Highland Park

The last decades of the 19^th century, profits from the lumber, furniture, and fruit industries created a larger leisure class looking for ways to stay cool during the hot West Michigan summer season.  A group of prominent Grand Haven citizens realized the nearby sand dunes overlooking Lake Michigan, long inaccessible and thought to be only good for cemetery land, where also ideal for summer cottages to catch lake breezes.  In 1886, the group leased the dunes to the southern Grand Haven city limit (the north Stickney Ridge border) from the city of Grand Haven and formed Highland Park. The new Highland Park Corporation sold shares and raised $5,000 to create a lakeside resort community.  The group parceled the land into buildable cottage lots anchored by a newly built Highland Park Hotel. 

Improved Transportation and Attractions

Traversing the sandy, unpaved roads from town was difficult in good weather and nearly impossible in bad.  Travelers to the new Highland Park followed unpaved Lake Street, previously used only as the trail to nearby Lake Forest Cemetery.  In 1898, a street railway was laid from downtown Grand Haven along the path of today’s Harbor Avenue and down the beach all the way to a loop at the edge of what would become Stickney Ridge.  During the summer season, the open streetcars used steam power and later electricity to ferry passengers to and from the Grand Haven railroad stations and steamer docks, or all the way to Grand Rapids or Muskegon via electric Interurban cars.  The streetcar to the lake became popular for a day of swimming and entertainment at the beach.  The crowds were drawn to the newly built Highland Park Pavilion, later Hyland Gardens, and today’s Bil-Mar restaurant where they could rent swimsuits, get an ice cream cone during the day and dance to the latest bands at night. 

Map at right from Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Railway brochure c1910

Stickney Ridge Formed

With streetcar access and the lively Highland Park summer social scene nearby, the land owned by the Stickneys just to the south was ripe for development.  A few families had already purchased lots and established summer homes in Stickney Ridge along the lakeshore at about the point where Stickney Ridge Road ended at the lake.  Willard Stickney, son of original owners Leonard and Charlotte, was a builder by trade and began to develop the area in the model of Highland Park.  He built many of the cottages still standing today beginning around 1900.  When automobile travel became the standard via new Michigan concrete highways built in the first decades of the twentieth century, Willard Stickney built the car barns at the end of the Stickney Ridge Road and later added a small store and other facilities.  Cottages continued to be added to the community through the 1920s until the Great Depression halted development.  Note: There was also another George Stickney who was a banker in Grand Haven and a founding member of Highland Park, but doesn’t appear to be involved in Stickney Ridge. 

Photo above courtesy of Tri-Cities Historical Museum, Grand Haven, Michigan.  Beach in front of Stickney Ridge with streetcar loop in background.

Life on the Ridge

The speed of life must have seemed dizzying to turn-of-the-century Ridge summer residents.  You could jump on the streetcar to dance at the Pavilion, take it downtown to pick up fresh food or other supplies, or even connect to an overnight steamship to Chicago or board a train to Detroit and beyond.  The convenience of electricity and plumbing was becoming common, even at your summer home on Lake Michigan.  The iceman delivered a block to keep food fresh and your trash ended up in the dump gully behind the south garages.  But even in the days when the family stayed June to September, residents were lulled to sleep with the same sounds of the waves on the lake we hear today.

Postcard courtesy of Tri-Cities Historical Museum, Grand Haven, Michigan " 'The Indian Village,' Highland Park, Grand Haven, Mich."

As families expanded, and successive generations were introduced to Stickney Ridge, a community developed.  Ball games were organized on the beach, card games played in the evenings, and children had the run of the dunes with whistles around their necks in case they got lost in the woods.  Neighbors knew neighbors for generations as they shared party-line telephones or a ride into town to pick up a roast for dinner.  There was always a set of eyes looking out for each other or a familiar dog stopping by for a treat.

Photo at right from Davis Family Album c1920  Original caption: "Mr. W.G.B., Mr. E.H., Miss M.S., Miss M.H., Mrs. R.P.J., Mrs. W.G.B., Bobby [Davis] and Mrs. H.E.D. [Davis], Mr. H.P.McG., Miss C.S., Mrs. S." 

New Association and Receding Beaches

Long after the last streetcar traveled the beach in 1928, Stickney Ridge owners realized that they needed more formal organization to maintain the walks, garages and roads and provide services like water and insurance coverage.  After World War II, the Central Highland Park Association was formed to take care of these details.  Up to that point, the Stickney family still owned the common elements and rents were paid to Helen Stickney for use of the garage slots.  In 1954, the association purchased the garages and other common elements for $5,000. 

Photo below from Davis Family Albums, Gertrude, Robert and Harold Davis, Car Barns c1943.  Photo at right c1955.  Note additional barns in background no longer standing today. 

During the early 1950s another change was happening along the beaches, this one part of Mother Nature.  The wide beaches that shoreline cottages were built upon began to disappear under higher lake water levels and changing currents that resulted in sand erosion.  Cottages that were originally built with a few steps down to the sloping beach were now on the edge of cliffs.  Stairs, walks and water lines in front of the cottages fell into storm-driven waves with the cement block foundations of many cottages not far behind. 

Beach in front of Indian Village from Davis home movies, above left c1946, and right c1950.  Note the ground level under the cottage 43 porch.

Three cottages, called Kumagin (marked A in photos on this site – the current cottage numbering system was put in place later), Laffalot (B), and Journey’s End (C), were undermined and lost to the lake in a March, 1952 storm that made national news.  Kumagin, Laffalot and Hourney's End were located just south of the beach stairs at the garages.

Click for Grand Haven Daily Tribune, March 24, 1952

The 1960s brought formal incorporation of the Central Highland Park Association, and efforts to make the $5,000 loan payments with garage rents and other fees.  The water system was put in the hands of the association with a single meter and bill to be paid to Grand Haven.  The old dump was also a continuing issue until outside garbage pickup was put in place and the dump closed.  The largest danger was the lake pulling more sand from the beaches.  Lot borders were blurred as the Lake Michigan Park, once a wide strip of sand separating the association from the lake was fully underwater.  Efforts to hold back the lake were constant as seawalls were built to save the remaining sand dunes and the cottages perched on them.

The seventies were difficult for Stickney Ridge.  Seawall construction and maintenance were constant and unfortunately losing battle with lake storms.  North end cottages as well as others at the long stairway were undermined and lost in 1973-75.  Lake levels and beach widths changed for the next ten years and kept the waters in front of Stickney Ridge unfit for swimming with cottage debris and remnants of seawalls littering the shore.  Storms in the winter of 1985 took additional homes around Indian Village and the front section of the landmark Sea King cottage.  The last remaining shoreline cottages were saved only through heroic efforts to build new foundations and move whole structures back from the water’s edge.

Click for Grand Haven Tribune, April 24, 1974

Click for Muskegon Chronicle, November 5, 1985

Click for Grand Haven Tribune, December 2, 1985

Dune Building and Low Water

Through the late 1980s for the next 25 years, the shoreline has undergone another amazing transformation.  beaches have widened, and new mid beach dunes with whole trees have been building hundreds of feet from the old waterline at its worst.  2010 brought new plans to rebuild cottages in their old locations that are again hundreds of feet from the water’s edge.  With beach erosion concerns lowered and lake levels at historic lows, the Central Highland Park Association has been able to concentrate on maintaining and refreshing shared common elements such as walks, stairs and paved areas for residents to enjoy.

Above right: Stickney Ridge 2012 (Compare similar location 100 years ago from photo at the top of this page under "Stickney Ridge Formed " heading)

Left: Indian Village 2012 (Compare with Indian Village postcard at the top of this page)

The Stickney Ridge history page is never complete!  Please email CHPAGrandHaven@yahoo.com if you have stories, photos or information to add!

Click for a Historical Map and List of Cottage Names

Click for Historical Photos