Hutson B. Colman House

A building boom came to South Street at the beginning of the twentieth century. Near Westnedge fine new homes went up for the Blumenbergs and the Boudemans, the Gilmores and the Lays. At the other end of the long tree-lined block rose the "Georgian" Revival home of one of Kalamazoo's prominent businessmen, Hutson Colman. Herbert Everard sold Colman a part of his lot in 1904 and the next year he chose the regular facade, hipped roof, and classical ornament that indicated that fashion for Americans newly-conscious of their colonial past. He added a wide veranda across the front with four square pillars supporting a flat roof with balustrade above. He brought a new style that contrasted sharply with the elaborate ornament of Everard's twenty-year-old Queen Anne and nearby Italianate villas of a decade earlier.

The Gazette carried a biographical note on Colman in April, 1905. He belonged to the prominent Colman drug family and had come to Kalamazoo in 1866 at the age of eleven. Graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1877, he spent a leisurely summer in Paris writing travel accounts for the hometown paper. On his return, he served for two years as principal of the old Central High School, then entered into business.

Hutson Colman first joined with C. H. Bird in manufacturing windmills during the now-forgotten era when that was a major local industry. From 1893 to 1895, however, he was President of the newly organized Home Savings Bank (Inc. 1893; Cap. $50,000). From that base he launched out to a term in 1896 as Republican State Senator; and to the presidency of the St. John Plow Company. In 1899, he began a twelve-year term as postmaster and rapidly expanded his business affiliations. When he and his wife moved into the South Street home, he was also Secretary-Treasurer of the A. L. Lakey Company. By 1908, he had added a position as Secretary of the King Paper Co. In 1909, he became President of the Kalamazoo Laundry Co. and President of the Puritan Corset Co. The latter had been incorporated in 1900 with stock of $75,000 to develop the locally-invented "Puritan clasp". By 1906, the company employed some 75 to 100 hands and produced 150 dozen corsets a day. Through 1913, Colman held all of these positions, then gradually began to retire.

Colman died in 1917, and the home continued in his estate for many years afterward. It was occupied by a variety of individuals, in particular by Mrs. Hester Cunningham, who first boarded at the address in 1914 and was listed there all through the twenties. In 1939, it housed the Michigan Academy of Radio Science, and from 1945 until well into the 1960's it served Kalamazoo College as a home for the Department of Music. It is now in use for general offices.

Kalamazoo County Tax Rolls:

Kalamazoo City Directory

State Census Rolls:

1894  424 Academy, H. B. Colman, 39, banker, widower, b. Mich.; Lovell Colman, 9, son, at
         school, b. Mich.; Martha Farley, 52, wife, widow, housekeeper; Grace Farley, 19,
         daughter, at home.