Long Lake Hotel
Constructed in the early twentieth century, the Long Lake Hotel (now the current estate at Long Lake Memories) was a popular summer destination situated on an island in Long Lake.
The Valparaiso and Northern Railway (V&N) was an electric interurban train line in Porter County that operated from 1910 to 1938, connecting Valparaiso to Chesterton by way of area lake resorts.
An interurban train station along the V&N was located about one block from the beach on the opposite shore from the Long Lake Hotel. Individuals arriving by the interurban rail line would walk to the beach and then take a boat or ferry across the lake to the hotel facilities.
Miller’s Pavilion
No longer standing, the Miller Pavilion at the Long Lake Hotel once housed a dance pavilion, grocery store, slot machines and boat rentals. The pavilion suffered significant damage from a tornado in 1942 and was deemed irreparable.
In present day, you can enjoy our private beach on Long Lake where Miller's Pavilion once stood.
OUR HISTORY
Thank you to the Porter County Museum for sharing the history of the Long Lake Hotel with us.
Hotel on Long Lake
The Chesterton Tribune
February 2, 1911
It has been inevitable from the first that a short time after the building of the Valparaiso & Northern to connect the Air Line with the lake district north of Valparaiso, Indiana, Long Lake would become a great summer resort, exceptionally popular with "weekenders" from Chicago. Until the railway commenced building, this pretty little lake was entirely undeveloped, for the very good reason that it was not easily accessible. It was away from the traveled highway and practically unknown except to neighboring farmers and a few enthusiastic fisherman.
The honor of building the first cottage on the lake belongs to Mr. J. D. Price, president of the Co-Operative Construction Company, who was one of the first to see the beauty and transportation possibilities of the vicinity. The directors of the Air Line will not soon forget the evening which they spent in this hospitable summer home last fall.
Now a summer hotel is about to be constructed there; in fact, the lumber is already on the ground and the owners have cut and stored enough ice to take them through the season. The hotel will have forty rooms and it will stand across the lake from the railroad on a very picturesque bluff. The railroad will have a passenger station at the end of a highway, which leads down to the water, opposite the hotel, and the hotel guests will be carried back and forth in a ferry boat.
The new hotel will be completed in time for the summer business, which will begin soon after the railroad is ready to handle it. With four established summer resorts and a great number of summer cottages on the Valparaiso line, the management is looking forward to a very busy season.
Source: The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; February 2, 1911; Volume 27, Number 45, Page 4, Column 2. Column titled "Hotel on Long Lake.”
