Holiday home tour highlights Muskegon's oldest and newest historic residences

December 6, 2007
By Deborah Johnson Wood
Rapid Growth

It's an odd fact: the oldest historic home on this year's Downtown Muskegon Holiday Heritage Home Tour is also the newest kid on the block.

The Panyard House at 372 W. Muskegon Avenue was built in the 1880s, a decade before the next-oldest structure on the tour, but it was moved to the downtown historic infill district just this past summer.

The City of Muskegon created the infill district along Muskegon and Webster Avenues ten years ago. Since then, a dozen houses from other areas of town--houses slated to be razed, become multi-family residences, or office space—have found a new home there.

"There were a number of vacant lots in the district because several houses had been demolished, and the idea was to cluster historic homes in that near-downtown area," says Dan Rinsema-Sybenga, a member of the Nelson Neighborhood Improvement Association that organizes the holiday tour.

The tour includes houses of Victorian, Craftsman, Georgian Colonial, and farmhouse architectural styles, and a 31-room mansion that is now an annex of the Hackley Public Library.

The Scolnik House, a Depression-era home owned by the Muskegon County Museum, features a main floor decked out for Christmas guests. A second floor display depicts the Hanukkah preparations of a fictional Jewish family that resides there.

The tour is Saturday, December 8 and begins at the Union Depot at 610 W. Western. New at the Depot this year are displays of two of the city's proposed downtown residential developments, HighPoint Flats by Parkland Properties and Heritage Square Townhomes by Port City Construction.

© 2007 Muskegon Chronicle. Used with permission