Elm Pointe is an eleven-acre estate developed about 1926 by John J. and Eva Porter. The house, designed by Grand Rapids architect J. Alexander McColl, was constructed of lumber milled by the East Jordan Lumber Company. An unusual contemporary version of Colonial architecture, it showcased the company's products when the Porters entertained clients. Robert W. and Augustine Allen purchased the estate in 1942 as a summer home and built the lodge in the early 1940s. Augustine Allen Westgate donated the property, with many of its original furnishings, to the city of East Jordan in 1972, and the Portside Art and Historical Society's museum was established there in 1976. The property had been part of the original holdings of the East Jordan Lumber Company, owned by John Porter's father, William P. Porter. Organized in 1888, the company began manufacturing cedar shingles in 1890 and by 1912 operated two sawmills and a maple flooring plant, making lumbering East Jordan's leading industry until the last mill closed in 1928. John Porter directed the sales department and, as lumbering declined, he and Eva Porter formed the East Jordan Canning Company. From 1927 into the 1970s, it processed and marketed the region's produce, and John Porter became its president in 1931.