Hi! Welcome to the Blue Haven Blog! We are a group of four families that bought the Blue Haven in summer 2022 and are working to restore it to it's fully glory! Here's what we know about the history of this Lake Huron paradise!
Built Circa 1945
We know this from the original blue prints we
found in the house (and yes, they are literally blue prints!). The 14 units were constructed out of cement blocks and all angled to have a view of the 200 feet of white sand beach. The house was built around the same time, although we suspect it has been added onto since the original build. Fun fact - at some point there was an underground bunker added to the front yard of the house. It has since been filled in, but there is still a utility hole cover from Detroit Edison (tale has it that an owner at one point worked for the electric company) that led to the entrance.
The Ron Gamble Era
In the 1960's the resort was owned by Ron Gamble, a metro Detroit radio and TV personality who had a travel show and would showcase his resort. We have found quite a few
pieces of memorabilia from this ear, including post cards from the 60's
Art and Sharon Winter
In the modern ear of the Blue Haven, Art and Sharon are the longest owners, having been the keepers of the property for three decades starting in the 1980's. The Winter's loved the property and raised a family as they owned it. Art and Sharon would work on the resort, maintaining all the systems, cleaning
the cottages, and managing the reservations. It wasn't until Art's health started to deteriorate that they decided to sell the resort. Sadly, Ron has passed away, but Sharon has been a wealth of information for us as we embark on our journey!
Mid 2000's
By the mid 2000's into the 2010's the Blue Haven started to show it's age. A solo owner took on the reins of the Blue Haven from Art and Sharon. After 70 years many of the original systems we in need of a refresh or replacement. There are four families that own it now, and we find this task to be daunting sometimes - it's hard to imagine how one person tried to do it!
And today...
Fast forward to late May 2022 our four families decided to buy the Blue Haven. We had a full list of renovations that were absolutely needed before we opened, and didn't have any experience running a resort, but we knew we wanted to bring this amazing northern Michigan treasure back to it's full glory. Check out the next post to see what we had to do day one to start getting the resort ready for guest.
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