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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
For nearly 150 years, the Statue of Liberty has stood as a beacon in New York Harbor. For nearly 30, a smaller version has become well-known in Portage Lakes.
“A lot of people use it as a navigation guide,” says Michael Boyle, who bought the Mud Lake property on which the statue sits in 2008. “Plenty of boaters take pictures of it too.”
Boyle tore down the home that was originally on the property, building a new 4,000-square-foot modern farmhouse in its stead. In 2022, Ken Kushmider, owner of Landscape Design Associates, turned the backyard into a relaxation and entertainment space — complete with fire pits and a ball field.
Nautical Decor: The backyard features a two-story boathouse — with 400 square feet of living space just on the top floor. The yard also spotlights a number of nautical accents, including an anchor, five propellers, tie-down cleats and brass explosion-proof lights. Many of these elements came from Big Ship Salvage in Milan, Ohio, which buys items from decommissioned ships. “They have controllers and compasses, explosion-proof lights, a lot of really cool stuff,” Kushmider notes.
Fire Pits: In keeping with the nautical theme, one of the three fire pits in the yard — the one closest to the statue — has been made to look like a compass rose. The points are solid 2.5-inch-thick bluestone, three feet wide at their broadest. Kushmider used the same stone from the exterior of the house and barn stone for this fire pit. Another fire pit near the home is complemented by milled cedar planks used as L-shaped benches.
BALL Field: Boyle grew up playing wiffle ball in his yard. Now he has two more athletes in the family — his daughter, Grace, 11, who plays softball, and his son, Will, 9, who plays baseball. The property includes a ball field. Lewis Landscaping of Copley installed the pitcher's mound and home plate circle. The company recently moved the pitching rubber back from 35 to 40 feet to accommodate Grace — who is moving up to 12U softball. The lake was also incorporated into the design. “We have the yard set up like the [San Francisco] Giants ballpark,” Boyle says. “They have McCovey Cove. We have Mud Lake.”
Sign: At one point, the property, along with several other nearby homes, was part of a camp run by the YMCA. To pay tribute to that history, Boyle commissioned Ric Walter, a kayaking friend, to carve a sign from an 11-foot-long slab of cherry wood that reads “Camp Inawendewin.” Behind the sign is an outdoor shower, a nod to Boyle’s family vacations on Cape Cod. “You don’t see a lot of them around here, but every house had one,” he says.
Landscaping: The property is distinctive for its arboreal cover — including red and white oak and red maple trees. Preserving them was a goal, says Kushmider. “We had seven well-established trees giving shade, and we planted five more that will grow into the replacements a generation from now,” says Boyle.
