About The Pidge Inn - Muskegon, MI
The Pidge Inn sits on the site of a former sand dune known as Pigeon Hill. References suggest the dune was over 200 feet high and spread over 40 acres. This dune was named for the passenger pigeons who nested on the dune in the 1800s. It is estimated that there were up to 5 billion passenger pigeons in the 1800s, the most numerous bird in the country. Articles from the time discuss the sky turning dark for days as the passenger pigeons migrated to new nesting areas. Due to improved communication and transportation options, the locations of the large flocks were shared and hunters would descend on the nesting areas and shoot the pigeons for a cheap food source. At the same time, human populations were expanding and rapid deforestation was taking place. Due to the loss of habitat and pressure on their nesting areas, there was a rapid decline in population between 1870 and 1890, and the last passenger pigeon was spotted in the wild in 1901. The last known captive passenger pigeon was Martha, at the Cincinnati Zoo. She died 9/1/1914, and it is the only species where we know exactly the date and time it went extinct. The Lakeshore Museum Center in Muskegon has a mounted passenger pigeon on display and a painting, both by Lewis Cross, a Spring Lake resident, who saw the Passenger Pigeons in the wild.
The Pigeon Hill dune met the same fate as the passenger pigeons it was named for. It was lost to sand miners. Between the 1930s and 1960s, sand was mined from the dune to support industrial casting sand needs, mainly World War II, and changed the skyline forever. In the 1980s, the mined land was sold to developers and they built the Harbour Towne Condominiums and Harbour Towne Marina.
The Pidge Inn building was built around 1990, with the original intention of being a restaurant and a bar on the two levels. That plan didn’t come to fruition. For a short while, a small convenience store was located on the main level. Eventually, a motivated group of slip owners from the Harbour Towne Marina got together to form the Harbour Towne Yacht Club, with plans to use the building for their clubhouse. This group built out the existing shell of the building to be a clubhouse on the lower level and a reception hall called the Harbour View Room on the main level. Over the years they continued to improve the building with the addition of a bar in the lower level, and an outdoor pool and hot tub. The last major upgrade was in 2008, with the addition of an elevator and commercial kitchen to further support the reception hall and the yacht club. The timing of expansion didn’t align well with the downturn in the economy and low water levels. The club's membership was significantly reduced over the next few years, eventually leading to foreclosure of the building in September 2011.
Donelle (Boucher) Johnson’s father, Tom Boucher, was a Harbour Towne Marina slip owner and one of the early members of the Harbour Towne Yacht Club. She also has family members that had their wedding reception in the Harbour View Room and was familiar with the building. After watching the building start to deteriorate after several years of sitting vacant, Donelle and her husband purchased the property with the plan to save the building. Fast forward through two years of planning and extensive reconstruction, The Pidge Inn officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 17, 2019. The Pidge Inn Boutique Hotel is now the closest Muskegon hotel to Lake Michigan and only steps from the Muskegon Lake and channel, offering luxury accommodations, amazing views, and outdoor space with every room. From your deck, you can see the sunrise over Muskegon Lake; a short 12-minute walk that takes you by the top two TripAdvisor’s ‘Things to do in Muskegon’, the Silversides Submarine and Pere Marquette Park; and enjoy watching the sunset over Lake Michigan.
