Lost Hotels of Mackinac: The Palmer House

The Palmer House, Ca. 1880

Mackinac Island features many historic hotels that have welcomed visitors for generations. There were other early hotels that, for a variety of reason, have closed their doors. Some of these buildings remain standing but are used for different purposes. Others have disappeared completely. In this and future posts we will explore some of these lost hotels of Mackinac Island.

Advertisement, 1895

The Palmer House was located on Main Street where the Main Street Inn and Suites is today, next door to the Haunted Theater. Prior to the construction of the hotel the lot held the Biddle warehouse, built in the 1820s. The Palmer House was a three-story, gable-roofed building positioned close to the street. The front featured a two-story porch. There were no structures across from it, so the patrons enjoyed an unobstructed view of the harbor. The hotel was advertised as having a capacity of 100 persons. It likely took its name from the famed Palmer House in Chicago.

The Palmer House, left center in about 1900. Note the roof over the second floor porch had been removed by this date.

The Palmer House was probably built by Louis Jollie, Sr. in about 1875. However, he died in December of that year, and the hotel was run by his wife, Eleanora for the next several years. By 1879 her 29-year old son Louis, in partnership with Charles Bird, was operating the hotel. Bird left the partnership in about 1898. It was briefly owned by Mrs. Ida French between 1909 and 1911 but then passed to George T. Arnold. He ran it for only a few years before closing it in 1914.

Detail from a William Gardiner photograph, ca. 1905

The building stood vacant, fell into disrepair and was torn down by the late 1920s. The lot remained empty until about 1966 when a one-story building was competed on one side of the site, housing a barbecue restaurant. This structure was later expanded, ultimately home to a JoAnn’s Fudge Shop and Nephew’s of Mackinac. This building was torn down in 2002 and replaced by the three-story Main Street Inn and Suites, featuring shops on the ground floor.

The Palmer House in its final days in the late 1920s. The building to the right is the motion picture theater, today the Haunted Theatre. To the left is McNally Cottage.