GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Discussions are now underway on what the future holds for a historic home in Grand Rapids. Heritage Hill’s Voigt House has sat vacant for years.
At the regularly scheduled Heritage Hill Association meeting, the board brought the mayor in to discuss the Victorian-era home.
“If it just sits there as a shell and it's going to cost money to maintain it,” Mayor David LaGrand said.
The Voigt House is a home that many people only see when walking by.
“I haven't had the privilege of being inside a house, so obviously I would love to see the house from inside,” Erick Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez lives near the historic home and often walks by it with his husband.
“It’s just sad to see it like, kind of like it's falling apart,” Rodriguez said. “We have this beautiful historic home just abandoned.”
The mayor is taking notice not only in his official capacity but as a neighbor, too.
“I took a tour of it when I first moved in town. It's a fun place to take a look at,” LaGrand said.
The city owns the property, but the Grand Rapids Public Museum manages it. The museum stopped doing tours several years ago.
“Sparked me thinking, okay, maybe we should talk about what's going on here,” LaGrand added.
Grand Rapids Public Museum Chief Curator Alex Forist explains that there are 15 rooms inside the home.
“I would say that it's sort of like a time capsule, kind of a time capsule of that late Victorian era. The house really sort of represents this one family story. Their journey, (when) they came to the United States from Germany,” Forist said.
I was there on Wednesday, when the mayor gave a presentation to the Heritage Hill Association about the Voigt House.
“If the museum is not thrilled to be owning a mothball thing, the writing's on the wall, like it is time for us, I think, to come up with some community-informed vision for what the best thing we can do with the Voigt House is. And I'm all ears,” LaGrand told the crowd.
He talked about how this neighborhood is the greatest one in the city. LaGrand did mention Heritage Hill has homeowners and renters of all ages.
"Grand Rapids is dealing with a housing crisis. Heritage Hill, as you mentioned, has a lot of mixed-use homeowners and apartments in that area. Is that one of the avenues you're looking at?" I asked the mayor.
“I am looking at listening to people at this point. I am not looking at coming up with a plan. So I don't know that I've heard anybody suggest that yet. But again, even if somebody did, it's useful to have a formalized process for how you get community input,” LaGrand said.
Grand Rapids recently did an assessment of all city-owned properties. A couple of weeks ago, a city spokesperson explained that the city is not actively pursuing disposition of the property. Rodriguez says he’s against the sale of the home.
“Turning to the apartment complex. It just takes away the history of, you know, of the city and the house,” Rodriguez said.
The Heritage Hill Association did hand out a survey to neighbors only. They asked people about their concerns about the house and if they would like to be on a committee to figure out the future of the building.
