It was the 1920's. The war was over. Peace and prosperity seemed at hand. Art Deco and the Craftsman Style were in vogue. So too was Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style of architecture.

A young couple, Skipper and Cora Beals had purchased the land where the Crystal River joined Lake Michigan. They wanted to build a rambling farmhouse as a classroom, dining hall and dormitory for their Leelanau School.

They hired an architect, Earl M. Mead of Harbor Springs. The influences of the times, with one notable exception, were apparent in Mead's designs. He utilized the strong parallel lines that characterized the Prairie Style, but rather than using them as horizontals hugging the landscape, he chose verticals that paralleled the pines and oaks running up Prospect Hill. He detailed his designs with accents from the Craftsman Movement and a few panels of brightly colored glass from the Art Deco school.

His design seemed appropriate to Skipper and Cora. It seemed to live easily with the surroundings. Construction started. Within weeks, so too did the Great Depression.

Cora Beals recalled it clearly: "Times were hard. Costs had to be cut. Much of the work had to be done on barter--a year of school for three months of work." With determination, the building was finished and occupied, first for the school, then the resort.

Today, The Inn stands at the center of The Homestead. The spirit in which it was conceived and completed runs through all of the naturally-formed and thoughtfully created beauty that is The Homestead, America's Freshwater Resort.