The Portage Point Inn Complex is located on Portage Point, a peninsula which separates Lake Michigan from Portage Lake. The complex contains fifteen buildings constructed between 1902 and 1954; all but the last 1954 building contribute to the historic character of the complex. The buildings include:
- Original Inn (1901-02, 1913-14) The original inn is a three-story Colonial Revival structure with a gambrel roof, clad with white clapboards. Originally constructed in 1901/02, the veranda was enclosed in 1913/14.
- New Inn (Main Hotel) (1911-1912) The main hotel is a 3+1⁄2-story structure with a gambrel roof, fronted by a two-story portico with Tuscan columns.
- Casino/Dance Pavilion (1908) The casino is a rectangular, one-and-one-half-story structure with a high, gable roof surrounded by verandas.
- Beech Lodge (1906) The Beech Lodge is an H-shaped, two-and-one-half-story cross-gable Craftsman structure with a steeply pitched roof supported by open triangular brackets. A wood beltcourse accents the structure.
- Hull House Cottage (1900-1901) The Hull House Cottage is a two-story, gable-roofed, structure clad with white clapboards. It has a Queen Anne style wraparound porch.
- Rexwood Cottage (1917) The Rexwood Cottage is single story T-shaped Colonial structure with a gable roof and a wooden square-post porch.
- Lakeview Cottage (c.1910) The Lakeview Cottage is single story L-shaped Colonial structure with a gable roof and a wooden square-post porch.
- Avalon Cottage (1911) The Avalon Cottage is single story L-shaped Craftsman structure clad with clapboards. It has a curved pergola-porch entry portico, and triangular stick brackets supporting broad eaves.
- Dollhouse Cottages 1-6 (190 and 1918). the Dollhouse Cottages are six identical single story end-gable structures with shed-roof porches.
- Terrace Building (1954) The Terrace building, designed by Cincinnati architect Jarres Nordloh, is a two-story Neo-Colonial structure with a gable roof and clad with white-painted shingle. Double-decker verandas face the lake.
Onekama’s Portage Point Inn has rich history
Source: Jeff Sternberger, Manistee News Advocate
It is May 7, 1871 when the farmers completed digging the channel connecting Portage Lake to Lake Michigan. The new channel eventually drew the attention of developers who understood how special this location would be for a hotel and resort situation on the protected waters of Portage Lake with easy access to Lake Michigan.
In 1902 construction was started on the Portage Point Inn by the Portage Point Assembly. The inn officially opened in June 1903. The hotel and dining room were completed in 1915. Prior to the addition of the main hotel in 1915, guests could rent a furnished tent or if they were wealthy, claim a room in the original hotel, the area above the lobby.
By 1914, the Portage Point Inn was served by the steamships of the Northern Michigan Transportation Company, providing direct service from Chicago and Milwaukee. The ships could park right in front of the hotel. It was common for the mother and children to spend several weeks at the inn and the husbands to return for the weekends by ship after working the week in Chicago.
The developers used the hotel as a way to attract guests to the area and then sell them lots surrounding the resort. Much of the Portage Point peninsula has been settled by people who originally found the area after staying at the resort. Chicagoans wanted to escape the heat, humidity and smog of Chicago and come to the cool breezes, clear lakes and healing artesian waters of northwest Michigan.
Portage Point Inn was one of the first in the area to have a generator for electricity. In fact, the inn sold electricity to some of the first cottages in the area. Every evening at 10 p.m. the generator was shut off and it was lights out.
In the first 30 years of the century, there were many lakeside resorts that the steamships would visit along the shoreline, dropping off guests. Portage Point Inn is one of the few that still exist because most of them burnt down. The steamships stopped being the mode of transportation in the mid 1930s when the roads and cars were improved enough to make it faster and more affordable.
The Dollhouses were added to the inn complex during the first four decades of the 20th century. From 1935 to 1958 the resort was owned and operated by J. J. Smith. He had no family and lived on the property so the inn was truly his life.
Guests who were physically able were expected to participate in the weekly activities such as softball, volleyball and shuffleboard. If they refused to participate, J.J. felt they were not suited to the Portage Point Inn and would not be invited back.
Generations of families have made the yearly pilgrimage to spend their summer vacation at Portage Point Inn. The inn still has guests visiting who began their yearly visits in the early 1940s and now bring their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to continue the tradition. Let’s hope this special place is around for another 100 years.
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