Walls Talking:
Stories Our Houses Tell ...

The 2007 Exhibit features a unique life-sized composite house representing three very different historic local homes, intended to let the viewer experience earlier times through possessions gathered from each house evoking the everyday life of people who lived there at a particular point in its past.

To showcase these reminiscent collections in a familiar context, the exhibition's curator Jim Schmiechen and the Museum design group headed by Saugatuck designer Judy Hillman worked with Jarzembowski Builders to erect, within the Museum's main gallery, a three-room structure giving each of the featured houses a separate room with its outer side open for viewing. In addition to historic objects, each room display includes a reader panel with photos, floor plans and a brief history of the house it represents.

One room features the 1870s-era house of millworker Martius VanLeeuwen, built in the pioneer town of Singapore, where the Kalamazoo River meets Lake Michigan. As Singapore began vanishing beneath shifting sand dunes, VanLeeuwen moved the house to Holland Street in Saugatuck, where it remains as the home of his granddaughter-in-law Mrs. Sylvia Randolph. This house is represented by a wide-ranging collection combining objects from Old Singapore and those of Mrs. Randolph, who at age 102 continues painting and decorating furniture for her house.

A second room portrays a farmhouse of the same era that still stands today along 140th Street northeast of Saugatuck. This was the lifelong home of Ms. Goldie Kleinheksel, fourth generation of her family to live there. Upon her death in 2006, she left to the Historical Society the entire contents of her home, comprising several thousand objects including Victorian furniture, pottery, jewelry, books, photos, historical documents and farm memorabilia.

A third room depicts the lakeshore cottage of John Norton, one of Chicago's best-known muralist/artists. Designed by renowned architect Thomas Eddy Tallmadge, the Norton cottage is featured as a study in cottage life from the 1920s to the present, showing how this classic "Arts & Crafts" design reflected the Norton family interest in merging art and nature in their enjoyment of summer.

Surrounding this central display is a three-wall panorama portraying the 176-year evolution of this area's buildings and architecture, showing how our built environment continues to preserve community traditions in renovation and new construction.

Voted "Best Museum" by Lake Magazine and winner of a dozen state awards for exhibition and publication design.