Our History - 1159 South Harbor Drive

An 1894 bird’s eye view of Grand Haven showed two small, open structures on the beach at the foot of the Highland Park Hotel, on the location later referred to as the City Beach. The use of those structures was not identified, but probably they were used by patrons of the Hotel who wished to swim in Lake Michigan.

Stephen L. Munroe built a large wooden structure in 1898 [1895] on the grounds now occupied by the Grand Haven State Park [the Oval], as a stop on the trolley line, also called the dummy line. A few years later it became part of the Interurban route. Steps to the lighthouse on the bluff were near the station, as was a walk to the revetment and pier. Called the Pavilion, Munroe’s building was leased by the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, and Muskegon Railway Company, of which Munroe was a founder and director. The Interurban line provided service from downtown Grand Haven to Highland Park, with several stops along the way. The pavilion also was used as a dance hall.

When August Boseker bought the building from Munroe in 1907, he had it moved to a site on the sandy beach below Highland Park Hotel and called it the Highland Park Pavilion. At first the length of the building was perpendicular to the shoreline, but not much later it was turned 90 degrees to run parallel with the beach.

After leasing the facility for a year Edward Peters, from Grand Rapids, bought it from Boseker in 1919, the year Boseker died, raised the building and added 35 feet to the dance hall and a 20-footporch on the lakeside. When Harbor Drive was extended to Highland Park to connect with Lake Avenue in 1921, Peters raised the building another eight feet and put in a skating rink, bath houses, and other recreational facilities. By this time the building was 17 feet by 125 feet. On theground floor there were 250 bath houses with locked doors, plus a recreation room with skating, bowling, pool, ping-pong, and shuffle board. Upstairs there were two long picnic shelters for community gatherings and a large dance hall, where people could learn the waltz, the new two-step, and the Boston Dip. During the later ―swing era‖ many big-name bands, such as Charley Byrd, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey, provided dance music at the pavilion during the resort season. Drummer Sammy Fletcher II and his orchestra, out of Grand Rapids, also performed.

Peters operated the business until approximately 1942, when he leased it to George Cain [Caine]. Cain operated the place for 11 years, followed by Robert Haynes, who ran the operation between 1953 and 1956. In 1953 the building was replaced with a 21-room summer hotel, later called the Bil-Mar Beach Hotel [Bil-Mar Waterfront Apartments].

In 1956 Russ and Mary Baltz purchased this building and the one to the south [1223 Harbor]. Severely damaged by a storm on February 23, 1974, the concrete-block hotel was condemned, and Baltz tore it down. Using some of the lumber from the earlier structure, Baltz erected a new building and named it Hyland Gardens, which he converted in 1977 to the 49-room, two-story BilMar Beach Hotel [Bil-Mar Waterfront Apartments]. This building was replaced by Lighthouse Point Condominiums.