KEBLER-CLARK
314 Madison Street

1911 Craftsman
Home Tour 2003

This turn-of-the-century home is built in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Grand Ledge.  The home is located on lot 6, Block 9 of the original village as it was platted in 1854. The original owner of the land in this area was William Thompson. He located the land in May 1836, and received the land patent from the United States government in 1839.  His tract of land consisted of about 151 acres.  The house itself on lot 6 was built during the early years of the 20th century, and was a “modern” home with all of the conveniences of the new century.

The abstract of the property shows that various members of the Esler/Wood family owned the lot for a number of years prior to the building of the home.  They were prominent members of the community and were brick masons and merchants in town.  They owned a great deal of property in the northwest section of town and lived in the neighborhood.  Oliver and Lucy Wright bought the lot in 1902 and in turn sold it to a man named William Kebler in 1906 for $275. 

William (“Wilhelm”) Kebler was the son of Christian and Elizabeth Kebler.  The elder Keblers came to this country from Germany in 1854.  They spent some time in East Lansing before settling on their homestead farm in Eagle Township, Clinton County.  William was born into their large family on the farm on January 8, 1868.  Will grew up a farmer, but he was also a cement mason and he built barns, silos, roads, bridges, and several homes on the north side of town. 

In 1911, William decided to build a home in town on his lot on Madison Street.  Many farmers had homes in town as well as on their farms.  William had the talent and the materials to craft a well-built modern home on his lot.  As a cement man, he brought his machinery to the lot and made the building blocks on site.  The house also had a poured foundation and chimney, unusual touches for the time.  There are several photos of the construction in progess, one of which is dated 1911 by the photographer, E.A. Russell, confirming the actual construction date of the home.  The Kebler farm provided raw materials—the black ash woodwork was made from trees harvested from the family homestead at the corner of M-100 and U.S. 16.  Will built the house with modern amenities such as electricity and plumbing.  The old-fashioned electrical switches and doorbell are still in the house, and they must have seemed as wonderfully modern then as they seem nostalgic to us today.  The house has built-in closets, specifically designed by Mr. Kebler to be spacious by the standards of the time—and even by today’s standards.

After the house was built, Will decorated and furnished the home and moved in with his father Christian and his widowed sister Mary Kebler Goodrich.  They lived in the house and leased the family farm.  After their deaths, Will married Myrtie E. Howe and they had their first child, Elizabeth, in 1917.  The Keblers continued to live in their town house throughout the 1920s.  Their second and third children were born there, twins Geneva and Vaughan.  The Depression arrived with the end of the decade, but being farmers, the Keblers were luckier than most people.  They moved back out to the family farm and rented out their home on Madison Street.  William Kebler died on the family farm.  His obituary noted that he lived on that same farm where he had been born for sixty-four years of his life. He was described as a “…quiet home-loving man devoted to his family and friends.”  He was seventy years old when he died on July 5, 1938.  He was buried at Niles Cemetery. 

Myrtie Howe and her younger daughter Geneva moved back to the Madison Street home in 1946.  Fortunately for them and for us, the house was well maintained during the rental years; the tenants were long-term renters and well-established members of the community.  The only major architectural change occurred during the years of World War II when housing was in short supply.  The Keblers created a temporary apartment upstairs in the area of the back bedroom.  A kitchen sink was installed and later removed.

Myrtie lived the rest of her life in the house excepting the last few years when she was an invalid and stayed with Geneva.  After she died on March 15, 1977, her surviving daughters Elizabeth Kebler Kruger and Geneva Kebler Wiskemann sold the house to Roger and Joan Clark in November of that year.    Roger Clark has fond memories of his twenty-five years in the house where his children grew up.  He did some restoration work; the home was in good condition but needed some redecorating and updating when he moved in.  The biggest project Roger tackled was updating the kitchen.  They fitted the cupboards with custom-made doors, brought in new appliances, stripped the woodwork (this room had the only painted woodwork in the house) and added raised panel doors.  Roger recalls being delighted to discover a floor joist signed by Will Kebler himself.  In the rest of the house, they stripped old wallpaper from the walls and ceilings and decorated the home to meet the needs of their young family. 

David Yehl and Jennifer Kennard purchased the home from Roger Clark in July 2002.  They have continued to restore and redecorate the home to meet their tastes and needs.  They wallpapered the dining room, replaced the old flooring in the upstairs bath, and converted a small laundry area off the kitchen into a comfortable breakfast nook.  The home retains many of the original touches that made it a well-built, classic home in the first decade of the last century.  The black ash woodwork and columns still have their original finish, the elegant beveled glass windows draw in the light, and the original doorknobs and hinges are still in place.  This lovely home is a combination of old and new, and is as comfortable a family home today as when it was built many years ago.