Mackinac & Straits
Mackinac Island
A car-free island in the Straits of Mackinac. Bike or walk from a busy harbor town to an old fort and a state park that covers most of the island.
Hotel · Mackinac & Straits
Hotel Iroquois
On the water at the west end of downtown Mackinac Island
Hotel Iroquois sits right on the shoreline at the west end of downtown Mackinac Island, next to Windermere Point, with views across the water toward the Round Island Lighthouse. Blacksmith Robert Benjamin began building it as a three-story Victorian family home in 1902. His wife disliked living so close to the water, and the family sold the house soon after it was finished.
Samuel Poole bought it in 1904 and turned it into a hotel called the Iroquois on the Beach. His daughter, Alicia Poole, inherited it in 1919 and ran it for many years, and Sam and Margaret McIntire owned and operated it from 1954 for several decades. The hotel notes that it was listed as a contributing structure in the Mackinac Island National Historic Landmark District in 1960. A former guest, Jon Cotton, bought it in 2020, and it was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2023.
The Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau points to the hotel’s Victorian-style gardens and its Carriage House dining room, which overlooks the Straits of Mackinac. The Carriage House keeps a seasonal schedule from spring into fall.
Location
Where Hotel Iroquois is
1 place on an OpenStreetMap map
Approximate location. The host shares the exact address when you book.
Nearby towns
Nearby attractions
State park
Mackinac Island State Park
Michigan's first state park covers more than 80 percent of Mackinac Island: forest, limestone formations, historic sites and 70-plus miles of roads and trails.