The community of summer homes and cottages at Bay View had its beginning in a conversation that took place in Jackson, Michigan in September, 1875. A group of Methodists had met to plan a Camp Meeting, which was a popular form of summer gathering where people convened for cultural, social, and religious purposes. They chose Bay View, Michigan, just northeast of Petoskey on Little Traverse Bay, as the ideal site because of its healthy summer climate and its accessibility by railroads and Great Lakes steamers, and their first series of lectures and sermons took place the following summer. By 1877, they had platted streets, parks, and public areas, and the first cottages had been built.

Today, Bay View is a community of some 470 summer homes, cottages, and public buildings, most of them constructed in the Victorian style within 25 years of the association’s founding. Its handsome homes and cottages remain in the same families for generations, and people continue to gather there for summer-long series of concerts, classes, lectures, religious services, and cultural events.

Photographer Robert Cleveland began his visual documentation of Bay View in 2004, and we present a series of his color photographs from this northern Michigan community. About the same time, Mary Jane Doerr, a long-time family friend and Bay View resident, began writing a comprehensive history of the Bay View Association. Her book, illustrated with Robert Cleveland’s photographs, will be released this summer. For more information about Bay View and its history, please go to bayviewassociation.com.