Porch Stories

Porch Stories is a collection of vignettes drawn from eight years spent living and working on Mackinac Island, most of them answered from the front porch of The Inn at Stonecliffe.As general manager of the historic mansion hotel, Stefanie Congdon heard the same questions day after day: What is this place?What do you do all winter?Do you guys do weddings?Is this place haunted?This book is her answer.Told through seasons, guests, weddings, winters, and everyday island life, Porch Stories offers an intimate look at a place most people only glimpse for a weekend. It is part memoir, part observation, and part lived experience-rooted in ferry schedules, horses, the island school, employee housing, and the quiet rituals that shape life in a car-free place. Read more