Food Dance- Van Kersen Building
HISTORY – built in 1890 and 2006
Architect: Unknown
Starting in 1869, brothers Isaac and James Van Kersen opened a grocery store on the corner of East Main and Pitcher Street and by 1889, they sold the family farm and devoted full time to the store. Probably in 1890, this three-story building rose up on the corner, the first floor split between Van Kersen’s Grocery and Peter Sliter’s meat market.
The upper two floors held four flats – elegant homes for living downtown.
William G. Van Kersen, born in 1875, lived above the store in one of the flats while he was serving in the Michigan National Guard as Captain of Company C and working in the store. He married around the turn of the century and moved to the Vine neighborhood.
Meanwhile a variety of people lived in the four flats on the upper floors until well into the 1920s.
John Oggel a bookkeeper for the Kalamazoo Railroad and Velocipede Company and his new wife Lyde. They married in 1896 at his family home on Pine Street and stayed in the flat until the early 20th century.
Albert Doll married his wife Luella around 1898 and by 1905, he was president of the Kalamazoo Brewing Co.
By the end of World War II, Van Kersen’s grocery had moved on and Schippers Appliance moved in on the first floor. The upper flats were broken up into smaller units and fell into disrepair.
In 2002, Jon Stryker purchased the building and, with design work from local architect Nelson Nave, began a multi-million dollar rehabilitation, restoring the interior atrium and skylights with additions to bring elevators and modern amenities to the site.
