We found this week’s topic on the Marion Community page on Facebook. Someone asked about the Irish Inn and got a great variety of answers, mostly regarding the excellent food dished up there for many years, and one of its last and most excellent cooks and proprietors, Norma Scherlitz Kelley Lindstrom. The name ‘Irish Inn’ comes from the Kelley’s tenure. But in fact, it is the most recent name in a long run of businesses and names, to occupy the building in the past 118 years. In fact, early records are a bit sketchy, and involve a lot of names, many of people who came and went. Marion, Michigan never gave them another thought. Built in 1905, after the Great Fire of the previous year, the two story block building was owned by E.J. Parr, pharmacist. His business was the Central Drug Store. He operated it a few years before the stock and store fixtures were acquired by pharmacist and owner of the Marion Drug Store, James Conklin and moved to his business. The building changed owners and occupations, and was rumored to have been a pool hall in the 1920’s and early 1930’s. New owners in 1938 opened a restaurant, but soon moved on, making way for ‘Pearl’s Harbor’ to relocate into a larger space, from the old LaGoe store just across the river. Pearl Syerson sold her business to Frank and Marie Coon in 1945. They sold the next year to a James Snipes, who called it Jimmy’s Inn. By 1950 it became the popular and long-running eatery called the Riverside Restaurant, no matter who owned it. The Riverside Restaurant had string of owners through the 1950’s and 1960’s. If you are Marionite of a certain age you will remember Bob and Verna Patterson, Clayton and Peg Hackett, both Stan and his brother Stacey Roper, George and Ann Coon, and of course, George and Lena Watson, who also lived in the upstairs apartment in the late 1960s’. In 1973 Chuck and Norma Kelley bought the building and renovated and renamed their version of the restaurant the Irish Inn. The late Norma was a well known local cook who loved what she did and the business was very successful. The Irish Inn introduced the first salad bar to Marion diners. Her homemade desserts and baked goods were wildly popular. In a few years, the Kelley’s sold to Clayton and Helen Martinson, who maintained the Irish Inn tradition of good food. They, in turn sold to Gib and Marsha Turner in 1987. Pearl’s Harbor, the Riverside Restaurant and the Irish Inn were all very popular restaurants in the same place. Folks gathered there for coffee, good food and conversation for many years. For various reasons, it closed sometime into the new millennium. E.J. Parr’s building is a long-standing resident on Main Street and as so, have some stories and some quirks. It is one of three remaining two-story business buildings left on Main Street. They are the Irish Inn (Parr), Artesian Wells Medical Clinic (Hall) and the Richardson (Shanajac’s) Building. The Parr and Hall buildings were built immediately after the Great Fire, replacing wooden structures lost to flames. All three have/had living spaces on the upper floors. At different times, they have been used for living and or office space, as demand warranted. At one time, at least half of the buildings on Main Street were two-story. Early on, businesses along Main Street utilized flowing wells for a water supply, and kept them, even after the village installed a water system. Water could be heard running in the rear of many stores, including Don Sible’s Hardware. A flowing well powered the constant flow at the soda fountain at Van’s Drugs, and a flowing well provided excellent drinking water at the Irish Inn. In the 1950’s, owners Clayton and Peg Hackett erected “dollar boards” to do their share in the local polio drive. When a customer gave a dollar they were allowed to pin the cash on the board themselves, and write their name under it. Rivalry and business must have been great. The boards brought in more than $235. And the food wasn’t bad either. A large party was held at the Riverside Restaurant for Dr. Harry Willet in 1960 when he was named General Practitioner of the Year by the Michigan Association of Osteopathic Surgeons and Practitioners. Most of the town turned out and enjoyed a sit down dinner with the good doctor and his wife, Kathryn. It was a proud and memorable event for our little town. Likely more folks were seated in the restaurant at one time for dinner than was allowed. It may have been the most folks ever at the Riverside Restaurant, before or since, by any name. So, Marion, Michigan, there’s the not so short story of the roots of the Irish Inn. If you are of a certain age you likely have good memories of visits there. I do. Sure wish I could visit one of Norma’s salad bars again. Have a safe and sane July 4, Marion, Michigan.
A three year old E.J. Parr/Irish Inn building is on the right in this 1908 photo of Main Street, Marion, Michigan. If that Irish Inn front we are all familiar with were removed, the building would look much like this. Parr’s name is still immortalized in stone at the top.