Demolition of iconic 1896 resort stirs emotions in Okoboji and across Iowa

OKOBOJI, Ia. — The Inn at Okoboji is an iconic 1896 resort in Iowa’s leading summer vacation spot that is full of memories for Iowans who played aside clear West Okoboji Lake, drank grasshoppers by the pool or sat in the '50s-era lounges listening to cabaret.

But it had seen better days and few thought it would survive this winter’s sale without demolition, leaving a void in rare lakeside lodging.

They were right. Its 33 buildings will be demolished later in March.

“It’s like losing a friend,” said Sheila Ove, who worked as the front desk manager from 1991 to 2007. “It’s not going to feel the same. How do you get something like that back?”

There were fears that the new owners, who bought it from a group of banks, would replace it with condominiums or sell the 82-acre complex for high-density housing in an area where each foot of land is like gold.

They were wrong. New owners Bill and Kate Duhamel of Whitecap LLC, who bought it for $5.7 million in a December auction, have promised a low-density plan to sell five lots along the 359-feet of shoreline and donate the remaining 70 acres to the city of Okoboji to establish a park, providing the city closes a 1,000-foot road flanking the Inn to make a cul-de-sac for lot owners. Okoboji city officials are expected to consider that proposal during the first week of April.

While there was a collective sigh of relief in the area, it marked the end of what Iowa tourism officials say is one of the oldest resort properties in Iowa. It was also at one time one of the grandest — hosting governors and corporate heads for conventions as well as families splurging for that prime spot on the lake to watch their children take their first plunge off the dock’s diving boards.

Janice Kramer, 92, of Steamboat Rock, had vacationed with her family there for 44 straight summers. Last year, 40 people in the family attended, from grandkids to cousins and aunts and uncles. It became the glue that brought spread-out generations of family together at least once a year to fry chicken and play in the lake.

“When I drove away last year, I knew it was the last time. I just had this feeling,” she said. “When my granddaughters heard, they called me and cried. We all cried.”

The original Inn was an elegant two-story structure built by J.A. Beck in 1896 that newspapers of the day labeled the “hub of society.” It hosted noted orchestras to perform and revelers from far and wide would come to dance at the pavilion over the lake, swaying to music while taking in southern lake breezes.

It was later operated by two colorful sisters, affectionately known as Aunt Polly (Mary W. Jacquith) and Aunt Sarah (Mrs. S.T. Callender) from 1903 to 1910, when they purchased it. The Inn suffered fires in 1934 and 1944 before the sisters sold it in 1945, according to archives of the Spirit Lake Beacon.

Art Sandford of Sioux City and Bob Dillon of Omaha purchased the property in 1957 and built a new series of structures that became the New Inn, which largely stayed the same through the next 60 years. Terraced in five levels up the hill from the lakeshore, 130 units faced the water, while the grounds included three dining rooms, two lounges, a par-3 nine-hole golf course and convention facilities.

Marilyn Maye, a cabaret legend from New York City, opened the New Inn with her songs.

“The parking lot wasn’t even done and the upstairs wasn’t finished, so we played in the lobby,” said Maye, 89, who performed there for her 61st consecutive summer last year, a show filmed by “CBS Sunday Morning” in a Mo Rocca segment detailing the resurgence of her long career.

“I sang for four generations and I knew them all, grandmas and grandkids and their kids’ kids. Every year I’d see them growing up. I’m devastated. I can’t imagine they are tearing it down. I think I should stand in the rubble and sing ‘I’m Still Here.’"

Over the years it became the linchpin of resort business in a lakes region that saw an $274.5 million economic impact from tourism in 2016.

“It was called the grande dame of the lakes,” said Jay Evans, whose father, Don Evans, and partner Richard Ruth purchased it in 1966 and ran it for more than 30 years.

They built an indoor pool in 1968 and hired five groundskeepers to keep the property tidy, and that’s not including those on the adjacent golf course. “Every blade of grass had to be green,” Evans said.

His father loved to splash the place in bright greens, blues and yellows for “a Florida feel” that over the years became '50s resort chic.

The Queen II, a replica of the small steamboats that once docked at the Inn, made its maiden voyage in 1986 — and appropriately took tourists to the New Inn. Mary Kennedy’s husband, Steve, was the captain, and she quickly pointed out her younger self in a photograph on deck.

Today, managing the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum, she is busy gathering history and memorabilia of the Inn for its collection, including monogrammed spoons and old uniforms.

“It’s sad and disappointing, all emotions we are feeling here because we will miss it,” she said.

Thousands of high school and college kids from the Midwest worked at the Inn through the decades, and there’s not many places Evans can go today without running into them. He worked there as a kid and came back in 1985 to help run it.

He said 70 percent of their business was from conventions. It was a challenge to make enough money in a compressed tourist season of June through August.

In their peak year in the mid-1980s, the Inn hosted 33,000 patrons, who all ventured out to shop and eat and support the local economy, along with the 120 employees. “So I really feel there will be an impact to the area,” he said.

His mother, Gretchen, and members of the Ruth family sold it in 1998 to Dave Slattery, but it was a constant struggle to update the aging structures.

“It was '50s vintage, and toward the end that was my curse. It just didn’t have today’s amenities,” said Brad Tifft, who managed it from 1999 to 2012.

A series of banks owned it after foreclosure in 2013. John Brown, president of Central Bank, oversaw a massive update that he says ran to nearly $1 million, including rewiring, reroofing, pool renovations and new carpet for the 155 rooms.

“It was really beautiful after all we got done,” he said. “It’s a shame they are going to tear that down.”

But the banks were required to put it up for auction and news spread quickly.

“I realized the magnitude of this property when we began getting calls from all over the United States,” said Jon Hjelm of the Acre Company in Spencer, which did the online auction. “We had over 90 people show interest and on something like this there is normally 20.”

Fears spread of losing tourists in an area hugely tied to this 3,847-acre, 134-feet deep lake, predominantly ringed by expensive private homes. Only six lodging properties remain on the nearly 20 miles of West Okoboji shoreline.

“Some people say it’s become a private lake,” Evans said.

Okoboji tourism officials say there are ample lodging options without the Inn — more than 1,000 rooms and 1,000 camping spots. But few are right on West Okoboji, leaving 1919 Fillenwarth Beach Resort as the most historic option.

Michael Jensen said it will be good for the area.

The Okoboji real estate agent who manages the property for Whitecap walked past the cursive turquoise “The Inn” sign that hearkened to another era of leisure after a late-February auction of thousands of resort items.

He looked out to the empty kidney-shaped outdoor pool where he once had childhood swim lessons. Growing up in Arnolds Park, the fourth generation here, he understands the sentiment — but also the value.

Property is going for $15,000 to $17,000 per lakeshore foot, he said. In addition, the 70 acres across the road would be prime to build on.

“We could have packed 200 homes in there. But I wouldn’t have worked for someone who did that. It would be the last deal of my career,” he said of the likely public uproar. “I wouldn’t sell a house around here again.”

Condo rumors were also nonsense, Jensen said. It would have required re-zoning. Okoboji Mayor Mary VandeWoude, who learned to dive off the dock at the Inn, said it would have never passed.

The Whitecap plan is to divide the lakefront property into only five lots, which means buyers will pay a hefty price. They aren’t likely to construct anything short of magnificence paying that much for the land. In return for closing a short road, Eden Street, that flanks one side of the Inn, the city gets a park and endowment for its upkeep.

“In any other place, this is a slam dunk,” he said of the plan.

The Duhamels live in San Francisco but have long summered here, owning a cottage just down the shoreline, and feared for the neighborhood with developers drooling at the prospects of the Inn property.

Once a deal with the city is approved, which VandeWoude is optimistic about, a park architect will be hired to develop a plan that would include paved paths and benches, prairies and wetlands.

Environmentalists are happy, as lake protection is fierce in the area. Jen Johnson-Ross of the Iowa Great Lakes Association said that the green space and low-impact plan could protect the lake, and that although it’s sad the Inn will close, this was a good alternative.

But going through the empty rooms that overlook a lake shining in the late winter sun, you can almost sense 120 years of fun ending — singalongs in the lounge, children eating chicken strips by the pool and, way back, folks dancing to the lapping waves in the lakeshore pavilion.