News and History from Heritage Hall
Most people who know that Calvin Theological Seminary and Calvin University have had more than one campus only know about the “Franklin” campus on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Street. A few know about the “Madison” campus, at the corner of Madison and …
“In the month of October 1927, Mrs. C. Bouma entertained the ladies of the married men of the Calvin Seminary.” So reads the first sentence “in the “Record Book of Calvin Seminary Dames” (aka, the club’s minutes book). “At this gathering they spoke somewhat carelessly …
The 1946-1947 school year saw the opening of the “Alexander Lodge” as a dorm for Calvin College men. It was located at 1010 Alexander Street SE. Ninety men started out the year in the dorm. “Army cots, cold showers, bleak rooms, and workmen still on …
In the 1920s, the Christian Reformed Church debated the doctrine of common grace. Synod’s affirmation of this doctrine led a small group to separate from the CRC and form the Protestant Reformed Church. But the theological defense of the potential good of non-Christian— “worldly” —culture …
The fall 2022 issue of Heritage Hall’s print magazine, Origins, included a story by Jane E. Griffioen. Her book London Street: A Memoir has been read widely by people who grew up in Dutch immigrant communities connected to the Christian Reformed Church. London Street is …
See previous blog post for part I of this story. As assistant to the secretary of the Calvinist Resettlement Service, Agnes Flonk handled a good deal of the correspondence between potential sponsors and the necessary bureaucratic organizations. Many of the applicants she worked with were …
Boys racing homemade bobsleds down the Bridge Street Hill in Grand Rapids hit Willem Hendrik de Lange in January 1874. “On the evening of this accident,” De Lange’s father-in-law reported, “he left our house in good spirits.” Shortly after, six to eight big boys on …
The previous two blog posts started a story told by Dan Poortenga about his great grandfather Peter Oudshoorn. Dan first wrote this story as a paper in a Calvin College history course in the early 1990s. He interviewed his great grandfather and set his story …
The peaceful protest against police brutality Saturday evening in Grand Rapids, and the vandalism and looting that followed over the night of May 30-31, reflected the histories of race, poverty, policing, segregation, and riots in the city. At the national level, “race riots” have left …
A common question about the history of settler societies like the United States and Canada is the degree to which immigrants adapted to conditions in the “new world” or successfully transplanted their “old world” ways. The religious history of immigrants provides valuable case studies to …