Glen Haven’s iconic Sleeping Bear Inn will again have inhabitants in the once deserted building.
The 19th century Sleeping Bear Inn is the oldest hotel in the National Park system. Maggie Kato, Sleeping Bear Innkeeper and President of the non-profit Balancing Environment and Rehabilitation (BEAR), says they’ve had over 120 bookings within a week of the announcement at the end of February.
Prices at the Inn range from $270 to $320 a night across eight renovated double-occupancy guest rooms with private baths.
“Our rates are the same every day of the week and they’re also the same starting May 1st through October 31st and then our rates drop from November 1st to April 30th,” Kato said. “We’re really trying to ramp into it a little slowly. We’re pretty well along the renovation path.”
The Sleeping Bear Inn’s most prized room called “Day Dreaming” is a large, historic corner that was home to DH Day after he arrived in Glen Haven in 1878.
The Sleeping Bear Inn is nearing its two year-long $2 million renovation process with the final touches coming in the next couple of months. Dozens of volunteers have put in 100s of hours to make the Inn a reality today over the past two years. Along with philanthropic donations, the Inn has received loans through Oxford Bank and USDA direct facilities loan to reach the $2 million needed to renovate the 19th century building.
“We didn’t feel many challenges, what we were so delightfully surprised about was how wonderful the community was... (the community) couldn’t have been more accepting and caring and welcoming for our group,” Kato said. “This has been our biggest source of joy over the last couple of years.”
The Inn was originally built between 1865-1867 and served as a frontier hotel for travelers and local workers.
It continued operations until 1970 and has been closed ever since.
BEAR signed a lease in 2022 to renovate the Sleeping Bear Inn and operate it as a bed and breakfast. The first funding of the project happened when Maggie and Jeff sold their house. The couple will be the Sleeping Bear Inn’s first innkeepers in modern times.
“We jumped in with both feet,” Maggie said.
Mae Keller is the great-great granddaughter of William and Ezilda Farrant, early French-Canadian pioneers (1867), who served as the longest proprietors of the Inn from 1877 to 1883, and again from the early 1890s to around 1907. They had five daughters and one son, all very involved in the community of the times.
Mae is the descendant from William and Ezilda’s son, Miner.
Mae wrote a book, “The Farrants of Glen Haven and Empire: A Story Restored, in 2021,” published through Mission Point Press, which told a great deal of their story in the context of the region’s history. Local historian Andrew White was also a contributor in the book.
“We always had very strong ties to Glen Haven and Traverse City and the whole area when I was growing up. But embarking on doing the book, we learned so much more,” she said.
The population of Glen Haven from roughly 1890 to about 1910 was its “boom time” with its most inhabitants.
Ezilda’s second oldest daughter, Ida Farrant, was a long term school teacher in the area and she was also a columnist for the Leelanau Enterprise throughout the late 1930s and 1940s. Several of her columns are printed in the book.
“I was very fond of Glen Haven growing up when it was quiet and in a state of benign neglect, and I really loved it,” Mae said. “I loved how quiet and peaceful it was and at the same time, I know that can’t last forever. I have really thought that the restoration of the Inn has been really loving and careful and beautifully done and over this period of time. My family and I have gotten to be acquainted with Maggie and Jeff and their crew and we think they’ve done a wonderful job.”
