Ludington’s Historic Accommodations: From Lumber Baron Homes to a Vintage Wilderness Resort

Pure Ludington has been nominated as Best Historic Small Town in USA Today’s 10Best Contest among 20 finalists. Help us defend our title in 2025 by voting daily. Individuals 18 years and older may vote once a day until March 31 at 11:59 a.m.

VOTE NOW

Historic Accommodations

Looking for a unique overnight stay in Ludington that hearkens back to an earlier era? Check out some of Ludington’s historic accommodations – from lumber baron homes to a vintage wilderness resort.

• Stearns Hotel – Built in 1903 by lumber baron Justus Stearns as Ludington’s first major hotel, Stearns Hotel has been greeting guests for over a century on the lakeshore and is the only historical hotel left in Ludington. While updated substantially since then, Stearns retains many historic elements of its early twentieth-century heritage. Its grand ballroom is timelessly romantic and continues to host beautifully decorated weddings, holiday parties and celebrations as a time-honored tradition in Ludington.
  

• Cartier Mansion – Built in 1905 by lumber baron Warren Cartier and his wife, Catherine, this three-story neoclassical estate is located on the main boulevard blocks from downtown. Guests can experience luxury rooms while exploring the mansion’s many rooms with original woodwork of numerous wood types, original fixtures, and period antiques. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the home has had several owners, all of whom have taken great care to preserve this classic structure.

• Ludington House Bed & Breakfast – Built in 1878, this Queen Anne-style house was the home of Antoine Cartier, a direct descendant of Jacques Cartier, a French navigator known as the first European to find and map Canada. This two-and-a-half-story house features a highly-ornamented two-story porch, a complex roofline, projecting gabled bays, a gabled dormer and other decorative features.

• Barothy Lodge, Walhalla – Now a year-round wilderness resort with 17 fully equipped cabins on the Pere Marquette River, this place opened in 1915 with one lodge by Dr. Arpad Barothy, a Hungarian immigrant and neurosurgeon who purchased 80 acres of land along the Pere Marquette River in 1889. Though his medical practice was in Chicago, Arpad opened a health retreat, offering ‘healing mineral waters in a recuperative setting’ at a time when city dwellers were finding their way north in greater numbers for recreation and relief.