2021.18.24

With the money received, the owner built a new and improved Harding's Hotel on a large empty lot in Douglas, just south of the Terrace Park Resort across from West Shore Golf Course. The new building resembled a long, low airplane hangar. Small rooms lined the outer walls, while the center was given over to a dance floor with food service at one end and a bar at the others. Plans included a swimming pool and other outdoor entertainment facilities, but only the main building was ever completed. The owner was notified that the liquor license, without which the grandiose operation could not succeed, would not be granted. The original hotel had generated an unsavory reputation and the Douglas village fathers clearly did not wish to see this kind of thing duplicated within their jurisdiction. Harding's Hotel had existed for only a few seasons, but a feeling of never-again was strong among local people and summer residents who had been exposed to it. The unused hotel building stood empty for many years, an ugly landmark to a bad idea. In 1960 five local men attempted to convert the building into The Harbor Club. See membership letter on next page, with a diagram of building plans.) The project never really got off the ground because of insufficient enrollments and other problems. In 1966 the property was purchased by R.E. Peterson and son, R. J. Peterson, who the following year converted it into a factory to build steel-hulled River Queen houseboats. After the factory closed the building was used by Peterson Boatworks and Tower Marina, also owned by the Petersons, for a variety of purposes, but later sold. In 1997 it was razed anticipating a shopping mall development that never materialized. https://sdhistoricalsociety.org/publications/NLHist/NLHist/P137-138.php

Buildings: Lost

Winthers, Sally

03/21/2025

04/07/2025