NEW Online Reservations

At your convenience, guests can now make online reservations, 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Click the button below to check availability, amenities, view pictures and reserve your room today!

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Hotel Promotions

'Clergy Retreat'

This summer, Lakeside Chautauqua is pleased to offer a special ‘Clergy Retreat’ hotel rate for the duration of the 2012 summer season. To make reservations, call 419-798-4461, ext. 230 and mention the ‘Clergy Retreat’ rate to receive 15% off of our standard rates from Sunday-Thursday at either the Fountain Inn or Hotel Lakeside. The rates are subject to availability; July 1-5, Sept. 2 and weekends are excluded.

Hotel Lakeside

Built in 1875, the celebrated Hotel Lakeside will commemorate its 135th anniversary during the 2010 Chautauqua summer season. For 135 years the beautiful Hotel Lakeside, a National Historic Landmark, has provided guests with unique rooms furnished with antiques from the Victorian era and a grand wrap-around porch offering breathtaking lakefront vistas. Hotel Lakeside is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and extends its season for groups in October. For Hotel Lakeside room reservations, book online or contact 866.952.5374, ext. 230.

The History of Hotel Lakeside

Hotel Lakeside was designed by Mr. Nail of Mansfield, Ohio. In 1875, the hotel was leased to Mr. Nash from Tennessee. The hotel had no running water or electricity and had a two-story outhouse located in the present courtyard. A two-story 32-room annex was constructed south of the hotel in 1879 for guests' servants. In later years, the annex was used as an employee dormitory and torn down in 1962 to enlarge the parking lot.

The 60-room east wing along Maple Avenue was constructed in 1890 at a cost of $20,000. Electric lights were installed in each room and some plumbing was installed in a few public baths and restrooms. This wing connected the original building and the 1879 annex building. The floor plans from 1894 show the main entrance on the lake with the parlor behind the columns in the present front dining room. The registration desk was in the present lobby. Part of the original dining room, the cane-bottom chairs and long tables from the original build in 1875 remain today.

In 1914 the front porch was enlarged and a concrete floor installed, along with a fireplace in the lobby. Wash basins were added to each room during the 1930s. In 1947 the Marine Dining Room was installed, the front porch was screened-in and about half of the rooms had full or partial baths installed. In 1955, the Lakeside Association took over direct management of the hotel, and the lobby and many of the rooms were updated with new paper, rugs, mattresses and plumbing.

However, in subsequent years the hotel wasn't maintained and constantly lost money. Lakeside's Trustees decided to have the structure torn down and replaced by a motel, senior citizens residence or restaurant. But financing the demolition and new construction didn't materialize, and by 1973, over half of the rooms were unusable. The State of Ohio was threatening to close the hotel due to the lack of a sprinkler system. By August, a group of concerned Lakeside residents had determined that the hotel could and should be saved and restored, and The Friends of Hotel Lakeside was founded for this purpose. On August 17, 1974 Lakeside's Board of Trustees changed course, and resolved to save and preserve the hotel.

The Friends of Hotel Lakeside and the Lakeside Association have been working together since 1974 to upgrade the facility. The most important improvements have included complete rewiring, partial new plumbing, installation of the sprinkler system, elevator access to all floors, new kitchen, restoration and air conditioning of the dining room, restoration of the lobby; carpeting for the lobby, all halls and stairs; foundation repair, restoration and reconfiguration of 70 of the rooms and air-conditioning in most of them.

By the beginning of 2003, the entire first floor was remodeled. Four new handicap accessible rooms had been established and two new suites had been renovated while maintaining the charm and style of this Victorian tradition.