The History of Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast

A century ago South Haven, Michigan was famous as a summer destination resort. Primarily a kosher Jewish resort, the Chicago Jewish community traveled east across Lake Michigan in steamships to spend long summers on the South Haven beaches. They enjoyed the finest entertainment of the day at stylish resort pavilions.

The Manor Guest House is built on the foundation of the Dewey Hotel. The Dewey Hotel was a luxurious resort in the early 1900s serving the thousands of tourists who arrived in South Haven by steamer and train. It was a grand hotel in a beautifully treed setting and had a reputation for attracting the upper echelon of society as guests.

Many of the relics from The Dewey Hotel, as well as antique photographs, are showcased at the inn.

The original Yelton Manor mansion was built in the 1800s and was the home of a prestigious family, the Postmaster of South Haven. A generation later, his two daughters fashioned it as an upscale boarding house. In the mid-1900s it was the home of the Feinstein family who ran The Dewey Hotel, located next door on the current site of The Manor Guest House.

The Dewey Hotel was torn down in the 1970s.
The house suffered a sad decline as a beach rental through the '80s.

Elaine and Robert came upon the derelict corner during their search for the perfect site for their dream inn. There wasn't a single doubt in their minds the second they laid eyes on it.

Enlarged, enhanced and fully modernized to the core in 1988, the mansion was reborn as a world class inn, The Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast. The Manor Guest House was built two years later.