos. You are invited to look at the entire website, and then to visit the house in Old Mission Village.

The House

The house is filled with fascinating artifacts from the past, view our gallery of images, featuring some of the noteworthy spaces in the Dougherty Mission House!
Featured above is the house's summer kitchen, complete with a restored cooking stove.

Be transported to the past via images and plan a visit to see the house in person!

VISIT GALLERY

The New Mission

Reverend Dougherty's educational endeavors continued to flourish even as he left the "Old Mission" behind and started his new mission, Grove Hill School. His insistence on bi-lingual education separated Grove Hill from Government and other Church run boarding schools of the time—the involvement of parents also places Grove Hill in a class of its own. Learn more at the Omena Historical Society blog.