Harrington Inn (Harrington Hotel)

This large and luxurious hotel was once the center of Port Huron's tourist trade. The red brick building has a rounded towerlike corner on its southwest side, bays, and balconies; in contrast, a piazza and balustraded porches are aggressively classical and are supported by paired Ionic columns. Although the Port Huron Daily Times for February 27, 1896, called the building “colonial” in style, it is really a bizarre mixture of classicism with Romanesque and Queen Anne features. The building is arranged in a U shape, which permits the placement of its 128 rooms around a light well. The grand columned lobby has a fireplace and is richly paneled in wood. Originally it was furnished with “quaint, colonial furniture.” Charles F. Harrington (b. 1842), a Port Huron financier, established the Harrington Hotel Company and had this structure built. When it opened in 1896 the chamber of commerce hoped it would induce further investment in Port Huron. The hotel resembles those found at the turn of the twentieth century in Mount Clemens, Petoskey, and other resort cities of Michigan. In 1986 the Westin Financial Group rehabilitated the hotel into ninety assisted-living units for senior citizens.