Visitors to Mackinac Island have enjoyed these white concrete benches since they were first constructed by Park Superintendent Frank Kenyon beginning around 1913. The benches, which can be found in Marquette Park, on the East and West bluffs, and along roads throughout the park, were designed by Warren H. Manning, a prominent American landscape architect of the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

In 1896 Manning opened his Boston-based firm and would go on to design over 1,700 projects across the nation including public parks, private estates, city plans, and college campuses. His work for the Mackinac Island State Park Commission began in 1913 when, with Morgan Wright of Marquette, Michigan, he created a map of Mackinac Island. This became the base map used by the Park Commission until the end of the twentieth century. Manning designed the concrete benches to be the Commission’s standard park bench as part of a two-year contract to provide professional landscape planning for both Mackinac Island State Park and Michilimackinac State Park.

Park Superintendent Kenyon initially constructed 25 benches and spread them throughout both Mackinac Island and Michilimackinac state parks. Subsequent Park superintendents have used the same design to create additional benches over the past century.

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