Holland

Randall P. Vande Water, Mary E. Vande Water

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781467114004
• eBook ISBN: 9781439650820
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

Holland, Michigan, has a provincial feel while being cosmopolitan, offering the best of both worlds to residents and visitors alike. In 1847, emigrants from the Netherlands founded Holland. For 85 years, the city has remembered its heritage with Tulip Time, a festival that attracts 250,000 visitors each May to view six million tulips. Clinging to tradition, the residents of Holland dress in Dutch costumes to scrub streets and dance in wooden shoes as they are joined by parading bands in the shadow of a 200-year-old windmill. Over the last 50 years, Holland's cultural diversity has evolved along with an outstanding business community in which numerous industries and unique retail outlets flourish. The city is home to Hope College, has won America in Bloom floral honors, contains an award-winning hospital, and features sugar sand beaches.

One

DE ZWAAN MARKS
50 YEARS IN HOLLAND

Surrounded by thousands of tulips, the windmill De Zwaan (the swan) stands majestically at Windmill Island Gardens on a beautiful spring day during Holland’s annual Tulip Time Festival in May. In 2015, De Zwaan marks its 50th anniversary in Holland. Following a suggestion in 1961 from resort owner Carter P. Brown, Netherlands information service director (ISD) Willard C. Wichers purchased the windmill in 1964, and it was rebuilt in Holland. Financed through a $450,000 revenue bond, the attraction opened in 1965. In 2012, the windmill gallery was replaced, and major restoration occurred in 2013. Miller Alisa Crawford said the cap and blades were removed, new cedar shakes were placed in the mill’s body, and structural beams were replaced. Restoration was financed by multiple donors and grants. (Photograph by Alisa Crawford, courtesy of Windmill Island Gardens.)

His Royal Highness Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (right) and Michigan governor George Romney pull the rope, freeing the blades (sails) of De Zwaan during the dedication ceremonies on Saturday, April 10, 1965. The windmill was purchased in the Netherlands for 8,000 guilders, or $2,800. Holland mayor Nelson Bosman is at far left, and Dutch millwright Jan Diederik Medendorp is at far right. (Authors’ collection.)

Many Holland area residents attended the dedication of De Zwaan on April 10, 1965. The windmill was purchased in the Netherlands, dismantled, shipped to Holland in October 1964, and reassembled. Holland firms built the mill base, drawbridge, canal, dykes, drainage ditches, and a post house. (Authors’ collection.)

Major windmill restoration occurred during the fall of 2013. Supervised by the Dutch millwright firm Verbij Hoogmade BV and aided by Elzinga & Volkers, Inc. of Holland, the blades were taken out of the center axle of the windshaft. A crane’s careful maneuvering also removed the original green cap, placed in the winter of 1964–1965, when the mill was reassembled in Holland. (Courtesy of the City of Holland.)

In early November 2013, a cap with a shiny coating of copper shingles was hoisted up to the mill’s top and now adorns De Zwaan. The old green cap was refurbished while it was on the ground, and Zeeland Wood Turning replaced wood on the capstan wheel. (Courtesy of the City of Holland.)

Dutch millwright Gerard Kleijn (right) was joined by an Elzinga & Volkers, Inc. construction worker preparing to remove the metal sail stocks so that the cap of the windmill De Zwaan could be removed for restoration. The original blades had been installed when the windmill came to Holland. (Courtesy of the City of Holland.)

A drone photograph, recorded on a summer day in Holland, provides an overall view at Windmill Island Gardens. Highlighted by the restored De Zwaan, a Holland tourist attraction since 1965, this photograph also shows a 36-acre area of forests, a man-made canal, a Dutch drawbridge, and the Celebration Pavilion. (Courtesy of HawkEye Tours.)

Two

TULIP TIME

Holland mayor Louis Hallacy II and his wife, Madeline, greeted Pres. Gerald R. Ford, wife Betty, and daughter Susan upon their arrival at Tulip City Airport (West Michigan Regional Airport today) on Saturday, May 15, 1976. The trio was presented with decorated wooden shoes. Marking the first time a sitting US president visited Holland, the Fords rode in an open car during the rainy 1980 festival Parade of Bands. Susan was the grand marshal for the parade. Since Susan was in the first division, she was able to be driven back to where her parents were located and accompany them in the parade. US representative Guy Vander Jagt, who represented Holland in Congress, also joined the Fords. After concluding their part of the parade, the Fords were quickly driven to the airport for their return to Washington, DC. Republican presidential hopefuls George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan appeared separately, in different divisions, in the rainy 1980 Parade of Bands. (Courtesy of the Louis Hallacy II collection.)

In 1963, the Holland High School Dutchman band (pictured), under the direction of Arthur C. Hills, began wearing wooden shoes with their uniforms. Five years earlier, the E.E. Fell Junior High School band had worn wooden shoes for the first time in a Tulip Time Festival parade. In 1932, the Holland High band marched in its first festival parade. (Authors’ collection.)

Following a Tulip Time trademark tradition that began 48 years ago, Holland High School’s band has been bowing to Tulip Time crowds and playing “Tip Toe through the Tulips” since 1966. This is the 2012 band. The drum cadence that accompanies the rendition was arranged by the late Richard Vande Bunte. (Courtesy of the Holland Sentinel.)

Lida Rogers, who suggested in 1927 that Holland have an annual tulip day, was presented a bouquet of tulips during the 1963 Tulip Time Festival by three-year-old Nancy Ann Vande Water, granddaughter of William H. Vande Water (left), Holland Chamber of Commerce executive secretary and festival board secretary. Rogers’s idea resulted in the community’s tulip festival, which began in 1929. Rogers was a Holland High School biology teacher. (Authors’ collection.)

Opening the festival in 1963, Republican governor George Romney continued a Tulip Time tradition by scrubbing Eighth Street as part of the Volksparade. Michigan governors started attending the festival in 1932 with Republican governor Wilbur Brucker. Republican governor Kim Sigler scr...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. De Zwaan Marks 50 Years in Holland
• 2. Tulip Time
• 3. Education
• 4. Industry and Retail
• 5. Community Life
• 6. Attractions and Festivals
• 7. Organizations and Institutions