Peter B. Appeldoorn House

532 Village St.

A charming Late Queen Anne nestled in the tree-lined Vine Neighborhood, the Peter B. Appeldoorn House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Built in 1895, the house features architectural elements common to the style and period, evoking the delightfulness of a rural cottage, and yet it reflects unique qualities that distinguish the home from other dwellings constructed nearby. As the new century neared, the Queen Anne style became increasingly less popular, making this mail-order catalog home unique in that exhibits transitional qualities that suggest a coming of new architectural forms. From the National Register of Historic Places nomination form:

“The Appeldoorn House is a highly individualistic and unusual residence constructed in a late and provincial Queen Anne style which suggests the emerging Bungalow style. The home is two stories in height and is of frame construction. It employs a cross-gable with a small open porch in the angle of the ell. The façade is composed of a projecting gable which is visually balanced on the east side by a steeply pitched roof under which the one-story open porch is placed.”

Peter was the son of a successful shoe salesman and Dutch immigrant, Ryer Appeldoorn, who had come to Kalamazoo in 1859 with his father to start the P. B. Appeldoorn’s Sons Company. Ryer’s sons Fred and Peter eventually took over the day-to-day operations of the tannery and boot store, leading the successful business for decades. Appeldoorn bought the land in the then up and coming Vine Neighborhood (then considered a suburb) in the Spring of 1894, building the handsome Queen Anne shortly thereafter. He and his wife resided at this address until the 1940s.

Written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, May 2024