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F. and Carrie Gilmore House:
The following material is from the 1973 Initial Inventory of Historic Sites and Buildings in Kalamazoo and was made available for use here by the Historic Preservation Coordinator of the City of Kalamazoo. See Introduction to an Initial Inventory... for details about how the survey was conducted. 516
West South Street R-2
One
September Saturday in 1908, the Gazette mourned the passing
of James F. Gilmore, calling "the memory of his well-lived
life... the grandest heritage that he could have left to his family,
his friends and the community that proudly claimed him as a citizen."
The paper went on to comment on the "pretentious dry goods
establishment" Gilmore had built since the 1880's as a result,
said the paper of his "exemplifying the Golden Rule in all his
dealings with the public." In passing the paper mentioned,
"one of the saddest features of his death is the fact that
within the past few months Mr. Gilmore had just completed one of the
most beautiful residences in the city and was preparing to move into
it...." The
house that brought this praise belonged to the architectural
category loosely called "Tudor" or English
"Half-timber." Many Americans at the turn of the century
believed that American culture could be rooted in the English past.
The Tudor style, similar in many respects to the "Queen
Anne" designs popular twenty years earlier, seemed to fill an
architectural need matched in other areas by the resurgence of
Shakespeare's plays, and of "old English" literature, as
well as by the "Craftsman" temperament that put a high
value on the life style of an earlier day. The massive grouping of
the two front bays, with their studied asymmetry, elaborate
"half-timbering," and textured stucco, gave a feeling of
the rugged days of the "Elizabethans." The Gilmore home
was an early example of the style that would be increasingly popular
in the next two decades in such prestigious areas of Kalamazoo as
Spruce Drive and Grand Avenue. Carrie
Gilmore did move into the new home, though in the next decade it
passed to J. Stanley Gilmore and his family who occupied it until
after World War II. In the middle 'fifties, the Red Cross
organization made its headquarters there. Carrie Gilmore continued
as President of the
department store, ultimately marrying William
E. Upjohn, President of the Upjohn Company, who had occupied the
home next door in 1905.
Kalamazoo
County Tax Rolls: not
available for period Kalamazoo
City Directory: 1906
Clarke Williams, 516 W. South (older house on lot) 1907
James F. Gilmore, 516 W. South 1908
504 (corner house); 512 "vacant"; 516, James
Gilmore 512 appears only once 1909 Carrie Gilmore, widow of James F. 516 W. South (1909 photo shows house) This report was converted from a typewritten document to a digital text document in September 2004. Other than punctuation and spelling corrections, and the addition of BOLD type site address and names, no changes were made. Minor formatting changes were made for use on this website, but the text was not altered. Original survey dated 1973.
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