Pomona Park Picnic Shelter Reservation Information and Contract 2023
To inquire about making a reservation, please call 231-865-3577 or email the village clerk.
Pomona Park is an approximately 8.5 acre waterfront community park that offers a boat launch, fishing, picnicking, and kayaking as well as a multi-use path, a band shell, a playground, and temporary event space for carnivals or festivals. Winter activities also take place here with sledding as a highlight. It is the largest of the parks in the village and serves a much larger population than just village residents due to its public boat launch on the north end of Spring Lake. This provides boaters with direct access to the Grand Haven waterfront, Lake Michigan and the Grand River upstream.
Pomona Park is rich in history. In 1871, mineral spring water was the latest rage. Resorts popped up all over the country capitalizing on the curative benefits of magnetic mineral water. The Pomona House opened July 1st of that year. Rich patrons would take a steamer from Chicago to Grand Haven and then travel on to Fruitport. Built by the Fruitport Magnetic and Sulphur Springs Company for $500,000, the hotel burned down twice. After it burned down in 1881, it was never rebuilt.
At or near this site, the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Electric Interurban Co. built the Pomona (Fruitport) Pavilion in 1901. The structure was built over the water, allowing boaters to tie up and ascend nearby stairs to the dance floor.
Big Bands that played at the Fruitport Pavilion included Vaughn Monroe, the Glenn Miller Band, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, and Lawrence Welk. Buddy Holly played at the pavilion just months before his death in the infamous plane crash. It was also a place where many local big bands played to eager crowds. It was an especially exciting destination for young people in the 1930s and 1940s. Several hundred people would pack the hall.
The pavilion burned down in 1963. It was not rebuilt.