Henry L. Loveridge was born on December 15th, 1857 in Paw Paw, Michigan. Mr. Loveridge worked for many years around the townships of Southwestern Michigan. In 1886, he opened his own bakery/grocery store and managed it for fifteen years. He also managed a store in Schoolcraft for one year and was serviced in the American Express company for two years in Kalamazoo. Henry’s parents, John and Kate Loveridge, were natives of New York who had moved to Michigan and eventually settled down and got married. John Loveridge had learned a great deal about carpentry in his early years and dedicated his attention to contracting. After a great deal of work throughout the years, Henry eventually came to Fish Lake, where his father had built a resort a few years prior called, the “Island Park Hotel”.

The resort had been thriving from visitors who mostly arrived by train to reach Island Park. Once visitors had made it to the Marcellus Train Depot, they would be met by a team of horses and wagons, who would then transport the guests to the resort. The guests would stay at Island Park for weeks, writing postcards to relatives, reveling in their stays and telling the ones who were closest to them about the resort. Big Fish Lake has always been known for its good fishing and views. In the summers of the 1920’s, By the West Saddlebag Lakes to the old stream that left the lakes, a ferry would also pass by.

Before the year 1900, the resort was known as Island Park Hotel. At this point in time, there were two cottages called Sunrise and Sunset, as well as a boat house. Shortly before the dawn of the new century, John and Kate Loveridge built a boarding house, which is today the southwest end of the Old Hotel Loveridge cottage. Henry and his wife, Rose, built the hotel. The hotel contained a stage, dance floor and 22 rooms. Hotel Loveridge has been remodeled after standing the test of time. While most of the original items have been sold off by the owner (causing the Hotel a great amount of disrepair), recent efforts to revamp the original hotel have taken place. There is even an early oak refrigerator located in the Hotel that still works.

Around the year 1950, the Sunrise cottage caught fire. While the residents waited for the fire department to arrive, they carried out contents that were located inside the Sunrise to the Sunset cottage in hopes of saving them. Sunset cottage eventually caught fire as well, burning down both the cottage along with the saved contents. A duplex cottage was built on the site afterwards, which is known today as the Sunrise-Sunset Cottage. 

The aforementioned boat house built by John and Kate in the 1880’s simply came to be known as the John and Katie Cottage. This location was used by John and Kate primarily during the warm, summertime months as their vacation home. Later on, this boat house was replaced with the cottage that stands there today.

The oldest cottage on the lake dates back to around 1900, which is Flanders Inn. 

According to an early postcard, the area South of the Old Hotel used to be a marsh – trailers later accommodated this area once it was filled in order to satisfy the growing number of guests that came to the resort. Today, this area holds 12 RV Sites. The area where the ferry transported guests before there were any roads at the north end of the lake was soon referred to as, “The Point on Fish Lake”. The cement wall that runs around the land of the resort next to the lake came to be around the late 1920’s. A lot of guests came from big cities like Chicago, where the air was polluted, the stench was abundant and the atmosphere was unclean. Soon enough, disease was also rampant. Chicago had horses dying on the streets every week, and the Chicago River ran red with blood from slaughterhouses. The people living in these types of cities and surrounding areas needed an escape; the resort is one example of where guests would come for a month or more to escape those harsh environments.