Neighborhood profile: Orchard Hills has deep roots in Kalamazoo
Homes in Orchard Hills
Ernest Batterson, a Kalamazoo architect responsible for such diverse designs as First United Methodist Church and the old Douglass Community Center on Ransom, designed a home in 1928 at 1405 Long Road for H.D. Firth, a land developer. For $25,000, he created a stone house reminiscent of a French chateau, with concrete steps flanking a fountain as they ascend to the front door centered on the symmetrical faade.
That same year, Robert Seyforth, a celebrated Chicago architect, designed the Federal Revival home at 1550 Long for city commissioner Bartlett Dickinson. Seyforth designed three other homes in Kalamazoo around the same time, including one at the corner of Short Road and Grant. This lot was sold originally, as were probably most of the lots in Orchard Hills, with deed restrictions which prohibited the use of the property for the business of manufacturing, selling or otherwise disposing of any malt. (Prohibition was in force at the time.)
Additionally, ownership of the property was limited to members of the Caucasian race, although the owners were allowed to have servants of other races. Happily, that type of deed restriction was outlawed in 1948.
Aymar Embury, the architect for Stetson Chapel on the Kalamazoo College campus, designed 1516 Long Road in 1937 for Charles Garrett of the Garrett Insurance Agency. The brick Federal Revival home remained in the Garrett family until 1996.
One of the most unique homes in Orchard Hills, the linear International style home at 1414 Low Road, clings to the hillside suggesting a sandstone cliff. Built for a WMU instructor in 1939, the east wall of the house, at the lower level, extends into a wall pierced by a round moon gate and leading onto the terraced backyard. The home was one of two designed by local architect William Stone in the modern style.
The Upjohn, Light and Gilmore families owned three of the four homes on Short Road. The house at 1130 Short Road was designed by Kalamazoo architect Howard Young and was built by her father for Dorothy Upjohn shortly after her marriage in 1928. Dorothy, a talented actress, wanted to try her luck on Broadway. As the story goes, her father helped found the Civic Theater and built this comfortable shingled home for her as an inducement to stay in Kalamazoo.
In 2006, Dorothys daughter, Sue Parrish, wanted to build a new home on the site, and the original 1930 home was moved past the tennis court and around the corner to the east side of Long Road.
Captains of industry, prominent physicians and a wide variety of successful businessmen built their homes along the winding roads in Orchard Hills. In the spring, with flowering trees in blossom, and in the fall, when the trees are a blaze of color, the road is a restful oasis in the heart of Kalamazoo.
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