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2004 HERITAGE HILL HOME TOUR
TOUR HOUSE DETAILS
Saturday and Sunday, October 2 and 3, 2004
Click on thumbnail images for larger photos.
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527 CRESCENT NE This Craftsman-style
house was built circa 1879-1880 and returns to Tour after more than two
decades. The mostly family-engineered renovation of the home is stunning and
visitors shouldn't miss the section of set from a recent Hollywood movie
whose outside scenes were shot here in West Michigan. |
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506 CRESCENT NE This Craftsman-style
house was built in 1882 and was home to the same family that built it for
nearly 60 years. Careful attention to clues and details discovered by the
current owner has returned the home's facade to its original grandeur. The
house was converted to four apartments, which the owner has maintained, and
three of those apartments are on this years' Tour. |
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248 COLLEGE SE This shingle-style
home was built approximately 1885. The shingle-style of architecture was
used in the late 1880s to draw together many details such as the Queen Anne,
Colonial Revival and Romanesque styles borrowed for this home. Besides
busily raising three young children, the owner, Paula, is an antique dealer
who has filled her home with many beautiful pieces. |
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422 WASHINGTON SE By the late 1970s,
this 1890 Queen Anne-style house had fallen into hard times, was covered
with pink asphalt shingles and suffered from serious neglect. It was
considered to be "the one house on the block you didn't want to live near.
It's since been returned to a spacious single family home and was last on
the annual Tour in 1996. Many wonderful changes have been made to the house
since then, Tour goers will get a special treat this year with the
opportunity to see the unique living space on the third floor. |
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563 UNION SE This 1905 Gothic cement
block home was purchased, most notably, in 1936 by Dr. Cortez English and
his wife, Amelia. Dr. English was the first African American dentist in
Grand Rapids. In addition to dentistry, Dr. English had a passion for music,
particularly jazz. It's rumored that many jazz musicians roomed at this home
on their way to performances in Idlewyld, a noted African American resort in
northern Michigan. |
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649 UNION SE Built in 1910 by John
Seven of Sevens Wallpaper and Paint, this home is more famously known as
President Gerald R. Ford's boyhood home. President Ford's family lived in
the house for seven years from 1923 to 1930. President Ford was 10 years old
when they moved into the house. This is the the third time the house has
been on the Annual Heritage Hill Tour and the current homeowners have made
many changes and renovations since the 1994 showing. |
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119 UNION NE This circa-1880 home has
had only seven owners since being built, including the current owners.
Interestingly, this house was more than a home for two different periods in
its lifetime: For nearly four years in the mid-fifties it was the office of
the Rebekah Assembly of Michigan, and for over a decade stretching from 1961
into the early 70s it housed the Holy Rosary Convalescent Home. |
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416 MORRIS SE This 1923 Colonial
Revival was first owned by Clara Herpolsheimer. Her family owned one of the
premier department stores in downtown Grand Rapids. The flagship store,
located at Monroe Center and Division, closed in the late 1980s. Though the
Herpolsheimer shopping experience is gone forever, this lovely home remains
for our viewing pleasure. |
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583 MADISON SE This home, a classic
Romanesque Revival, has experienced short-tenure occupants from the very
beginning of its existence in 1893. It was converted to two apartments in
1928, paving the way for future cobbling in subsequent years, until it
finally ended up on the city rolls as a HUD house in the mid- to late-1980s.
Currently under restoration by the current owners, Tour goers this year have
the special privilege of viewing this "work in progress" as this gem on the
south end finally regains its full luster. |
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334 LAGRAVE SE St. George Antiochian
Orthodox Church - Built in 1925, the church was designed in the Byzantine
style with 3 domes. The Byzantine style of church architecture is
characterized by smaller domes. The Antiochian Orthodox church traces its
roots back to the first century Antioch where the disciples of Jesus were
first called Christians. The Orthodox Church's apostolic doctrine, worship
and structure have remained intact for over 20 centuries. |
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450 MADISON SE Frank Lloyd Wright
designed prairie style house built in 1908 for founder of May’s of Michigan
clothing store -- restored to its original splendor by the Steelcase
Corporation. |
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254 EAST FULTON The building that has
been home to the Grand Rapids Women’s City Club since 1924, was originally
built for the Martin Sweet family in 1856. Sweet had a highly successful
career in the grain business, banking, sawmills, and lumber. Mr. Sweet is
best remembered for building Sweet's Hotel, which became the Pantlind Hotel
and now the Amway Grand Plaza. |
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115 COLLEGE SE Also on Tour, for an
additional fee, will be the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Voigt House at 115
College SE. This 1895 built retirement home for Carl and Elizabeth Voigt is
a near-perfect preservation of a little more affluent life around the turn
of the 1900s in Grand Rapids. |
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