Local History

Houses

Sheffield Drive, 2360

The inspiration for the design of the modernist house at 2360 Sheffield Drive was an article published in Parents Magazine. Robert and Maxene Godfrey had three small children in 1948,…

Short Road Mansions

Short Road is just that, a diminutive stretch of pavement that runs south from Grant Street through Wheaton Avenue, between Oakland Drive and the Vine Neighborhood. The road is home…

South Street, W., 219: William S. Lawrence House

The Park Club (219 W. South St.), situated at the southwest corner of South and Rose streets, moved into the handsome Romanesque home in 1926, and continues to operate its restaurant and club activities on the premises today.

South Street, W., 515: Boudeman House

This stately, Georgian-Colonial home was built in 1905 by Dallas Boudeman for his son, Donald. Among its most distinctive features are the four large columns that support the front pediment, and the formal floor plan. The younger Boudeman was an...

South Street, W., 516: James F. and Carrie Gilmore House

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...

South Street, W., 523: Frank B. Lay House

A rush of new buildings changed the face of staid old South Street at its junction with Westnedge. Dallas Boudeman finished the Georgian-Colonial house at 515 South in 1905. James F. and Carrie Gilmore were preparing to move into their English...

South Street, W., 527: Carder-Van Deusen House

As the Civil War ended, Isaac Moffatt, called "General" by his friends, sold his modest home on South Street to Edwin Carder, a successful furniture dealer looking to move from his home on Walnut Street to the fashionable area on the west side of...

South Street, W., 530: Wood-Upjohn House

In the period during and after the Civil War, no architectural style caught the attention of the American people more than did that called the "Italian Revival". Coming to us originally in the Italian landscapes shipped back by traveling American...

South Street, W., 533: Nehemiah Chase House

The exterior of this home gives little indication of the dignified Italian Revival Villa that Nehemiah Chase built for his family in 1871. Damaged by fire, the steep pitched roof with its Italianate brackets is gone. Modern insulated sheathing has...

South Street, W., 602: William DeYoe House

In the 1840's and 1850's, a taste for gothic architecture swept the country. This new style, favorite of romantic literary figures like Washington Irving, never really supplanted the dominant taste for classic temples. It did appeal, however, to...

South Street, W., 605: Frank Little House

The little brick cottage at 605 South Street is one of the oldest surviving homes in the city. It was one of the first to go up when Kalamazoo's "Plat # 2" was opened in the early 1840's. John Hogeboom, a farmer from New York, paid $.39 tax on his...

South Street, W., 610: John M. Edwards House

A noisy mob marched down South Street in the middle of one January night in 1861. Stopping abruptly in John Edwards' front yard, spokesmen for the group demanded "in the name of the Continental Congress" that Edwards, then Justice of the Peace...

South Street, W., 611: Blumenberg-Wilson House

All during 1904, carpenters worked in what had been Frank Little’s side yard for half a century. Little had passed away the previous fall and his widow, Cornelia, now occupied the house with her daughter, Francis. As the new structure took shape...

South Street, W., 617: Buckhout-Austin House

Oscar Buckhout, pioneer produce merchant in Kalamazoo, shipped the first load of commercial celery from what would soon be known as the Celery Capital of the world. In 1892, he built this dignified Queen Anne home for himself and his wife, Mary...

South Street, W., 620: Albert M. Todd House

This once stately home served as residence for successful Kalamazoo businessmen for several decades before becoming the Delta Upsilon Fraternity home in 1953. It is perhaps best remembered as the home of the Albert M. Todd family who lived there...

South Street, W., 629: Edmond S. Rankin House

Edmond S. Rankin, one-time Mayor of the city, came to Plainwell with his parents in 1870 when he was nine. His father, Dr. John Rankin, served as physician and druggist there and in Richland for the rest of the century. His brother Charles turned...

South Street, W., 630: Jonathan Parsons House

The Reverend Ova Hoyt, active in developing Congregationalist and Presbyterian churches here in town, came to Kalamazoo with his family in 1840. Almost at once he bought a double lot on South Street from the State of Michigan and set about...

South Street, W., 705: Robert Burns House

Robert Burns graduated from Geneva College in New York as a civil engineer in 1851. After a period supervising railroad and canal construction in New York, Canada and Michigan, he turned to reading law. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, then...

South Street, W., 708: Lewis H. Kirby House

Things had changed a great deal in the forty years that Charity Potter had lived in the big house on South Street. When Allen Potter built it in 1870, Kalamazoo was still a village, its major industries still unborn. Now, in 1911, it was a growing...