Archive for category: INNsider

Yesterday we had a visit from the grandson of one of Sleeping Bear Inn’s former innkeepers. Roger and Dee shared with us a few documents and photos from Cora and Melphie Barber. Roger gifted us this precious postcard his grandmother Cora sent to Rapid City Michigan on June 15, 1910 while she was the Innkeeper and her husband worked with livestock in the barn that once stood behind the Inn. The barn no longer exists as it burned down and was eventually replaced with the Sleeping Bear Inn Garage. Sadly Cora wrote of the very sad news that their mail carrier from the Island had drown. Read more (new window)

Check out the postmark! Glen Haven was a thriving Village in 1910 with its own post office and look at this glimpse of the very familiar DH Day Barn and homestead that was the photo on the front side of the post card. Look closely, there are 2 men in the photo. I wonder who they are? Maybe DH Day and his employee Phillips who married DH and Eva’s daughter and lived at the pictured home and farm as Eva and DH preferred to live in Glen Haven.

Dave, Peg & Maggie planting trees

It may not have been the most optimal time of year to plant new trees and the trees we found were not quite as tall as we had hoped however we could not be more thrilled with the opportunity to start replacing trees in Glen Haven. The Park settled on Black Cherry as the replacement for the Black Locust trees planted in the 1920’s and later largely wiped out of Glen Haven in the devastating storm of 2015. I am pictured here with faithful volunteers Peg and Dave as we plant in locations the NPS archeologists first examined in April for potential Village artifacts.

Given the all-clear, and with generous donors answering a call for tree sponsors, we were all set to purchase trees. George finally found a source with trees, not quite as large as we had hoped, however still hearty and we set out to plant as soon as they arrived. Mother Nature cooperated by turning the clock back to spring and the trees have hardly skipped a beat! Since we purchased smaller trees than we anticipated, we will use the leftover tree donations to purchase additional trees to plant along Glen Haven Road in the Village.

Jeff from Northwoods Hardware in Glen Arbor dropped off 30 low-grow sumac plants and 3 rose plants a few days ago and thanks to several volunteers, we were able to plant them all by the Memorial Holiday weekend. Phyllis and I started removing the grass and the next day, Steve, Peg, Dave and John continued the work. On the third day, Peg returned and we were joined by Sharon and David. We have added 4 yards of mulch to the 5 new beds we created to surround the eastern and northern sides of the Inn and lined the beds with rocks that we found around the Inn.

Thank you to the volunteers that helped; so many visitors to Glen Haven this weekend have commented on how terrific it looks!

As our subcontractors have wrapped up their respective parts of the project, George has been busy replacing the windows and siding getting the Inn ready for insulation. We will also be getting ready to paint the interiors of the two second story Garage apartments.

Happy Spring from Glen Haven! The season has brought back all of our subcontractors to the Inn and the progress is exciting. The porch floor is refinished and fabulous (check out the photo on Facebook, the link is at the bottom of the page). The 3 chimneys have been relined and wood burning inserts have been installed in the fireplaces. Yesterday and today, the electricians have run several hundred feet of wire throughout the Inn.

Tomorrow our excavator will start the work on our septic system and next week the plumbers and fire suppression professionals will be back to finish their rough installations in the Inn. George finished installing all the new windows in the Garage and the drywaller will start hanging and finishing next week as well.

Thank you to a generous donor who was too late to fund a replacement tree, but stepped up to fund the replication of this historic sign. Legendary Leelanau County sign painter Dennis Gerathy has been commissioned to build and paint a copy of this historic sign that hung outside of the Inn for decades. The Park had placed the original sign in their collection making it unavailable to us for reuse however thanks to our donor and Dennis, it will live on. We also had another donor who wished to fund a tree also pivot and is funding the sign holder. Please look for this sign out front of the Inn later this summer.

Progress has been moving quickly at the Inn and Garage since the temperature has inched slowly upward. Our plumber/mechanical contractor has completed much of his rough installation at the Inn and our electrician has begun the process for his work as well. The fire suppression contractor will be back at the end of the month to complete his installation and our excavator has told us we will be first on his list this spring to square away our septic system.

We are working with Glen Arbor Northwoods Hardware Garden Center to obtain our trees and shrubs that will be planted around the Inn this spring. They are terrific to work with and we could not be more grateful for Chris Skellenger’s guidance. We are also planting beachgrass on much of the north facing yard which we are purchasing from the Leelanau Conservation District’s spring sale. Many thanks to all who have donated to our landscape plan! There are many other opportunities for sponsorship! If you are interested please email me at info@sleepingbearinn.org.