COURTESY LAURIUM MANOR INN
Snowy doesn’t mean cold, Laurium Manor Inn owner and U.P. native Julie Sprenger explains, making winter a great season to visit an old Victorian.
COURTESY LAURIUM MANOR INN
Laurium Manor Inn offers 10 rooms and a carriage house, all with private baths, on the property. The Calumet Suite, was the master bedroom for Thomas and Cornelia Hoatson, the original owners.
Most people have the wrong impression about winter in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, Julie Sprenger insists.
“People assume because we get so much snow here that it’s cold, but it’s quite the contrary. We have just 10 days (or so) below zero. I’ve been here in February and literally shoveled my front stairs with just a sweater on. I used to cross-country ski at lunchtime every day in a light T-shirt and a windbreaker.”
As a native of the Upper Peninsula, winter might be in Julie’s blood, but as owner/innkeeper of the Laurium Manor Inn and Victorian Hall with her husband, Dave, she knows that visitors might be missing some spectacular times in her home area.
“In winter, to play outdoors, it’s fabulous.”
COURTESY LAURIUM MANOR INN
The Laurium Suite, was a guest bedroom for the original owners. In the front of the house on the second-floor southwest corner, it has the only access to the second-floor balcony. It is said that Theodore Roosevelt stayed in this room during his campaign swing to Laurium in 1912.
The Keweenaw Peninsula’s snowfall is legendary – around 300 inches each winter – and when the flakes start to fall, winter sports lovers head north.
The Sprengers’ inn in Laurium is centrally located for most area winter sports, and it’s also perfectly appointed for guests to venture out for a day of active
COURTESY LAURIUM MANOR INN
A grand yet cozy main sitting area, features a fireplace, plenty of books for reading or well-laden walls and tables to explore pictures and trinkets.
winter sports, or stay put in front of the fireplace with the ever-ready cup of hot chocolate.
“We get a lot of skiers, both cross country and downhill,” says Julie. “There are wonderful cross-country trails all over the area, and there’s Mount Bohemia for downhill.”
During the winter months the inn employs two innkeepers, both avid winter sports enthusiasts who willingly offer suggestions about trails and snow conditions.
“We get a lot of couples,” says Julie, “and during the day it’s not unusual for the guys to head out to Bohemia and the women to stay behind in the inn, knitting, sightseeing, doing whatever they want.”
Snowmobilers also frequent the inn, which is close enough to a main trail to offer easy access to the hundreds of miles of snowmobile enjoyment.
Spur-of-the-moment reservations can sometimes be accommodated, but many winter weekends require advance registration at the inn specifically and at other area lodges. One later-winter event – the CopperDog 150 sled dog race – fills the inn on the first weekend in March.
“It’s an awesome event,” says Julie, “and it involves the whole community. Hundreds of dogs and a lot of snow – what’s not to like? We get a lot of guests for that event, people who want to see the race up close and even follow it up to Copper Harbor. The start line is less than a mile away, so you could walk and avoid all parking issues.”
Sometimes, though, guests come just to get away and not to hit a trail or head to the slopes. For them, the warmth of a Victorian mansion glows at Laurium Manor Inn, a sense that the Sprengers have cultivated over two decades as innkeepers.
Innkeeping, though, was not a profession they set out to pursue. In fact, Dave may not have even known he was destined to become an Upper Peninsula resident when he first met Julie.
The turn-of-the-century mansion in a quaint U.P. town that would become their long-term business entered their lives when they were in college.
“I’m from Iron Mountain,” says Julie, “but my mom was from Hancock, so I was always familiar with the area. Dave’s from downstate, and we met when we attended Michigan Tech. For one of our dates, I took him to Laurium to see all the old Victorian mansions. And, of course, the Thomas Hoatson mansion really stood out. It stayed in our minds.”
The 45-room mansion stayed in their minds, but they moved on … all the way to California after they got their degrees – Julie’s in mechanical engineering technology and Dave’s in electrical engineering – and got married.
“But while we were in California, we started buying, renovating and flipping houses. We started doing that long before it was the chic thing to do. And we really loved it,” says Julie. “So, we started thinking about that beautiful mansion in Laurium, Michigan.”
The 13,000-square-foot mansion was built in 1908 by Thomas Hoatson Jr., the owner of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company. It remained in the family until the Hoatsons sold it in 1949. By the time the Sprengers bought the mansion in 1989 and started renovating it into an inn, the property had been vacant for 10 years.
“It was, and is, a huge undertaking, but we’ve been in this business now for 28 years, and I truly believe one of the reasons we’ve been successful is because we’ve never considered this, or any property, our home. It’s not a bed and breakfast in our own home – it’s a boutique hotel. When plumbing breaks, the heating goes out or other problems arise, it’s never personal. It’s just business and you take care of it.”
Room by room, the Sprengers renovated the property, turning the 45-room private mansion into the Laurium Manor Inn.
At the beginning of the renovation, they lived in an apartment in the basement of the mansion. But about 18 years ago, they moved to a house next door. “But now we’ve turned that house into a weekly rental, and we’re living around the corner, renovating yet another house,” muses Julie.
“People always ask us why we don’t live in one of the fabulous rooms upstairs, but for us the Laurium Manor Inn has always been about the guests – what will make the best experience for the guests? So we’ve never considered it our home. We really want all our guests to feel like the whole place is theirs while they’re here. We’re the innkeepers, not the homeowners.”
Right from the beginning, the Sprengers immediately looked for ways to expand their business and the hospitality experience. In 1993 they bought the Victorian Hall, just across the street from the Inn. The 7,000 square foot mansion was built for Norman Macdonald, a shareholder in Hoatson’s Calumet and Arizona Mining Company.
“Renovating the Victorian Hall was different than renovating the Inn. The property had been continuously occupied, so we didn’t have to deal with the kind of problems vacancy causes. But we wanted the Victorian Hall to be authentic, and because it had been remodeled a couple times we had to renovate it back to its original turn-of-the-century look,” says Julie.
In addition to the Laurium Manor Inn and the Victorian Hall, the Sprengers also offer two carriage houses and several separate houses for rent. The carriage houses, one on each property, are perfect for families, especially with small children. The Sprengers also have houses for weekly rental, also good for families or groups.
COURTESY LAURIUM MANOR INN
The Sprengers’ other Victorian inn, the Victorian Hall, closes for the winter but creates a beautiful image beneath a fresh winter snow. The town of Laurium, named for an ancient Greek mining town, features dozens of residential and business structures built around the turn of the 19th century.
The Victorian Hall is only open in summer, but the Laurium Manor Inn is open year-round, except for November and April. And winter is one of its busiest times.
The Inn does provide breakfast every morning and snacks are put out every afternoon. Coffee, tea and hot chocolate are available at any time.
For other meals, Julie notes, “we have some cute restaurants in town, not too far away.” This winter, for the first time, guests can also go to one of her favorite local restaurants. After a short hiatus in November and December, the Fitzgerald’s Restaurant in nearby Eagle River will open after Christmas for the rest of the winter.
In the future, the Sprengers may be offering even more lodging options. Besides renovation on their own home, they are buying yet another local property and will began renovating it this winter.
“I tell people we love the house we’re in, and we’re going to stay in this one forever,” says Julie, “but who knows. I’ve learned not to say ‘never’.”
No matter what the season, the Laurium Manor Inn and its corresponding properties offer a great hospitality experience if you’re visiting the Keweenaw.
Plus Julie adds one last good-to-know secret for those wanting to enjoy the outdoors during the day and a lovely Victorian fireplace to snuggle by at night. In winter, she reveals, overnight stays cost less.
Lesley DuTemple lives in Eagle River, and she, like Julie, is also excited about the winter opening of Fitzgerald’s Restaurant.