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Being a resort city resulted in a seasonal economy, however, and in an effort to stabilize the economy, the city's board of trade successfully recruited several different industries to the area.īoat from Chicago to South Haven, circa 1910 Around the early 1900s, theaters, a casino, an opera house, an amusement park, and many resorts contributed to a rise in popularity of the city. The farming industry created many jobs in the area, and the city began to boom.
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The timber harvested in South Haven was shipped to Chicago and Milwaukee via steamboats and schooners, and the cleared forests were then used by fruit farmers, who primarily grew peaches, blueberries and apples. The building was subsequently moved a few doors south and still stands, though greatly modified, and no longer used as a hotel. In 1853, the first hotel in South Haven, known as the Forest House, was built at the corner of Phoenix and Center Streets. South Haven was named in relation to nearby Grand Haven. South Haven was incorporated as a village in 1869, and as a city in 1902. About this time, the settlement gained its first merchant, physician, lawyer, and minister, and the first schoolhouse was built. In the 1850s the first permanent settlers arrived, and early in the decade the first steam sawmills were built on the Black River. Monroe a land patent for 65 acres of land along the shore of Lake Michigan. Prior to colonization by white settlers, the area was inhabited at different times by Potawatomi and Iroquois native people.