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Update 4/5/2025: I have discovered this hotel operated as "Heard's Hotel" (Tom Heard) after finding some old high school yearbook ads on it. There was a fire in 1960 but it continued on beyond that. It came up for sale in 1968 when the owners at the time were looking to retire.
This hotel goes back to the 30's or 40's. It was difficult to locate and research because of the name. There are "Houghton Lake Hotels" and THE "Houghton Lake Hotel", the old news articles don't differentiate that well. This place sat near Old US-27 and M-55 right on the water. Despite that, I am not seeing an obvious structure on the 1955 aerial photo.
There are canals in that area so perhaps it sat on one of those because Old 27 is not right on the water at that intersection. There were 2 notable hotel fires in Houghton Lake in the 1960's, one in 1960 and the other in 1968. I believe the 1960 fire was related to this place. However, I found ads for what seemed to be the hotel for sale in the mid 1960's so maybe the fire wasn't a total loss. As of 2023, I believe this place to be long gone.