The Island House - Linda Higgins
One of the loveliest historic buildings in Port Clinton, the Island House has had many lives. The first Island House was located at the northeast corner of Madison and 2nd Streets. It was two blocks from Lake Erie, with a view of the islands. The wooden structure was built in 1870 and was a popular gathering place. A Port Clinton band gave concerts in the cupola, which was large enough to hold the band and 20 people. A dance hall graced the second floor. On the first floor a bar and dining room served all the big weddings and receptions. When a major fire destroyed the hotel in December 1882, the loss was attributed to its distance from the lake.
In 1886, Ottawa County Sheriff Conrad Gernhard built the present brick Island House, one block from the lake, at the southwest corner of Perry and Madison Streets. To build it, Sheriff Gernhard used $25,000 ($600,000 today) of the funds he was entitled to keep from those he collected in interest and delinquent taxes. The three-story, Italianate-style building had fifty rooms, a lobby, bar, dining room--and one bathroom. Because it was designed as a gentleman's hotel, women traveling with their gentlemen had to stay at a boarding house, but were welcome to dine in the hotel dining room. Although the hotel offered only one communal bathroom, the proximity to the lake, the large saloon and the undeniable elegance and charm continued to make it a popular destination for travelers from all over the country.
The Gernhard family kept the property until 1926, when Otto and Mary Stensen received the hotel as a wedding present from her parents. They enlarged the kitchen, and added more bathrooms, guest rooms, and a retail space, making the hotel “one of the best in Ohio.” Famous guests included Presidents Garfield, Hayes, and Taft, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Gene Autry, Ray Milland, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, J. Paul Getty, William Randolph Hearst, Ringling Brothers, Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. Many other athletes and sports teams used it, as well as travelers going between Detroit and Cleveland.
The Stensens moved from the Island House in 1955, and their niece took over as manager. In 1962, the Paul Clemons family, well-known restaurant owners, purchased the property. After they sold it in 1985, other owners continued to modernize the hotel and restaurant, including James Stouffer, aged 26, and a member of the well-known Stouffer family. After changing the ground floor design and remodeling the rooms, he sold the hotel in 1992 to two accountants, Chuck and Duanne Norman of Toledo. Dave and Pam Waler and Jim Zibert bought it in 1997, making additional improvements as the restaurant became even more popular. After a small fire in 2003, more improvements were made, but the hotel went into bankruptcy. The First National Bank of Bellevue bought the property at a sheriff’s sale in 2006, then sold it to investor Jim MacLaren in 2007. MacLaren Management transitioned the hotel, which originally had 50 rooms but now had 39, to a condominium/hotel. In July of 2008, our Island House was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
At this time, rumor has it (!) that a famed Columbus-area chef is opening his remodeled restaurant in the hotel, offering a wide variety of choices, including sushi and samurai nachos! He’s purchased, we hear, most of the condo rooms, and has restored much of the charm that was the Island House for so long. With an excellent restaurant and thoughtfully remodeled condo rooms available, we have high hope for our iconic Island House’s renaissance.
