Charm meets grandeur at Jade Estate Inn, a home that has been stopping traffic on its corner of a quiet Allegan neighborhood since 1863. Go ahead and admire the tall doors, high ceilings, and rich details of a day gone by, but the owners want you to make yourselves comfortable in any of the bed and breakfast’s six beautifully appointed rooms and the spacious common areas and gardens.
Whether you’re coming here for the wine trail, winter sports, fall color, a festival, or a family event, staying at Jade Estate Inn puts you close to all that’s special about Southwest Michigan. It’s only 30 minutes from here to Saugatuck, Lake Michigan beaches, or Kalamazoo and 40 minutes to Grand Rapids or to South Haven.
Romantic couples love Jade Estate for its luxurious rooms, jetted tubs, and more. The Verde and Jasper rooms both have gas fireplaces.
If three or four adults travel together, the Myrtle Suite and Verde Room can be booked as a two-room suite.
Jade Estate’s breakfast options include plated service in the dining room or, in season, on the wrap-around porch or in the garden. Serve yourself some coffee anytime you want.
A little bit of history
Under other names and three prior owners, the property has operated as a bed and breakfast since 1987. It had stood empty for three years when Todd Green and his wife Nia (NEE-ah) bought it out of bankruptcy in 2020.
Todd Green, who grew up in the Allegan area, where he farms and operates a trucking company, was attracted to the property because its needs were a good fit for his talents as a residential builder and renovator. After determining that the mansion and carriage house are structurally in great shape, Todd enlisted his crew to freshen walls, floors, and all the gorgeous woodwork.
In operating a construction company, Todd has much in common with the home’s builder, David D. Davis. A carpenter, Davis moved to Allegan in 1835 and helped build many of the town’s early structures. He prospered. From living in a log cabin in what is now downtown, he and his wife were able to move in 1863 to the fine example of Italianate Renaissance architecture he built on Cutler Street, the property that has become Jade Estate Inn.
Nia Green, a director of operations in the long-term care industry, said she chose the name Jade Estate Inn because she desired the name to be an expression of exquisite antiquity-meets-contemporary. Jade is an ancient gemstone that is still treasured today. It is also another name for green, the surname of the owners.
Unique Experiences at Jade Estate Inn
Waterways
The Kalamazoo River makes a curlicue through Allegan as it runs west to Lake Michigan for 123 miles from Albion, where north and south branches meet. Recommended nearby sections for kayaking or canoeing are:
- Lake Allegan (Calkins) dam to Richmond Bridge Park
- Lake Allegan dam west with a detour through the Big Dailey Bayou, a naturalist’s paradise
- Put in at Plainwell or Otsego and head west toward Allegan. Research portages before you go.
Wine Trail
The Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail runs primarily along the Lake Michigan Shore with tributaries inland to Fennville, Paw Paw, and almost to Kalamazoo. Making Jade Estate in Allegan your home base allows you to choose your route for an unhurried afternoon of tasting wines produced by award-winning vintners along the North, Central, East or South arm of the trail.
The closest wineries to Jade Estate are Warner Vineyards and St. Julian Winery in Paw Paw, 20 minutes away, and Fenn Valley Vineyards and Modales Wines in Fennville, 30 minutes away.
Craft Beer
Schaendorf Brewing Co. produces a rotating list of craft beers made on-site in their classy, renovated space downtown. Tantrick Brewing Co., also family-owned, rotates its taps with various IPAs, stouts, lagers, ales, and hard ciders.
Foodie
Family-run Schaendorf Brewing Co. favors locally produced meats, including beef from their own cattle, and the emphasis on local foods prepared well accounts for a large percentage of its five-star reviews. Walk there from Jade Estate in less than five minutes. The Grill House, two-and-a-half miles away, offers a popular grill-your-own experience. Billing itself as a “rustic American eatery,” Fennville’s Salt of the Earth, 20 minutes away, is all about farm-to-table and scratch-made foods. Nearby, Root Cafe Coffeehouse & Spirits, an eclectic eatery with foods from nearby and around the world, draws foodies from Chicago and Grand Rapids. If you’re taking a day trip to Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo, ask the innkeepers for their dining suggestions. Both towns have excellent options.
Adventure
The zipline offering views of the Kalamazoo River winding through downtown Allegan is only one of the area’s most visible attractions for adventure-minded travelers.
The 50,000-acre Allegan State Game Area has numerous trails for hiking, biking, birdwatching.
Drive M-40 15 minutes south to Gobles, where there’s a trailhead for the 34-mile Kal-Haven Trail linking Kalamazoo and South Haven.
This is a great area to bring your horses. The Allegan State Game Area offers a 60-mile network of equestrian trails. While you enjoy the comforts of Jade Estate Inn, any of several nearby facilities will board your horses and provide you with a range of services.
Golfers, book a tee time at Cheshire Hills (nine holes) or Lynx (18 holes) golf courses. Diamond Springs Golf Course (18 holes), the areas’s highest-rated course, is nine miles from the center of Allegan.
Autumn
Nearby Fennville is an ideal place to while away an autumn afternoon. Pick apples or navigate the corn maze at Crane Orchards U-Pick and Pie Pantry. At nearby Virtue Ciders, you can literally taste the bounty of Michigan’s leading fruit-growing region since Virtue makes its ciders from local apples and other fruits and ages them in barrels.
Winter Fun
Some people are surprised to learn that Allegan County gets so much great snow, averaging 80 inches annually. Why not take advantage of it?
Timber Ridge Ski Area, 15 minutes south of Jade Estate, covers 44 acres, and has an elevation of 900’ feet and a 225-foot vertical drop. You can go tubing here, too.
Bittersweet Resort, also 15 minutes away, offers 350 vertical feet, 20 runs, seven chair lifts, two wonder carpets, and two rope tows. Rent skis and supplies and take lessons.
The Allegan State Game Area offers several cross-country ski trails.
Michigan snowmobiles trails 59 and 592 are the closest to Allegan.