The Kirby House Bed & Breakfast Saugatuck, Michigan The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson Contact Info | Email this page to a Friend | Check Room Availability  | Click to see a map  | Visit our Web Site Additional Pages... Introduction Guest Rooms/Rates Swimming Pool Your Hosts Virtual Tour Our Favorite Recipes Special Packages   Availability Search: See which rooms are available during your stay. Check in: Check out: Powered by Webervations Clear search results Rooms Available from  to  Learn more about these rooms These are our base rates - certain discounts and/or charges may apply

The Kirby House has a history that began in the late 19th century. Sarah Kirby had married Frank Kirby, a local "boot, shoe and crocker merchant," in 1883. However, it is interesting to note that the warranty deed contained only her name and not that of her husband. Sarah’s first mortgage on the home, again in her name, was written in May of 1890 -- it was in the amount of $400.00 with a 10% interest rate. One might suspect that that was the reason for the 10% interest rate which was exceedingly high for that era. Also, the $400.00 was surely not the cost to build the house, but perhaps some quick cash or emergency money. Historians indicate that the house was probably built for between $4,000 and $8,000 -- a sizable sum for a woman to possess on her own in an era where women could not even vote!

Frank Kirby died in 1896, just six years after the house was built. He is buried in the local cemetery in the Gill family plot. His death certificate indicates that he died of "an abcess of the brain." Medical historians indicate that this term was often used, in those prim and proper Victorian days as a euphemism for syphilis. Sarah continued to live in her home, she raised her children in The Kirby House and in 1932 when she was 70 years of age she moved to California to live her remaining years near her grandchildren. Sarah lived to be almost 90 years of age and she is buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Hemit, California. Before Sarah left this area she and her one daughter, Faith, who was also a nurse, turned her family home in to a hospice-type of operation, called Hawthorne Lodge, for people who "just need a home." That operation was turned over to what became the local hospital.

Patient Room

Douglas Community Hospital

The Kirby House was known as the Douglas Community Hospital from 1932 until 1960! Those years of service to the community turned out to be magical years of survival for the old house. As a "temporary" facility, little was done to alter it, but it had a function and therefore survived. After that time the house served as an antique and junk store, a real estate office, the abandoned and "haunted" house of the area and also a rooming house.

The house was purchased in 1983 for the sole purpose of restoration for a bed and breakfast and opened as such in May of 1984. The current owners, Raymond Riker and Jim Gowran, purchased the home to continue the tradition of The Kirby House Bed and Breakfast and opened for business in May of 1998.

Nursery

back to first page

Click-on these pages for more information:  | Introduction | Guest Rooms/Rates | Swimming Pool | Your Hosts | Virtual Tour | Our Favorite Recipes | Special Packages |

back to top of this page