"Shore Acres on Diamond Lake" by Sue Heinrich

Driving along the north shore of the lake, either on Shore Acres or on M-60 you can see that the view has changed a lot over the years. In fact, the 4 acres where once stood the Diamond Harbor Inn, and before that the Shore Acres Hotel have been totally cleared. The trees and old blacktop are goner replaced by new roads and new construction. But the memories remain.
This tract of land was originally part of an 80 acre farm purchased by James H. Leach and known as the J. C. Moon farm and the house was called Shore Acres. According to A Diamond Sparkles, Leach bought the farm from James Hayden in 1895. Leach raised fruits and vegetables as well as grain. His wife was apparently a good cook and at first served meals to fishermen and friends. As her reputation grew, so did the business and they began to take in boarders. At first, they could accommodate only 13 boarders, but before long they expanded to house 33 guests. Around 1911, they leased the house to Arthur Coles who opened it to the public. The Leaches later sold the property and Dan Bradt built the Shore Acres Hotel on the site of the original house. He later built two large additions adding sleeping rooms on one end and a dining room and sleeping rooms on the other. He later added a dance pavilion and then took it down when it didn’t succeed. The Shores Acres Hotel was the last of the six hotels built on Diamond Lake and was never very large. After Bradt, there were several owners, until 1962 when the Diamond Harbor Inn opened.
Diamond Harbor Inn was known and loved by many of us. It was owned by Al Kahn, Charles King, and Charles Zeman from Kalamazoo who managed Diamond Harbor Inn and who also managed the Gull Harbor Inn in Kalamazoo. The Inn was built around the Shore Acres Hotel and maintained some of the rooms in order to keep the inn license. The food and service were wonderful and the views of the lake were beautiful. I remember that they had an amazing gourmet salad bar and a dessert bar that had some of the most delectable cream pies. The menu included duck á l’orange, fresh trout from a trout tank and fresh lobster from the lobster tank. With valet parking and a gift shop as well as a sunken bar and live music on the weekends, the Diamond Harbor Inn was one of the few high quality restaurants in the entire area. It drew clientele from as far away as Chicago and Detroit and was a favorite of the Notre Dame fans after the football games. They served as many as 1500 meals on a good Saturday. The bar was one of my father’s favorites and I went there for dinner prior to my senior prom in South Bend.
Alas, all good things must end. Zeman was diagnosed cancer and in early 1973, the Inn was purchased by Dr. Fred Mathews and Earl Marhanka, owner of K & M Tool Co. That New Year’s Eve, Marhanka got angry, told everyone to leave and threw the keys in the lake. The property was sold again, this time to Tom Wurster, Al Kahn (the original owner) and Foster Daugherty with Wurster taking on the management responsibilities. At this point, the heyday was over. There was more competition from new restaurants in the area and cultural changes had occurred. The work pressures on lake residents during the week in the city made them more anxious to relax at home on the lake on the weekends and less likely to go out. According to Wurster, Kahn stopped in one Saturday evening following the Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game and asked how the night had gone. When Wurster told him, he gasped that they used to do three times that much. They decided it was time to close.
The restaurant was sold again on a land contract to the Papai brothers who planned renovations prior to re-opening. Then in the 86/87 timeframe, Frank Ward bought it, supposedly because he wanted to continue to have a place close to home to go out. Then in 89/90, it was sold again to Dennis Bamber who had planned to restore it to glory. He tore it down in 1991. Although cosmetic renovations had been done over the years, no money had been put into the structure and it was in poor condition. There was a hole in the roof in the kitchen; there were problems with the walls. The building had been empty for several years at that point and it needed maintenance and was too big to be economically profitable. However, Bamber had designed a new place and was trying to find a partner who was an experienced restaurateur and who could help with the financing. When all the possible partners fell away, Bamber was unable to go any further.
And now, many years later, Bamber, along with Ryan Rans, is developing the land into the North Shore Villas, the site of 8 custom designed and custom built homes. From a farm house to a hotel to a restaurant and back to home sites, I guess that’s the circle of life for this prime property on the north shore of Diamond Lake.