Leelanau Cottage is a beautiful, large, historic, family-friendly, and dog-friendly cottage in Frankfort, which is a charming little beach town located on Lake Michigan where the Betsie River runs into the big lake. This cottage provides a wonderful vacation environment for individuals, couples, both large and small families, and even multiple families and large groups.
INTERACTION WITH GUESTS:
Our local property manager lives in the area and is available to address any issues as needed.
NEIGHBORHOOD:
The house is in downtown Frankfort and it is only a 5-minute walk from Lake Michigan. The community is beautiful with many grand, large, historical family vacation homes. Frankfort also features a very nice array of shops and restaurants.
GUEST ACCESS:
We provide access to the entire house, except for the basement which is locked off and used just for storage. Please note that there is an outdoor hot tub at the property, but guests are not permitted to use it so it is not included in the listing.
THE SPACE:
The cottage is located on Leelanau Avenue in the downtown Frankfort residential district, just a short 5 to 10 minute walk from beautiful downtown Frankfort, Lake Michigan, and Betsie Lake. (The cottage is exactly 0.6 miles from Frankfort Beach and Lake Michigan.) It is also conveniently close to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Crystal Mountain Resort. It is 1,950 square feet in size and has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is fully furnished (including all sheets and bedding, dishes, and kitchen utensils) and it sleeps up to 10 adults comfortably. (There is also a crib for infants in one of the upstairs bedrooms.) The house also includes cable television and high-speed Wifi at no additional cost.
The cottage has an historic Arts and Crafts design, which was popular in the U.S. between 1860 and 1910. We want to research the history of the house further, but, at present, we do know that it was once a lodge for railroad workers and other boarders when several rail and car ferries operated out of Frankfort and Frankfort was a commercial railway shipping port on the Great Lakes.
The details of the home's design were ahead of its time though, with a very open floor plan and numerous large windows that supply wonderful natural lighting throughout the house, bringing in the full beauty of the brilliant northern Michigan sunshine. The interior styling of the home is bright and uplifting, yet neutral, throughout the home. All of the kitchen appliances (gas range, dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker) have been replaced with new appliances within the last 7 years and the cottage even includes a large laundry room with a new front-load washer and dryer. Both of the bathrooms have been extensively and beautifully remodeled. In terms of recent enhancements, we added a beautiful new gas fireplace to the cottage in December, 2017 and we finished replacing all of the windows in the cottage in January, 2018.
In terms of bedrooms and beds, there is one bedroom on the first floor, which has a lovely queen-size sleigh bed. The other three bedrooms are all on the second floor. Two of the upstairs bedrooms also have queen-size beds in them. The other upstairs bedroom has two matching twin-size beds in them. If needed, there is also a portable fold-up bed that can be used to sleep a ninth. There is a full bathroom on the first floor and a second full bathroom on the second floor.
In terms of wheelchair / special needs compatibility, the cottage has a long ramp leading from the back parking area up to the back porch and the rear door. There is also both a bedroom and bathroom on the main floor. As such, the cottage is quite accessible via wheelchairs and we welcome guests with wheelchairs and/or other special needs.
TRANSIT:
In terms of electric vehicle support, effective January 1, 2023, there is a 220-volt electric vehicle charger at the property that should work great with any electric vehicles! There is also local bus service via the Benzie bus, but having your own vehicle is recommended.
