107. Wade’s Douglas House Hotel & Tavern

Location: Southeast corner of Center and Washington Streets, Douglas
Date: 1863

Jonathan Wade lost his job, his fortune, and his home when his mill at Singapore bankrupted in the 1840s. Wade moved on to greener pastures by founding a new settlement across and up the Kalamazoo River called Dudleyville.  Dudleyville would later become the southern portion  of Douglas.

Wade started his new village by building a lumber mill. Then, with plenty of lumber and plenty of family members to help out, he built a hotel in 1861. The handsome Michigan-style Greek Revival building was first known as the Douglas House, later called the Eagle Hotel. Wade’s hotel was one of the area’s finest stagecoach inns. It included a dining room, bar room, stables, accommodations for forty to fifty persons, and was the scene for many Saturday night dances.

At the same time, the Wade clan carried on a political feud with a new family in town, the Dutchers, who owned the north half of the settlement. Center Street became the dividing line between the two little empires of Dutcherville and Dudleyville. In 1870, the two empires were incorporated into the village of Douglas.