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July 22, 2007 Old social club becomes furniture showplace At the end of a bygone century, some of Muskegon’s most prominent business leaders formed the Muskegon Club as a “first-class social club” that would honor the city. The likes of Charles Hackley, John Torrent and H.J. Hoyt formed the club in 1887 and a new $30,000 building was dedicated at 356 W. Western in January 1889. Renamed the Century Club in 1901, it graced the city’s central business district for more than 100 years until closing in 1991. Decaying for the last 15 years, the three-level Romanesque-style building has now been transformed into the new Hegg’s Gallery, a Hart-based upscale furniture retailer opening a store in Muskegon. It is the first new business on the former Muskegon Mall site now under redevelopment and the first major new retailer in the downtown in decades. In spaces that once were lounges for Muskegon’s leading businessmen, lunchrooms where important business deals were struck and dinner tables where wives joined their husbands for relaxed social time, Hegg’s is selling furniture, home furnishings and accessories. Members from the glory days of the private Century Club would barely recognize the place. But much of the historic structure has been preserved for future generations. “It is absolutely awesome ... just beautiful,” said Chuck Johnson, the retired SPX Corp. executive who was a longtime member of the club and is now chairman of the Downtown Muskegon Development Corp. — the non-profit consortium that is redeveloping the old mall site. “Many people have had that same reaction here our first week,” said Stacie Hegg, owner and manager of the Muskegon store. “We have had people through remembering where they use to have dinner.” The many separate rooms have been opened up for browsing customers, with one room providing living room pieces, another fabrics while the upstairs ballroom displays bedroom furniture. Fittingly, the old basement tiled restroom offers shoppers bath cabinets and accessories. Much of the old woodwork has been preserved, but with new modern color schemes. In the back of the building walls were removed to expose the buildings historic brickwork. Five fireplaces have been restored as well as the classic bay windows, part of the unique exterior that is a downtown Muskegon landmark. “We have two faces, the more traditional in the front of the building and a more modern loft as you move back,” Hegg said. “I most appreciate that in one place we can have so many different looks. In a new building you could not replicate this character. Some people are coming in just to see the building.” A new rear entrance facing Morris Avenue has been built for customers and to move furniture in and out of the building. The back entrance features a new staircase and elevator. All of the restoration was done under the direction of developer and owner Gary Post. The building that represents $1.3 million in property acquisition and restoration is being leased to Hegg’s, which has added about $1 million in furniture inventory for last week’s opening. Post had showed Hegg both the adjacent Daniel’s Office Supply and the old Muskegon Savings Bank buildings. She and her husband Scott were looking to expand their Hart operations with a Muskegon-area outlet. As soon as she saw the Century Club, it was a done deal, she said. “It is definitely the coolest building in the entire city,” Hegg said. “I walked in the front door and that was it. At the time, it was in better shape than when we began renovating our Hart store.” Post, the retired president of the Muskegon Construction Co., acted as his own general contractor. The Sidock Group Inc. of Muskegon did the architectural work and a key subcontractor was Grand River Builders of Grand Rapids, an historic restoration company that rebuilt the facade. Hegg said she has fallen in love with two classic rooms just off the entry on the main floor. Coming in the front door to the right is the front library and on the left the women’s sitting lounge. As a contractor, Post said appreciates the upstairs ballroom. “We know what condition it was in and how it looks now,” he said about the original dome that was designed for a chandelier but had been covered over with a drop ceiling. Upstairs has a history all its own, according to Johnson. Hegg and Post said they have yet to hear from the Century Club “ghost,” legendary with former club staffers who reported all kinds of unexplained movements and noises from the upstairs over the years. Post said one utility worker refused to go into the building early in the construction process because of “strange” things he had encountered on earlier visits. Johnson said rumors are the ghost is his grandfather on his mother’s side, the late Frank Lovelace — a laundry business owner back in the early part of the last century. The story goes that Lovelace was playing poker in the club, as he was known to do, when he had a heart attack at the card table and died on the spot. He was holding a full house in his hand at the time, Johnson said the family story goes. “I told Stacie (Hegg) not to worry because he was the kindest man who ever lived,” Johnson said. HISTORIC OPENING Hegg’s furnishes city with a restored gem Interior designer Bradley Youngstrom walks past the entrance of Hegg’s Gallery of Fine Furniture which opened last week in the historic Century Club building at 356 W. Western. Some of the original woodwork, brick walls and fireplaces were left intact after the renovation. The store offers three levels of upscale home furnishings. Chronicle photos - Kendra Stanley-Mills The building has been restored to its original splendor, as seen in the Western Avenue entrance. A dining table is set with contemporary place settings in front of one of the five restored fireplaces at Hegg’s Gallery.
The Century Club over the years
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