Our Story
Over 100 Years of Heritage
The Leland Lodge is the highest rated hotel in Leelanau County, and it is the only full service, upscale hotel in the area. The year-round Leland Lodge is nestled in the lakeside village of Leland, in the heart of Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula. This stunningly beautiful area is best known for access to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the winding coastal road, M-22, wineries and vineyards, beautiful beaches, and scenic nature hikes. Although there is nothing like Summertime in Northern Michigan, Fall, Winter, and Spring are just as charming.
The original hotel on this property was built in the fall of 1908, right at the end of President Teddy Roosevelt’s second term. Frank Rosman, a local businessman, built the hotel and named his new venture, the Nicholas Hotel – an homage to his maternal grandfather, Nicholas Pickard, a prominent local lumberman. (left, in photo)
The Begining
The hotel opened in June 1909. At the time the hotel was built, the village of Leland had only 215 year-round residents. What’s even more shocking, in 2020, one hundred and eleven years later, the year-round population is only 420 residents. (Update: 416 residents now, the Schaub family moved to Ft. Lauderdale.)
On a warm September night in 1926, men working at the South Manitous Island Coast Guard Station 12 miles away, saw smoke rising from a hilltop in Leland and sent a telegraph to the local Fire Brigade, but it was too late – The Nicholas Hotel was no more.