Editing Grand Beach, Michigan (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2024}}
Grand Beach was founded by the Grand Beach Company around 1903. It was conceived of partially as a short-stay resort.  People would take the [[Michigan Central Railroad]] to Grand Beach station, rent small [[cottage]]s for a day or two, eat in the dining hall (located at the corner of Lakeview and Whitewood), and enjoy bathing and golfing. The town was incorporated in 1934 to allow property owners to retain more control.<ref>Hoogterp, Edward (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=psV1uAiVqmcC&pg=PA188 ''West Michigan Almanac''], p. 188. The University of Michigan Press & The Petoskey Publishing Company.</ref>

[[File:Anders Haugen jump at January 1926 Grand Beach Michigan meet.jpg|thumb|January 1926 [[ski jump]] by [[Anders Haugen]] at a competition in Grand Beach. The since-lost Golfmore Hotel in Grand Beach held ski jumping events at the time]]
Its lakeshore beach has always been important to Grand Beach.  An entertainment pier was built out into [[Lake Michigan]] and offered dining and dancing in the 1920s.  The pier has long since disappeared, though its supporting posts are sometimes visible when the lake levels are low.  The Golfmore Hotel was built as a luxury hotel just across the creek in [[Michiana, Michigan|Michiana]], [[Michigan]].  A footbridge over the creek linked the hotel to the pier area.  The hotel was an important part of the social life of the beach in the 1920s, even in the winter when it hosted ski jumping events.<ref>Temple, Robert D. (2nd ed. 2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=o71SDjU16JwC&pg=PA229 ''Edge Effects: The Border-Name Places''], p. 229. iUniverse.</ref> The hotel burned down on November 19, 1939.<ref>Cawley, Sherry Arent (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=iOzWdkDZAlQC&dq=grand%20beach%20michigan&pg=PA37 ''Berrien County in Vintage Postcards''], p. 37. Arcadia Publishing.</ref>

The public golf course has been an integral part of village life at Grand Beach since its establishment. At one time there were 27 holes, but for many decades the course has been a 9-hole course that runs from the club house down to the village gate and back.  In the 1950s the village hall moved from the old dining hall structure on the lake to the newly built golf club house / community center.

Lake levels have affected the focus of village social activities.  During periods when lake levels were high, beach frontage has sometimes been minimal.  Erosion of beachfront properties was especially noticeable in the early 1950s, early 1970s, and late 2010s.

Three [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] homes were built in Grand Beach.  One of them, the Ernest Vosburgh Summer House (built in 1916) on Ravine Road near Crescent and Royal, still retains much of its original design.<ref>Storrer, William Allin (3rd ed. 2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=EC-VZMq0P80C&pg=PA195 ''The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog''], p. 195. The University of Chicago Press.</ref>

The 1950s brought relative decline as all of Southwest Michigan was bypassed by [[Chicago]]ans in favor of more exotic resorts. However, beginning in the 1980s, Grand Beach and nearby New Buffalo have undergone a renaissance as a charming, unpretentious, yet accessible resort area.  The former Forest Beach YWCA camp was developed as a gated community with multimillion-dollar homes, thus giving the area a slightly more upscale image.

In recent decades Grand Beach has probably been most famous because of its association with Chicago's [[Daley family]].