Ionia County MI Archives News.....THE VANDERHEYDEN HOUSE; Biehler, Banhagel, Steinberg and Slowinski August 1982 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: LaVonne Bennett lib@dogsbark.com April 23, 2008, 12:35 pm THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR - Bulletin Of The Sebewa Center Association; Volume 17, October 1981, Number 2. Submitted With Written Permission Of Current Editor, Grayden D. Slowins August 1982 THE VANDERHEYDEN HOUSE By Grayden Slowins The VanderHeyden house of Ionia was again featured on the Ionia Homes Tour in May. While perhaps not quite as elegant as the Blanchard house, it has half again as much floor space, bright sunlit rooms, and a hillside setting, which only a shepherd can fully appreciate. The tour guide was woefully lacking in information about the house and when I mentioned that my relatives built it, she asked me to compile some facts about it for next time. The house, located at 926 W. Main Street, was built in 1879, a year before the Blanchard house, a year after my own house and contemporary with many other Italianate houses in Ionia City and County. A main point to remember is that this house was designed and built symmetrically for two separate but related families right from the start. So it was not cut up later and ruined like so many old houses. There are two of everything on each floor except the central halls and the front and rear stairs: two parlors, two living-dining rooms, two kitchens, two summer kitchen-woodsheds. There are four large bedrooms upstairs and two full baths plus pleasant servants’ quarters in the upstairs rear. The house was built for William H. and Frederick H. VanderHeyden, father and son, although Fred was still a boy when it was designed. They were the only owners before the Bruce Young family. Much of the original furnishings survived until the Young’s 1975 sale. William VanderHeyden lived in the east half and Fred in the west half. After William’s death in 1910, Fred used the east half for daily living and the west became a library, study (or office), small bedroom and laundry. Fred’s widow died in 1963 and Youngs purchased the place intact. Originally there were two wood-coal furnaces, later stoker fired. Youngs put in two gas furnaces. The original lights were carbide gas, as were both fireplace grates. The basement has brick floors and 10 foot ceilings. Upper floors have 12 foot and 13 foot ceilings. The low attic originally led to a 30 foot widow’s walk, which has been removed and sealed over to prevent leaking. The often-called white brick or yellow brick by old-timers, is most accurately described as ivory-brick, although VanderHeyden bricks do vary from house to house and some within the same house. William H. VanderHeyden was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1836 and died in Ionia, August 16, 1910. He was married to Emily E. Wood, born in Detroit, 1840, died in Ionia, 1918, daughter of John Wood, also a brick manufacturer. William learned the brick trade in New York State, started his own yard in Ionia and then bought the Cornell brickyard about 1866. He also had a branch in Big Rapids for several years and sold the entire business to his son, Frederick H. in 1892. William and Emily are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, which adjoins the brickyard on the north. Their children were: William H. II, who died young; Ella M., who married H. B. Webber of Ionia; Dora E., who married Dr. A. H. Holiday and lived in Long Beach, California; and Frederick H. Fred was born in Ionia in 1869, died in Ionia, Sept. 13, 1952. He was married January 25, 1895, to Eleanor M. Clark, born in Muskegon, Michigan February 28, 1874, died in Ionia, March 27, 1963. Both are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. Regarding my opening remark that my relatives built the house, some explanation is in order. Those involved were the Biehler, Banhagel, Steinberg and Slowinski families. All were related through their foremothers, the Schnabels, and all were brick makers and bricklayers, and/or stonecutters and stonemasons. They dug the clay and fired the brick kilns. They quarried the sandstone, gathered the fieldstone, cut them as neatly as modern blocks, and then laid the stones and bricks. Almost every stone foundation, brick and stone home, public or commercial building built in Ionia City and surrounding area in the 1870’s through the early 1950’s was touched by them. George Biehler, Sr., had been a brick maker in Alsace-Loraaine, France, and his son, Frank Sr., started work at VanderHeyden brickyard and became foreman of John C. Blanchard & Co. Ionia Sandstone Quarry. Frank’s daughter, Mamie, was born in a summer cottage at the bottom of the quarry. He was a stonecutter on the VanderHeyden house, the Blanchard house, the Burhans (Leddick) house, Ionia Court House, Ionia State Hospital, the Michigan Reformatory and others. Frank Banhagel Sr. & Sons laid the brick streets of Ionia, the Armory, the First Presbyterian Church and later its addition, the Ionia Fair Grounds buildings and the manse at SS. Peter & Paul Catholic Church. Frank Slowinski Sr. was said to be the fussiest bricklayer in the family and Frank Steinberg Sr. the best stonecutter. Chris and August Slowinski specialized in barn and other foundations. Ionia’s First Christian Church, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Zion United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church and SS. Peter & Paul Catholic Church were all built of VanderHeyden brick. The First Methodist Church has been built twice using the same bricks. First built in 1871-1873, using VanderHeyden brick and Ionia Variegated Sandstone, it was destroyed by fire in 1930. After the fire, many of these bricks were salvaged, cleaned and used to build the walls of the new church. The quarry was reopened and enough stone gotten out to completely face the brick with sandstone. The bricks can still be seen exposed at the south gable end of the main structure. VanderHeyden bricks were turned out at the rate of three to five million per year at peak production and shipped by rail to such projects as the Veterans’ Home in Grand Rapids. The bricks are imprinted with the initials WHV or FHV, not FVH as has mistakenly been reported. The VanderHeyden house was designed and built well, of the best materials available. The inside shutters were the best idea of their day for cutting winter drafts and summer sun. The home can be purchased for $55,000, it is said, and with an immediate addition of custom-made Plexiglas storm windows of the type used on various churches in Ionia, it could be a comfortable home for a large family or two separate but related families. A final word of caution, however. The family is only exaggerating slightly when they say George Biehler III was paid an annual retainer to watch over the plumbing systems. End File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/newspapers/thevande142gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 7.3 Kb