58. The Hotel Boom

Location: Saugatuck and Douglas
Date: 1890s-1920s

IDYLEASE / VALENTINE LODGE
653 Campbell Road, Douglas
Built 1906
Captain John Campbell was a local ship’s captain. His three-story hotel boasted 27 sleeping rooms, a dining room, and a nearby cottage — all set amid a picturesque orchard. While he was off sailing, Mrs. Campbell ran the business.

CORAL GABLES
220 Water Street, Saugatuck
Built as the Leiendecker’s Inn in 1901 with a single gable, the hotel was so successful that a second gable was added for the 1906 tourist season. New owners renamed the property the Columbia Hotel around 1911, to Hotel Saugatuck around 1920 and finally to Coral Gables in 1958. In its early years the distinctive, gambrel-roofed inn was known for its German orchestra. Hotel guests were transferred to the beach by steam-powered water taxis. The Coral Gables was a popular Saugatuck and sometimes rowdy hot spot — particularly during the 1950s and 1960s when the venue attracted college-age partiers from all over the Midwest.

THE POKAGON INN
Oval Beach Road at Park Street, Saugatuck
Built 1899
, burned 1901
The Pokagon was Saugatuck’s first grand hotel, named for the Pottawatomie author Simon Pokagon who gave an address at the great World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The hotel’s backer was Texan E.S. Perryman. The hotel had numerous parlors, bell service in every room, a dance pavilion at the water’s edge and was packing 125 persons a night into its hotel rooms. The inn was destroyed by fire in 1901 and replaced by the smaller Beachway Hotel, which still exists on the site.

MAPLEWOOD HOTEL
428 Butler Street, Saugatuck
Built 1900
Previous used for a general store, then a furniture store/undertaker, this structure was recycled in 1900 as the Maplewood, one of Saugatuck’s favorite hotels. An imposing classical Colonial Revival facade was added in 1923 by local summer resident and Chicago architect, George W. Maher.

HOTEL BUTLER
40 Butler Street, Saugatuck
The structure began its life as the Dunbar and Halstead Flouring Mill in 1892. The mill building was purchased by a local Great Lakes captain W. George Phelps and converted to a summer resort hotel in 1901. The gleaming white hotel had a wrap-around porch, manicured lawns and a graceful entrance. It was conveniently located near the Big Pavilion dance hall and the Interurban train turnaround. After the Big Pavilion burned in 1960, the Butler purchased the Pavilion’s liquor license and built a bar. In 1973, the top two stories were removed but the original fireplace remains. Today’s “The Butler” is a restaurant and cocktail lounge. The property sold to the RedWater Collection, a West Michigan hospitality company, in June 2021. A 2-story, outdoor-dining addition was added in 2022.

TOURISTS’ HOME
528 Water Street, Saugatuck
In 1901, the Tourists’ Home hotel was cobbled together on the site from parts of the Iron Clad Basket factory, a former blacksmith shop and the Nichol’s warehouse from the lighthouse area. It had porches, gardens, dance floor, shuffleboard court, and, pre-WWII, a sign that warned “Gentiles Only.” Renamed the Mount Baldhead Hotel in 1933, the structure was destroyed by fire in 1959. The replacement was the fashionably modern Ship ‘n Shore Motel-Boatel, a drive-in hotel for both boats and automobiles. The BARge, a two-story waterfront dining venue, was added in 2018.

For more of the backstories, see the SDHC publication “Raising the Roof: A History of Buildings and Architecture of the Saugatuck and Douglas Area” by Dr. James Schmiechen, 2006.