The Stafford’s Bay View Inn is located in Bay View, Michigan

Bay View, Michigan

Bay View is an unincorporated resort community in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Bear Creek Township, Emmet County on Little Traverse Bay and abuts the east side of the city of Petoskey along U.S. Highway 31. The ZIP code is 49770 and the FIPS place code is 06260...

 on Little Traverse Bay

Little Traverse Bay

Little Traverse Bay is a small bay, 170 feet deep, off Lake Michigan in the northern area of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Harbor Springs and Petoskey are on this bay.The Little Traverse Light marks its entrance....

. The Inn is a historical building having been around for over 120 years as part of the Bay View Association of the Methodist Church established in 1876. It is located on Woodland Avenue directly off of U.S. 31 with a Petoskey, Michigan

Petoskey, Michigan

Petoskey is a city and coastal resort community in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,080. It is the county seat of Emmet County....

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History

In 1886, John Wesly Howard built the Woodland Avenue House in the rapidly-growing Methodist summer community of Bay View.
The House was then renamed The Howard House in 1888 after Wesly Howard and served as a summer hotel. During the late 19th century, weekly rates averaged $4.50 for room and board. As the years went by, the property expanded and a various number of proprietors came and went. As the Inn assumed a new owner, it would be renamed accordingly such as The Roselawn, after then late owner, Hiram O. Rose.

The Inn was renamed for the final time in 1935 with today’s title, The Bay View Inn.

In the summer of 1957, Stafford C. Smith first visited the Inn with his aunt for the Inn’s well-known Sunday brunch. He returned each summer through 1960 and worked an assortment of positions under the Inn’s owner, Dr. Roy Heath. During the summer of 1960, Stafford met his future wife, Janice Johnson, who had been hired as a hostess in the dining room.

Stafford, during the following winter of 1960, began to work at the Perry Hotel in Petoskey, Michigan as the new assistant manager. Stafford and Janice were planning a June 17, 1961 wedding, but the Perry Hotel was sold only four months after Stafford had begun his new position, and Stafford lost his job.

Being out of a job with no marriage location, Stafford and Janice devised a plan and soon bought the Bay View Inn, which had recently been put up for sale by Dr. Heath. It is now known as Stafford’s Bay View Inn after the current owner Stafford C. Smith.