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The Dempsey Manor Inn & House Museum

 

The Discriminating Traveler's
Premiere Destination in Northwest Michigan

CURRENT EVENTS AT DEMPSEY MANOR – ALL ON THE HOUSE!

Visitors Welcome! 

The Dempsey Manor Inn is a locally operated, historical House Museum. It will open its doors to visitors on several Sunday afternoons in March and April for TOURS of its opulent interiors, and a unique fresh-from-our-bakery SCONE TASTING open house.

 
 

GUIDED TOURS. 

Colburn and Peterson are looking forward to showing off the Dempsey on March 24 and April, 7, 14 and 28 at 1:00, 2:15 and 3:30 PM.

      

Tours will feature the main floor, including the stunning, atrium-style Grand Foyer, the inviting Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Parlors, the elegant Dining Room, the Library with its impressive floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and the Conservatory. This amazing all-glass room was added by the previous owners in 2000.

           

Those who wish will also see the beautifully-appointed guest rooms on the second and third floors. Private tours are available by appointment. 

 

SCONE TASTING.  

This yummy event is planned for April 21 with seatings at 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00 PM. 

          

Sip freshly-brewed tea or coffee in the Dempsey’s Dining Room while you nibble a variety of our legendary scones. We’ll be serving mini scones so you can try them all!

    

Please note this is a dress-up event – Dresses or dressy skirts or slacks and tops are suggested for ladies; dressy slacks and shirts for gentlemen. No jeans, shorts or casual sandals.

Space on the Guided Tours and at the Scone Tasting is limited.

Reservations are required.  

Donations to the Dempsey Manor Preservation Fund gratefully accepted.

    

CALL US AT 616-802-4588

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND RESERVATIONS

This imposing mansion, located at 506 Maple Street in the lovely little city of Manistee, was built in 1894 for lumber baron James Dempsey, his wife Mary and four of their 12 children.

   

The Dempsey is the largest still-standing Victorian-era residence in Manistee and a tribute to the city’s historical heritage.

      

Since the mansion was sold out of the Dempsey family in 1947, it has served as a boarding house catering to student teachers, an assisted living facility, and the home of a retired couple who had dreamed of living in just such place.

       

The Dempsey is currently owned by James Colburn and Jan Peterson who have operated it as a luxury bed and breakfast inn and Victorian house museum since 2014. It is furnished and decorated from Colburn’s lifetime collections of exquisite antique furniture, world-class artwork and decorative items and a treasury of rare pieces.

        

Colburn, who enjoyed a career as an Emmy-nominated Hollywood set designer and decorator, thinks of the mansion as his last and most wonderful set.

     Explore the small unchanged Victorian Port City of Manistee. . . the village town not yet on any beaten path. Dig your toes into clean sugar-fine sand and the warm summer waters of Lake Michigan. Or take an aerial tour of the town and the coastline from Manistee's Blacker Airport (with service to Chicago).

        

     Four historic walking tours, a floating museum (The SS City of Milwaukee), the famous Ramsdell Opera House (now the Manistee Regional Center for the Arts), the unique grove of California giant sequoias and redwoods at Lake Bluff Center, and of course, the incomparable James Dempsey living Victorian House Museum -- these historic treasures coupled with every water & outdoor sport and leisure activity under the sun, make Manistee YOUR undiscovered country.

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