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Website designed, written and constructed by Dan Aument
Here are two photos of a teenaged Nancy Pollock minding two of Congressman Gerald R. Ford's children Stephen and Susan, sons Michael and Jack not present for this photo. Both pictures were taken in the Pollock cottage on the Upper Walk.
After World War II, Ottawa Beach had a unique restaurant and dance hall. Ex-circus employee Roy Young bought the Killcare Gardens restaurant, put up framed circus posters, programs and newspaper clippings on the walls and reopened as The Big Top restaurant.
The history of Ottawa Beach - Page 16
With the demise of the Ottawa Beach Hotel and rail service and the opening of Ottawa Beach Road and Holland State Park, Ottawa Beach passed from being a resort destination to being simply a neighborhood of cottages by the lakeshore. Certainly the Great Depression of the 1930‘s and the World War II era of the 1940‘s were quiet years at Ottawa Beach. In the 1950‘s, the post war baby (and economic) boom again made Ottawa Beach an attractive summer destination for families.
Besides the restaurant, Mr. Young also owned a speed boat. Young Fred Vaas had the job of piloting the boat loads of tourists around Lake Macatawa. Fred kept half of each boat ride ticket. (This picture shows Bill Doust piloting his tourist cabin cruiser from about the same period.)
The Big Top burned to the ground about three years later and the Lake Macatawa lakefront property later became the site of the US Coast Guard Station.
The glass front doors are wide open to catch a breeze in this photo. At the right, behind the two gas pumps, the old Hotel Ottawa pumphouse is clearly visible.
