Post #443563 by Bongo Bungalow on Mon, Mar 30, 2009 6:22 AM

Here's some additional info from Fenton Press reporter Amy Mayhew:

"We weren’t able to dig up any vintage photos at the Flint Journal photo library. But in the stuff Barb gave me, there are a few pictures that I felt I could scan fairly well. The first one is taken in the summer of 1961. It’s a picture of Jane and Fred Barton flanking Mayor Eddie Tam of Wailuku, Hawaii and Mayor Charles A. Mobley – Mayor of Flint. The caption reads as follows:

“EVERYTHING’S HAWAIIAN – Hawaiian Gardens, near Holly, had a real Hawaiian in the house Tuesday night. Mayor Eddie Tam of Wailuku was a guest for dinner and entertainment. He had taken part in a world conference of local governments in Washington, DC. From the left are Mrs. Fred Barton, wife of the owner of the restaurant; Mayor Tam; Flint’s Mayore Charles A. Mobley, and Barton. Mobley is giving Tam a lei made of spark plugs, lights, nuts and bolts.”

The second picture I scanned is the honeymoon cottage at Hawaiian Gardens, and came from a 1981 copy of the Northwest Oakland County Herald Advertiser. It was taken shortly after the Lakeview Inn went under and the buildings were up for sale again. When I was down talking to Don Winglemire, he said that his daughter Penny had stayed at the honeymoon cottage for her wedding night. Well, Penny happened to be working, so I sat down and talked to her. She said she got married on Dec. 31, 1976 and it was a blizzard that night. It was quite a treat to stay in the honeymoon cottage. She said they had a couple drinks at the Grotto bar before going back to the cottage. She said they had a huge inlaid tile bathtub that was enormous – way ahead of it’s time. She said the whole place was really cool – very exclusive. The caption reads as follows:

“HONEYMOON COTTAGE – “Honeymoon Cottage” patterned after one in the Hawaiian Islands once added atmosphere to the Hawaiian Gardens complex. Now locked and empty, it needs renovating to bring it up to the splendor it once had.”

ON HOW WINGLEMIRE MET BARTON

Mr. Winglemire told me that he originally met Fred Barton when he returned to Holly in the early 1950s. Prior to that, Fred Barton lived in San Franciso, CA where he had invented Bar’s Leaks. Because the automotive industry was in Michigan and his product was in huge demand, he moved back here. He chose Holly because his grandparents lived here when he was growing up, and he spent a lot of time here as a kid.

Mr. Winglemire said that Fred verified a story about his family for him. Evidently, when Fred was preparing to furnish his resort, he came down to Winglemires and asked if they would be interested in handling all of that. Mr. Winglemire said Fred was asking for way more than they typically did, but agreed to do it. He said he asked Fred why he wanted to used Winglemire’s Furniture, and Fred said that he remembered coming down there with his grandma in the early 1900s – I’m guessing around the 1920s or so – to pick out a casket for Fred’s grandpa who had died. Before it became a furniture store, Winglemires used to be a woodworking shop, specializing in caskets. Anyway, Fred told Don that when he and his grandma came in to pick out a casket, Don’s crazy great aunt Clara waited on them and got in the casket so that Grandma could see what a body looks like lying in it. I guess it had been rumored on down through the Winglemire ages that Aunt Clara was famous for offering that service, but everybody thought it was so absurd that it must be a joke. Well, Fred’s true life account put that little piece of family mystery to rest…so to speak."

There's one other detail than Jan provided to understand the history of Hawaiian Gardens and that's that Fred was perhaps a bit of a womanizer. So, it was with his second wife that he built the resort. (His daughter, who contributed to the article, was a product of his first marriage.) Then, it was with his third wife (reportedly a cashier in the gift shop)that Fred retired. Well... this kinda stuff happens...