Battle Creek Enquirer from Battle Creek, Michigan • Page 8

A8 Enquirer and News, Battle Creek, Feb. 25, 1973 White Gates: A rich past can uncertain future Once-lavish lake estate now for sale The facade of White Gates at St. Mary's Lake, showing the drive as it enlarges to become a carriage circle. By LARRY SWARTZ White Gates, the striking 22-room mansion overlooking St Mary's Lake, greets the visitor like a gracious hostess. Approached from Battle Creek via North Avenue, the house appears to be a series of buildings, accented by tall chimneys, many porches, huge windows and varying roof levels.

But from the front, the house appears unified, balanced and imposing. The white gates are part of a white-painted rail fence which borders the 23-acre estate on two sides. The blacktop drive meanders through lines of trees, sculpted hedges, and becomes a carriage circle before the mellow tan-white brick facade. White Gates is now the property of the Sisters of Mercy of the Province of Detroit It has been used as a recreational retreat since the sisters bought it from the "Burt family in 1961. Now, it has outlived its usefulness to the sisters, and is offered for sale at $300,000.

Once the scene of brilliant parties and the center of an elegant lifestyle, White Gates now is a quiet retreat for nuns. In the early 1960s, nuns used the house often. But with liberalization of rules of the Order, the nuns come less and less often, and in fewer numbers. Once furnished with antiques and works of art, White Gates now has plain furnishings. Crucifixes have replaced great paintings on the walls.

The dark-paneled library, with a tall, wide window facing southwest, frames a view of the lake and the rolling hills beyond. Now filled with pews, ithas become a chapel. Though technically a mansion the house contains 22 rooms White Gates seems very livable. It is a simple house. There are no gold frescoes, no glittering crystal chandeliers.

Alfred Collins, the real estate broker in charge of the house's sale, said that it was designed to be simple and comfort- aWeit was begun in 1935 and finished in 1938, a year after its owners, Wellington R. and Catharine (Hartman) Burt, moved in. The property originally was part of a 60-acre tract purchased in 1932 by Burt's mother, Mrs. George Burt. She built a Normandy-style chateau on a neighboring hilltop.

Her husband, who had died in 1930, was the son of millionaire financier-lumber baron-landowner Wellington Richardson Burt of Saginaw, who came to Michigan from upsta te New York in the 1850s. He amassed a fortune, and at his death in 1919, he had owned and served as president of the Ann Arbor Railroad and had vast land holdings in the Upper Peninsula and Minnesota. Mrs. Burt divided her property and worked with the White Gates' architect, a W.D. Mann, on the plans.

White Gates is built of weathered brick. It is reinforced throughout with steel, and the floors under their layer of ubiquitous gold carpeting are hand-laid hardwood. White Gates cost approximately $350,000 to build at the height of the Depression. Guests at the estate recall that it was beautifully furnished with many antiques, and the parties given (here were memorable. The Bur ts' annual New Year's Eve party at White Gates became a tradition, eagerly anticipated by local residents fortunate enough to be on the guest list.

Mrs. Robert Pender of 250 WahWahTaySee Way, whose mother, Mrs. Lawrence Fell, attended many of the Burt parties, said the Burts had New England seafood delicacies flown in especially for the occasions. each item by its Latin name, specie and location. There is an inventory for every item in the house, and there are complete sets of plans and specifications for the house and outbuildings.

After the sale of White Gates to the Sisters of Mercy, Mrs. Burt lived for a time at 150 Garrison Ave. The family, which for years had spent summers on Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts, had a home there. Mrs. Burt moved back to the East several years ago.

Mrs. Burt received an Enquirer and News "George' award in 1961 for her work transcribing books into braille for the benefit of blind children at Ann J. Kellogg School. She worked by hand and later by machine transcribing textbooks, literature and other reading materials. Her husband, Wellington, who died in 1960, served as a trustee of the old Nichols Hospital, and later served as president of the Community Hospital board of trustees.

He was a director of the Community Chest (founded by his mother), which later evolved into the United Fund. He also was a director of the Security National Bank, and was a former treasurer of the Michigan Carton Co. and was comptroller of the Sanitarium Equipment Co. He was a 1926 graduate of Cornell University, and was a member of the Zeta Psi Club and the New York City Cornell Club. He also was a member of the Nantucket Yacht Club, the Saginaw Club of Saginaw, the Park Club of Kalamazoo, the Battle Creek Country Club and the Athelstan Club.

staircases curve slightly down to the left-to-right center hall which connects the kitchen wing with the family room wing on the far right. The main first-floor rooms are the living room, dining room, library, and family room-garden room. All rooms are large and airy, and are connected by the hall with its vaulted ceiling. Also on the first floor are the flower room (with wooden countertops, a sink, and cupboards filled with vases and flower-arranging equipment) a butler's pantry equipped with floor-to-ceiling cabinets, and a dishwasher; a huge kitchen, fully equipped; a servants dining room with a porch; and several bathrooms. The living room is the heart of the house and the most impressive room.

It is large about 40 feet by about 20 feet and is painted a warm gold with white trim. The fireplace is black and white marble, and on the opposite wall are two tall box bay windows. Next to one of the windows, a Steinway grand piano awaits a player. There are ten fireplaces one is outdoors and is Two of the bedrooms have fireplaces, and the family rooms-one on each floor both have fireplaces. There are 10 entrances to the house.

Outdoors, the pastoral views of the landscape were created by the Chicago landscaping firm of Root and Hollister. The Burts spent $11,000 to bring topsoil to the estate enough to cover the acreage with a layer one-foot deep. And the entire estate is served by an underground lawn sprinkling system, controllable from the main house. Every tree, plant and shrub on the property is listed in one of the five complete inventories. The botanical inventory lists The wedding of Burt's daughter, Jane Loomis i Burt, to Kenneth William Oakley of New Jersey, was another elegant affair.

An Enquirer and News clipping from October 1947, says, about the wedding: "Immediately after the ceremony, a reception was held at White Gates. The receiving line formed in the living room against a screen of huckleberry greens flanked by tall white pedestals entwined with English ivy and holding large silver urns filled with Fuji chrysanthemums. "On the mantle (black and white marble, as is the tirepiace facing) were white mums in a silver bowl. In the dining room, where the bridal party was seated for supper, the table was decorated with waterlilies, while the mantle flowers were Easter lilies. "Mums in fall colors and bird-of-paradise flowers were used in the library, and the hall was decorated with a large bouquet of white mums and magnolia leaves.

During the reception, music was played by strolling musicians who later played for dancing." White Gates is a feminine, welcoming house. It is built in the form of a slight and reaches out to the carriage court. To the right of the court is a lower-roofed wing and a hobby shop to the left is the kitchen and garage wing, There is a two-bedroom guest house, built in the same English-country architectural style as the main house connected to the garage by an open arcade. The arcade roof is supported by weathered hewn beams, which also are used as supports for all theporchesandtoaccenttheexterior. Inside the heavy, paneled door, is a slate-floored foyer.

The low ceiling is formed by the landing in the staircase. Single as it leaves the second floor, the stair splits at the landing, where a huge window opens to the courtyard. From the landing, twin. I fR linn I IK 1111 1., I a if nmr I I A i HI I I IX mmmm mmmmmm hi i 1 1 (( i miii mi fMIIIIMISlpilliil 7 At left are two of White Gates' major wings. In the foreground is the library and its veranda.

Above is a bedroom with veranda. Across the garden court, the dining room wing looks out over the lake. On the second floor, a bedroom opens to the balcony. In the top photograph at right is the living room. The dining room is beyond the archway at right.

The staircase in the bottom photo at right splits at the landing level to become two curving stairs. The entrance to the home is below the landing. (Photos by Don Nelson) i- Ia fcsw kkM' l-lf- If, f4 I iihihiii i hid V' i i 1 iiiii) "'iii.