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This photo shows the cottages on Terrace Avenue, called the upper boardwalk, and Lake Michigan Avenue, the lower walk, which was an elevated wooden walkway skirting Indian Lake, the little pond which was all that remained of the original natural channel connecting Lake Macatawa with Lake Michigan. Note the relative lack of vegetation in front of the cottages. By the middle of the century, drifting sands would create large sand dunes in the sand park in front of the lower walk, effectively blocking their view of Lake Michigan forever. The three cottages in the upper right of the photo were built in 1900 by General Lewis Heath.
During the Civil War, at the battle of Stone River, General Lewis Heath was injured and he lay in a pool of water for some time and developed pneumonia. That was the end of his military career and he return to Grand Rapids where, following some years of ill health, he was engaged in several businesses including haberdashery, furs, insurance and the making of whist boxes. He had attended Hiram College where he struck up a friendship with James Garfield who was at that time both a professor and
Lewis Heath was very active politically, and he made the hat Mr. Garfield wore at his inauguration as the 20th President of the United States. Mr. Garfield was wearing the same hat when he was assisinated. The Garfield family returned the hat to Mr. Heath in Grand Rapids. His grandson Lew Heath can remember playing in this famous hat, which now resides in the permanent collection of the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. Mr. Heath died on October 1, 1911 at the age of 74.
As a young man, grandson Lew Heath can remember dating one of daughters of J. Boyd Pantlind, manager of the Hotel Ottawa. Young Lew was sitting on the front porch of the Pantlind cottage overlooking the hotel and Macatawa Bay and he stole a kiss from Miss Pantlind. This act was witnessed by one of the maids who was later fired after she told her mistress what she had seen. Fast forward about 70 years, when elderly grandson Lew Heath spent a week at Ottawa Beach as a house guest in one of the three cottages built by his grandfather, a cottage now owned by Bob and Nancy G. After a walk around the Ottawa Beach neighborhood, Mr. Heath said the place hadn't changed much. One night, Nancy G took Lew over to the Pantlind cottage. Stepping into the front porch, he grabbed Nancy's arm and pointed at a setee on the porch. "Nancy!" He exclaimed, "That's the same setee I was sitting in when I
The history of Ottawa Beach - Page Ten
