Louis Graveraet Kaufman: The Fabulous Michigan Gatsby Who Conquered Wall Street, Took Over General Motors, and Built the World's Tallest Building

by Ann Berman

Discover the extraordinary rise of the glamorous, competitive, and clever American banking titan.

This fascinating biography recounts the life and legacy of a titan of American banking, Louis Graveraet Kaufman (1870-1942). Also known as LG, he was a Gatsbyesque figure born in Michigan's Upper Peninsula who married into great wealth and then amassed far more of his own.

Under LG, New York's Chatham Phenix National Bank and Trust Company became one of the nation's largest banks and the first in New York to boast a network of branches. When he was denied entry into the exclusive, Protestant, old-money Huron Mountain Club, LG responded by building his own retreat: the world's largest log lodge, a 26,000-square-foot behemoth near Marquette, Michigan. Christened Granot Loma, it became the site of lavish Prohibition-era parties, attracting many celebrities who came in private rail cars to enjoy jazz and liquor chez Kaufman.

A darling of the press, LG became a household name, making news by coordinating the famous takeover of General Motors in 1916, narrowly escaping death in the Wall Street Bombing of 1920, and financing the Empire State Building during the Great Depression. Author Ann Berman highlights Kaufman's remarkable journey from "barefoot boy" to trailblazing branch banking giant, proving LG was not just a man of his time but one worth reading about over a century later.

256 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2025

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing. The details she includes are interesting. There’s the right amount of backstory. I didn’t feel like I was reading a book about a broader topic like I do sometimes. The editing seems poetically concise to me. She propels the narrative forward but still gives us the story.

As a local I learned details about familiar people that if I’d heard before, I didn’t remember. I remember learning about Mary and Nathan as a kid. I’m pretty sure they were the first divorce in Marquette. I couldn’t remember the who of it, just the story, so I’m happy to have that bit of information.

The focus on the grandiose lifestyle is appealing in the same was as watching a Real Housewives or Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Marie would have been polarizing TV.

Nathan and Mary’s story should be a book all on its own.

I wish she’d included a family tree

In a place with as many rooms as Granot Loma, why would Marie hold Court in her bathroom with an ice bucket on top of the commode? p202

[Rita Subhedar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in Marquette, Michigan on vacation and wandered into a bookshop to look for a travel guide for the city. The owner said they didn’t have a travel guide, but suggested this book which gives a history of the city (though Marquette isn’t mentioned on the cover). The book was riveting and I couldn’t put it down. I read the whole thing in a few days. Remarkable story of a half-Jewish, part Native American man from Marquette who became one of the richest men in America, developed modern banking, rescued General Motors, built the Empire State Building, and built the largest house in Michigan, a castle in the woods in Marquette that still exists today. Probably the best book I’ve read this year. Incredible story!

[John Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis Graveraet Kaufman is an important man in our nation's history. This book by Ann Berman tells his story for the ages. More work needs to be done to honor LG's contribution to our country.

Thanks to Ann Berman who started something. As the book says: "LG built, or helped shape, important structures that remain part of our landscape. But without Louis Graveraet Kaufman, branch banking, General Motors and the Empire State Building would not have developed as they did, or perhaps even exist,..."

Berman's book is an important book!

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, full of information that the writer makes interesting with her light, breezy style. These people are a classic American tale of rising from nothing to becoming fabulously wealthy — with much of it falling apart at the end of Louis' life. His wife, known as the Princess of Marquette, Michigan — makes your skin crawl with her oblivious acquisitiveness. The couple had several children together — and happily, not all of them destroyed their father's legacy, although of course a couple of them were dazzlingly self destructive.
All in all, it's a page turner with a little bit of everything: family drama, rags-to-riches success, and the history of the Empire State Building and central banking (surprisingly relevant to our lives; without them, there are no ATMs on every street corner), and more. Best of all are the descriptions and photos of Kaufman's summer palace on the shores of Lake Superior.
Highly recommend.

[Laura Berman · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did the high-school educated son of a Jewish peddler in Michigan's Upper Peninsula rise to the highest levels of finance in the United States? Apparently, people in Marquette, MI know something about the man who built the largest timber lodge in the U.S., shuttled movie stars from Chicago to his summer lodge on a private rail car for weekend-long parties in the 1920s, helped save General Motors, and finance the Empire State Building. Most of us, though, never heard of the man. Ann Berman's well-documented, highly readable account of the life of Louis G. Kaufman is a surprising and engrossing tale of American self-invention, (She and I are not related.) that explores Kaufman's Native American and Jewish background, the prejudices he faced, and the combination of personality and intelligence that propelled him forward. A fascinating history.

[Ann Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began this book very skeptically after encountering two errors in the first paragraphs of the preface. Green Bay is not the closest jet airport to Marquette and Marquette is due north, not east, of Green Bay. But once the author got correctly oriented, it was smooth sailing. Much of the early Kaufman family history in the U.P. was familiar to me, but their lives in New York, New Jersey, and Florida were all new. I especially appreciated all the details about the building and operation of Granot Loma and the friendship that developed between LG and local builder and artisan, Nestor Kallioinen.

[Marius K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done!!! Interesting writing about an interesting person. Very well researched. I’m so glad, as a citizen of Marquette, Michigan, to have read this book. Bravo, Ann Berman!