Slow news day? Nope. The Ticker just couldn't resist telling this local's story.

A Traverse City artist has completed a meticulous piece of folk art that pays homage to the city’s venerable Whiting Hotel and its founder Howard Whiting.

“It was a swanky place back in the day,” Jil Johnson tells The Ticker. “I’ve always liked it and after learning more about it, I like it even more.”

Researching at the History Center of Traverse City, Johnson learned that Whiting built a reputation as “the poor man’s banker” in Traverse City. He constructed the hotel in 1894. Not only would Whiting lend money to area farmers, but the hotel allowed him to provide them a room.

Over the years the hotel underwent a number of changes and Johnson was intrigued by the history of the building. A tour of the current hotel provided her more insight for her project.

The artwork utilizes a vintage typeset drawer that features 89 compartments of varying sizes. She bought the drawer last summer with the idea of using it somehow in an art project. “The handle looked like a hotel marquee to me,” says Johnson. “A friend suggested The Whiting – and that’s how it began.”

With the concept in mind, Johnson spent five months researching and painstakingly crafting tiny characters to inhabit the 89 rooms.

“They’re a combination of historical characters, some present day tenants and others that you might find in any general hotel of the era,” explains Johnson, who spent many hours using magnifying eyewear, tweezers and other devices to complete each miniature person.

Among the tiny residents are:
• Two benign ghosts – a little boy who plays with a ball and a love ghost who strews rose petals
• Several horse heads – Whiting’s hobby was raising and racing horses
• Rock-A-Billy Red – the resident musician
• Tin Can Mary – who collects tin cans to raise money

“Every once in a while a spectacular piece arrives in the gallery and that happened for us,” says Sue Ann Round, owner of the Michigan Artists Gallery in Suttons Bay where The Whiting is on display. “Jil Johnson has outdone herself creating yet another masterpiece of contemporary folk art based on the historic Whiting Hotel.”

So will Johnson do similar projects on other Traverse City landmarks?

“No way,” she says with a laugh and a shake of her head. “My next project is already underway and it’s a beautiful amazing war horse.”