photograph
Catalog Number
no visible number 72Date of Origin
ca. 1885Description
Black and white photograph taken from Look Out Mountain, on the south side of the channel, looking north towards Ottawa Beach. Lake Macatawa is visible at right.The back of this photo indicates that it was taken in August of 1894 by H. Keppel. It is thought this is the Hotel Ottawa before it was relocated in 1896.
History
Ottawa Beach is the name given to the area along the north side of the channel and northwest section of Lake Macatawa, in Park Township. It received its name in 1886 with the construction of the hotel Ottawa, built on a hillside near the beach.The Ottawa Beach Hotel (originally known as the Hotel Ottawa) was built by the West Michigan Park Association (a group organized in Grand Rapids in 1885) in the summer of 1886 on the north side of the channel, on a bluff. Across the channel, on the south side, was the rival Macatawa Park Hotel.
The Ottawa Beach Hotel burned to the ground on November 6, 1923.