Village Purchases Building To Provide Home For Historical Society
BY KELLY J. KACZALA — MIRROR REPORTER
Holland Village Council at a January 3 meeting approved the purchase of the former Copper Moon Studio at 7154 Front St. The building will be used by the Holland-Springfield-Spencer Historical Society.
The village bought the building, built in the 19th century, for $55,000 from Bruce Wetzel. Copper Moon vacated the building when it relocated to Airport Highway in November.
Mayor Mike Yunker asked council to approve the purchase “to protect and preserve the history of Holland.”
By purchasing the property, Yunker said it would help protect the structure of the historical building, which was built in 1864 and was the first commercial building in Holland. It has been used as a hardware store, a boarding house and for other retail ventures.
The structure, Yunker added, is worth preserving to help prevent it from becoming a multi-dwelling or residential building, or to keep it from being torn down like other historical buildings before the village got a chance to buy it.
Leasing it to the Holland-Springfield-Spencer Histori-cal Society would be beneficial to the society, Yunker said.
“They could display all their photos and memorabilia, their artifacts, and it would allow them to display different eras on the walls,” he said. “The building itself, and its inside, has such an atmosphere that really caters to this type of a display.”
It would also allow the historical society to inventory and preserve old photos and artifacts, he said.
“These are things we want to keep and not lose. As people get older and pass on, these things are passed down to family members, and they may not see the importance of these documents. They tend to get lost or destroyed, given away or sold. These things are part of the history of Holland,” Yunker said.
The society could offer for sale copies of photographs and other memorabilia that would allow the group to create a revenue stream, he added.
“It would also create an atmosphere that would be inviting to seniors and other people who are interested in history to come join the historical society,” he said.
Currently, the historical society meets in the Holland Community Building. The current office space is cramped, and the new location would provide space to review documents and have meetings, Yunker said.
The village will maintain control of the building.
“One of the things I want to make sure is if the village is going to invest this amount of money, in an effort to protect this investment, we want to have certain controls in place, have certain things done, to preserve the documents, preserve the history of Holland, Springfield Township and Spencer Township,” Yunker said.
“We want to make sure to have an oversight, a review of ledgers and the activities of the society so that everything is running as appropriately as it can be done, so we may have to provide some guidance,” he said. “This organization is all-volunteer. We all know how difficult it is to find volunteers to come out and do these kind of things.”
Yunker encouraged those with historical photos, artifacts or memorabilia related to Holland, Springfield or Spencer to contact the historical society or the village office.
Council president Lee Irons supported the purchase.
“I know that many of the artifacts that you’ve talked about have progressed from being in a back room at Providence Church to a file drawer back here, to being taken care of very well now by our society. This would be an improvement for our volunteers,” Irons said.
Karla Miller, historical society president, is looking forward to the group’s future move into its new digs.
“I’m still in shock. I can’t believe it,” Miller said.