LAKETOWN TWP., MI (WHTC-AM/FM, May 9, 2025) – As Roman Catholics celebrate the installation of a new Pontiff, the first American to hold that post has a tie to the Lakeshore.
Officials with the Felt Mansion disclosed on Thursday that Robert Provost had attended St. Augustine Seminary that was held at that Laketown Township building, graduating from there in 1973. Provost eventually became a Cardinal, and he was elected as Pope Leo XIV on Thursday by the College of Cardinals in Vatican City.
Built in the 1930’s by inventor Dorr E. Felt, the mansion was purchased by the Augustinian Order in 1949 for re-purposing as a seminary. It had as many as 180 students in the mid-60’s before declining enrollment and maintenance costs compelled the order to sell the site to the state in 1977.
After a 13-year stretch as the Saugatuck Dunes Correctional Facility, the township purchased the property in 1996 for a dollar, and efforts to restore the mansion and its grounds begun in 2001. The Felt Mansion is currently a setting for public events and private functions.
Bishop Edward Lohse of the Diocese of Kalamazoo says the new Pope Leo told him about going to high school when the diocese was established, and would help out at parishes in West Michigan when the two of them met attending a bishops’ school in Vatican City.
-Michael Arney contributed to this story
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