The W. H. L. McCourtie Estate, originally called Aiden Lair and now known as McCourtie Park, is a recreational park located at 10426 South Jackson Road (at US 12) in Somerset Center, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1991 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The site may contain the country's largest collection of el trabejo rustico (known in French as faux bois), the Mexican folk art tradition where wet concrete is sculpted to look like wood.HistoryWilliam Herbert Lee McCourtie was born in 1872 on a farm near Somerset Center, the eighth child of Mary Cohan McCourtie and Michael Doty McCourtie. He went to the University of Michigan and graduated with a law degree in 1891, and married Ellen D. Hulett in 1896. In 1897, he was introduced to the cement industry by W. F. Cowham of Jackson. He soon moved to Dallas, Texas, where he made a fortune in the oil business, and founded his own cement company, Trinity Portland Cement. In the 1920s, McCourtie returned to Somerset Center and in 1924 he purchased the family home and surrounding property and turned it into "Aiden Lair," a community center where he hosted multiple events. He continued hosting free community events well into the Great Depression. McCourtie also hosted out-of-town luminaries; it is known that Henry Ford was a visitor to Aiden Lair.Around 1930, McCourtie hired two itinerant Mexican artisans, George Cardoso and Ralph Corona, to build 17 concrete bridges at Aiden Lair, spanning the winding stream that flowed through the property. Cardoso and Corona used a technique known as el trabejo rustico (known in French as faux bois), a Mexican folk art tradition where wet concrete is sculpted to look like wood. The two had learned the craft from Dionicio Rodriguez, the most famous artisan in, and acknowledged master of, the genre. It is known that a third unidentified artisan assisted Cardoso and Corona; it has been speculated that the unknown third person was Rodriguez. The cement structures on the property were completed between 1930 and 1933.