Grand Hotel Mackinac

Grand Hotel

1886 Popularity of Mackinac Island grows as a summer getaway, but accommodations are limited. The Michigan Central Railroad, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and Detroit and Cleveland Steamship Navigation Company form the Mackinac Island Hotel Company. Land upon which Grand Hotel will stand is purchased and construction begins.

1887 Grand Hotel opens July 10. The hotel is billed as a summer retreat for vacationers who arrive by lake steamer from Chicago, Erie, Montreal, Detroit, and by rail from across the continent. Rates are $3 to $5 a night.

1890s Grand Hotel's Front Porch - longest in the world - becomes the principal meeting place for all of Mackinac Island, as well as a promenade for the elderly and a "Flirtation Walk" for island romantics. Grand Hotel Manager James "The Comet" Hayes invites an agent of Edison Phonograph to conduct regular demonstrations of the new invention.

1895 Mark Twain lectures in the Grand Hotel Casino. Admission: $1.

1897 The West Wing is added to the hotel. Turn of the Century The automobile finds its way onto the island. Grand Hotel supports an island-wide ban. A law is soon passed, but is not strictly enforced until the 1930s.

1919 Hotel rates are $6 a day per person.

1933 W. Stewart Woodfill, hired as a desk clerk in 1919, purchases the hotel and becomes sole owner. 1935 Grand Hotel adds a radio salon, where patrons could listen to Jack Benny and other popular programs.

1949 This Time For Keeps starring Jimmy Durante and Esther Williams is filmed on the island and at Grand Hotel. 1951 R.D. (Dan) Musser joins the hotel staff. 1957 Michigan Historical Association selects Grand Hotel as a State Historical Building.

1960 Woodfill appoints Dan Musser, who joined the hotel staff in 1951, president of Grand Hotel.

1976 Musser and wife Amelia begin the redesign of the hotel's interior and exterior with the help of architect Richard Bos and decorator Carleton Varney. 1979 The Mussers purchase Grand Hotel.

1980 Somewhere In Time, filmed at Grand Hotel and starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer is released. 1987 The Cupola Bar is added, the Woodfill Conference Center is completed and The Jewel golf course is renovated. 1989 R.D. (Dan) Musser III is named president of Grand Hotel. 1989 The East Wing is added to the hotel.

1989 The U.S. Department of Interior designates Grand Hotel a National Historic Landmark.

1994 The new Woods nine opens, combining with the original Grand nine to comprise The Jewel, Grand Hotel's 18-hole golf course. 1998 Five new Named Rooms in honor of U.S. first ladies Barbara Bush, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter and Nancy Reagan are added to the West End of the hotel. Two new two-bedroom suites, the Grand and the Carleton Varney, are also added.

2000 A new golf pro shop is added. Construction begins on the Millennium Wing, which includes a 300-seat addition to the Main Dining Room and 42 new guest rooms. It's the hotel's largest addition ever.

2001 The Millennium Wing opens on the east end of the hotel featuring 42 new guest rooms and The Grand Pavilion - a 3,600 square-foot private meeting room and dining room.

2003 The Masco Cottage, a four-bedroom cottage, is added to the east end of the hotel, bringing the guest room total to 385.

2004 The Grand Club is formed.

2006 The Gate House, a bar/restaurant just as short walk down Grand Hill is added to the variety of offsite Grand Hotel dining options. Casual dining, live music, with indoor and outdoor seating.

2009 The Grand Hotel  bought a plane to help get its high-end guests to the resort in a hurry. It's a Piston Twin Turbo Twin Seat 7 that can fly in guests who would rather come directly than at the whim of airline schedules or traffic.