Sleeping Bear Inn
hotel in Leelanau County, Michigan, USA
The Sleeping Bear Inn, also known as the Glen Haven Inn, is a hotel located on Glenn Haven Road in Glen Haven, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1996 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
History
This inn, originally called the "Sleeping Bear House," was built in 1857 by C.C. McCarthy, using standard plans. McCarthy also built a sawmill nearby. Development in the area slowed during the Civil War, but after the war's conclusion settlement in the area boomed. In 1865, McCarthy built a dock nearby, and the protected harbor of Glen Haven began to be used as a stop. The Sleeping Bear Inn served as a boarding house for the dock workers and lumberjacks who worked in the area, as well as an inn for passengers travelling on the steamships. It also served as a stopping point for settlers moving into the area. A rear addition was constructed around this time.
In 1878, Philo Chamberlain, president of the Northern Transit Company steamship line, acquired the inn and the rest of the properties in Glen Haven to assure an adequate wooding stop for the company's vessels.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Sleeping Bear Inn” as hotel in Leelanau County, Michigan, USA. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as hotel in Leelanau County, Michigan, USA. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16900284. Authority coordinates are 44.904, -86.027. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 1985, 1857 and 1865.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sleeping Bear Inn”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sleeping Bear Inn primary sources, Sleeping Bear Inn archive and Sleeping research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sleeping Bear Inn”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sleeping Bear Inn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.