The Wandawega Inn is a fine example of a resort hotel and recreational property in Walworth County, a vacation destination since the 1860s, that exhibits the evolution of recreational use over time during three distinct eras: first as a small, working-class resort hotel and speakeasy during the prosperous 1920s and Great Depression; a working-class family resort during the mid-twentieth century; and a summer retreat for the upper Midwest’s Catholic Latvian-American community through late twentieth century.

The property is comprised of a lodge, hotel building, several small cabins, and multiple recreational facilities. Constructed in 1927, the inn’s tavern, “Orphan Annie’s”, lays claim to a colorful past as a prohibition-era roadhouse involving bootleg liquor, gambling, and prostitution. Largely escaping notice by local authorities, the inn was closed for a year under a federal prohibition padlock. Reopening under the name Wandawega Hotel, the establishment failed to shake its shady past. One of the hotel’s cabins was scene to an inter-state murder-suicide. After a state investigation under the attention of the governor, the original proprietor was sent to prison. The property was successfully reinvented as the family-friendly Wandawega Lake Resort in 1946, complete with swimming, boating, fishing, shuffleboard, and home-style Polish cooking. Purchased by an order of Latvian Catholic priests in 1961, “Vandavega” became a summer cultural and recreational retreat for a community of Catholic Latvian World War II refugees that settled primarily in Chicago. For several generations, the north shore of Wandawega Lake was the site of summer volleyball tournaments, basketball and tennis matches, Latvian cultural fairs, kids camps, weekly outdoor Sunday masses, monthly Latvian pancake breakfast fundraisers, and most important of all, the annual festivities and bonfires of St. John’s Day.

This property is private. Please respect the rights and privacy of the owners.