The Harrington Inn sits at 1026 Military Street in downtown Port Huron on just under an acre, and you can see right away how its five-story red brick building with big, round arched windows and double-hung windows across the upper floors stands out, especially with its historic Classical Revival and Richardsonian Romanesque styles, detailed wooden porches, Ionic columns, and even an old coffee shop extension from 1930 out front, which all together mark it as a Michigan State Historic Site and a place on the National Register of Historic Places. Since it opened in 1896, it's hosted well-known guests like Thomas Edison, Harry S Truman, and Mickey Rooney, and the building kind of tells its own story, being a former assisted living site that's been empty since the doors closed in 2017. Right now, the property's in receivership with GF Hotels managing it, while Hip Hip Huron LLC is listed as the owner, and you can tell from the signage and the photos of the place that it once welcomed business and leisure travelers along with seniors.
The Harrington Inn once had a community of residents 55 and older needing assisted living and gave them 82 rooms across studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom layouts, with meals cooked fresh by a skilled chef, common rooms for socializing, and indoor gathering spaces for activities like devotional services, movement, and offsite trips. Care was steady with staff awake and making rounds every 45 minutes, helping with things like moving from beds to wheelchairs, diabetic monitoring, and incontinence care, with care needs split evenly between medium and heavy, plus they'd let pets like cats and dogs live there and even allowed smoking indoors, though only in certain areas. The Inn featured some unique perks, such as complimentary transportation, standby help for transfers, special check-in services, and fees for different levels of care, including community, respite, and buy-in fees, with additional costs for a second person. The kitchen wing and mechanical rooms sit at the back of the property, and the whole layout includes over 3,200 square feet for gatherings or functions. The Harrington Inn has no active PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) improvements in place.
Even though the building's vacant now and up for auction again starting at $250,000, some see it as a spot for redevelopment, maybe into multi-family housing, student housing, or a retirement home, but so far, it stands as a reminder of the area's history, especially in the Blue Water Area, with its preserved architecture and long ties to the community, and the old sign reading "Historic Harrington Inn, Living with Assistance" still marking the entry, especially by the James McColl House, which adds to its sense of place.
