MUSKEGON, MI -- For more than a century, the Occidental Hotel was the centerpiece of Western Avenue and Third Street in downtown Muskegon. In 1864, a lumberman, Lyman Mason, bought the property.

BUFFALO -- Dawn Dawson-Wexo couldn't find a good chef for what she could pay. Since she reopened The Historic Occidental Hotel in Buffalo in 1997, a number of cooks have come and gone from the ...