44. Mooreville and Park House

Location: 888 Holland Street, Saugatuck
Date: 1857 (house) to present

H. D. and Tamar Moore house & park looking toward Mt. Baldhead, from “History of Allegan and Barry Counties, Michigan” by Crisfield Johnson, D.W. Ensign & Company, 1880

Horace D. Moore came to Michigan in 1855. The following year he purchased many acres of pine forest and built a sawmill just north of Saugatuck where a creek enters the Kalamazoo River. The creek is sometimes called Goshorn Creek after it origins, and sometimes called Moore’s Creek for its destination. In addition to the mill, the settlement included worker’s housing and a company store. Over time, the area came to be known as Mooreville.

The Moore family built a large home near the mill which was called the Park House because the family kept tame deer in an improvised park. In 1879, Susan B. Anthony, as an advocate of women’s suffrage and temperance, visited Saugatuck and stayed with the Moores. By 1885, the mill had closed and Moore sold the home to James Riley who turned it into the Park Hotel. Today, the site still welcomes guests as the Park House Inn.