Former Upjohn Family Estate and Conference Resort
6535 N 42nd St, Augusta, MI 49012
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Property is privately held and not currently open to the public. View only from public roads.
Access
Limited Access
Wooded private estate; public viewing only from roadway
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1895 · Upjohn Family Estate · Industrial-Era Pharmaceutical History · Michigan Conference Center
Brook Lodge sits on roughly 82 acres of woodland and creek frontage north of Augusta, Michigan, in Kalamazoo County. The land began as a 19th-century dairy farm before Dr. William Erastus Upjohn, founder of the Upjohn pharmaceutical company, purchased the property in 1895 as a summer residence for his family.
In 1956 the Upjohn Company acquired the estate from the family and converted it into a corporate retreat. By the late 20th century the resort included sixteen buildings, eight cottages, and a combined 48 guest rooms, and it operated as the Brook Lodge Hotel and Conference Resort. Dr. Upjohn himself died at the Doctor's Cottage on October 18, 1932.
The lodge closed in 2009. Michigan State University acquired the property in 2010 and used it as a research and conference site before selling it in 2018 to an out-of-state buyer who had planned to convert it for cannabis-related production. That plan did not materialize, and reporting from early 2024 indicated that the Foundation for Behavioral Resources had taken ownership with stated intentions to restore the property as a community asset.
The estate is privately held, not publicly tourable, and not currently operating as a hotel.
Sources
Of all the buildings on the Brook Lodge property, the Doctor's Cottage attracts the most consistent reports. Set on the edge of a creek and surrounded by what was once a Japanese-style garden, the cottage was where Dr. William Erastus Upjohn suffered a fatal heart attack on October 18, 1932.
Guests staying in the cottage have described disembodied footsteps and a general unease serious enough that the front desk would regularly receive late-night requests to be moved to a different room. Former staff working alone in the cottage after events have reported hearing piano music when no one else was in the building.
Guests in the carriage house have separately reported hearing piano music overnight, although the only piano on the property at the time was too far away for the sound to carry. Reports were widely repeated by Michigan paranormal blogs and regional newspapers, and the venue closed before any formal televised investigation could take place.
With the property now privately held and inaccessible to the public, visitors should treat Brook Lodge as a historical site rather than a destination for active investigation. The folklore is documented; the building is not currently open.
Notable Entities
View the wooded grounds and historic main lodge from N 42nd Street near Augusta. The 82-acre former Upjohn family estate remains private property; the gates and Doctor's Cottage area are not publicly accessible.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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