Inn

Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes

Glen Haven History

Sleeping Bear Inn

On the west side of the road (on your right) is the Sleeping Bear Inn. It was used as a boarding house for the lumberjacks, dock workers and sometimes for passengers who wanted to stay overnight or get a meal. The dock and the Inn were built by Charles C. McCarty in about 1865, just before we got here. I know you’re going to see that sign on the Inn that says it was built in 1857, but it just ain’t so! You can’t believe everything you read, even if it’s on a building! The back part of the building was added after we got here because there wasn’t enough room for everybody. There was no enclosed porch like you see today — that was built on in 1928 — but there was an open porch across the front. The rooms in the front of the inn were nicer than the ones in the back.

They were more expensive and usually were rented to businessmen who were passengers on the steamers. My brother and I stayed with the other workers in the back section. There were three large bunk rooms in the back of the second floor, one on each side of a hall and another at the end of the hall. They’d jam as many of us in there as would fit! It wasn’t unusual to have to share a bed with a complete stranger. Usually you were so tired it didn’t really matter since you fell asleep as soon as you lay down. It was a pretty rowdy place, and it didn’t smell so good!

We worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and when we had time off we’d usually be working on our homestead, clearing the land and building our houses. When we were at the Inn, we’d be down in one of the two parlors or in the dining room. That’s where you could get the latest news and talk with the crew. The Management did their best to keep the workers and passengers separated. They even had two seatings for meals; one for us workers and one for the passengers. Most of us workers stayed there at the Inn, because we were either single or waiting to send for our families until we got some land and built a house. The married workers lived in shacks along Main Street.

D. H. Day lived in a two-room suite upstairs in the Inn for over 10 years. He came to town in 1878 to be the agent for the Northern Transit Company (NTC) in Glen Haven, and when he married Eva Farrant, the daughter of the innkeeper, in 1889, they moved to the rooms above the General Store.

Continue your tour of Glen Haven on the following pages

Glen Haven History Intro Page
Glen Haven Dock
Sleeping Bear Inn
Wooding & Lumber Operations
General Store
Blacksmith Shop
Schoolhouse
Glen Haven Shipping
Canning Company
Other Topics

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