Our Story

Don’t accept less, enjoy your family, build lasting memories, and enjoy your own multi-million dollar retreat every weekend.

Waldenwoods sits on a beautiful 140 acre spring fed lake, surrounded by 400 acres of wooded splendor. When you come into Waldenwoods you are transported back to an era when the world was less complicated and life was simpler.

Waldenwoods has been owned and operated by the Crouse Family since 1837, when they helped to plat the original village of Hartland. J. Robert Crouse was born in 1874 and was raised in Hartland. As a teenager, he and his family moved to Ohio where they had business interests. Mr. Crouse returned to Michigan to attend U of M. After graduation, he joined his father, J. B., and his uncle, H. A. Tremaine in the family businesses. These included pioneering ventures in the dairy, refrigeration, electric lighting, and even the automotive industry.

J. Robert was very successful and was widely known as the “Father of Cooperation”. He received honors from such well-known contemporaries as Herbert Hoover when Hoover was Secretary of Commerce, Thomas A. Edison and Charles F. Kettering. In 1924, J. Robert Crouse developed the land on the East shore of what was then known as Brophy Lake. He constructed the three large lodges to serve as a meeting place not only for his own businesses but for industry-wide meetings to foster cooperation among business competitors.

Mr. Crouse, a great admirer of Henry David Thoreau, named his retreat Waldenwoods. His family later renamed the 140-acre lake “LAKE WALDEN” after Thoreau’s famous book “WALDEN”. Upon completion of the main buildings, he created the “Cromaine Society” defining the objective of the Society as follows:

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