VANDERBUILT-SCHAVEY
327 Taylor Street

?-1909 Venacular/ Craftsman

This home is a good example of the mysteries involved when researching the history of some homes. Some questions are not easily answered.

In early 1870 George Loveless bought this lot from Peter and Frances Kent and Abram Hixson.  The Kent brothers and Hixson were early settlers and businessmen in Grand Ledge.  The Kents owned large tracts of land in Grand Ledge and the surrounding countryside, which they sold as smaller parcels to the burgeoning village dwellers.

George B. Loveless built a house on this site in 1870.  George B. Loveless was the son of George W. Loveless, owner of the Loveless Pottery. This is believed to be the first pottery in the State and was in operation before 1860.  It was located on West Jefferson near Fitzgerald Park. The Loveless Pottery produced crocks, jugs, churns, and other functional pieces.  As was consistent with family patterns of folk pottery operations, the son sold the pottery produced by the father. Later George B. Loveless drove cattle from this area to Detroit before the railroad came through Grand Ledge in 1869.  For some years, he also owned and operated a farm near town while he ran his stock business. After selling the farm and he moved to the corner of Scott and Taylor Streets and operated a successful livery business for a number of years. 

In 1882, the house was sold to Henrietta Aldrich.  The Aldrich family was also an early family to Grand Ledge that reached into many aspects of the city’s growth from the business community to its school system to its city government.  Henrietta Aldrich lived in the house until 1896 when she sold it to William and Ellen Vanderbilt.

William T. Vanderbilt and his business partner, Ed Welch operated Vanderbilt and Welch grain and feed store on North Bridge Street.  They were dealers in hay, grain, seeds, wool, hides, pelts, and fur.  The Vanderbilts had three children: Marion, Anna and Walter.

In 1909 our mystery begins. The Grand Ledge Independent of the time (June 4, 1909) provides this clue: “Mr. and Mrs. W.T. Vanderbilt moved last week from their old home on Scott Street to Mrs. Jane Halsted’s house on Mill Street, and will reside there at least all summer while their own house is being rebuilt.” The exact interpretation of this news bit is uncertain. We do not know if they torn down the old home, or did a major remodeling and updating to the older structure. We do know that the outer foundation utilized new decorated concrete blocks popular at the time. However the earlier cut-stone foundation remains hidden behind.

On the interior, the house reflects the Craftsman Style with pine woodwork. The stairway opens into the large living room. Yet the home retains a separate Sunday Parlor, popular in the Victorian Age. Another feature is the servants stairway at the rear of the house from the kitchen to the second storey.  However it is interesting to note that the back stairway only leads to an unfinished large storage room with a window.

Whatever the story is, the Vanderbilts enjoyed the home until they sold it to Claude and Alice Barton in January 1917.  Alice Barton was a local girl, the daughter of Daniel Kenyon.  She and Claude were married in Oneida Township on May 18, 1901.  Claude Barton owned one of the local phone companies, although the 1920 U.S. Census lists his occupation as farmer.  Like many men, he might have assumed a dual role.  He and Alice lived in this house with their four children at the time that census was taken in 1920.  Their children were Albert, age 15; Clara, age14; Theodore, age 9; and Lillian, age 2.  The Bartons sold the house in 1923 to Harry Towner, a local banker, who in turn sold it to Archie and Mertie Schavey that same year.

The Schavey family played an important role in the business life of this community. William Schavey and his sons, Archie, Clayton, Leon, and Earl, were businessmen in Grand Ledge for many years.  In 1890, the Schavey family settled on a farm in Wacousta.  William Schavey spent his early manhood on the farm and managed two farms besides his other business interests.  William Schavey served two terms as sheriff of Clinton County.  After a brief time in Lansing, he came back to Grand Ledge in 1913 and bought an implement business on the north side of town.  William’s sons, Clayton and Leon, ran the Mulliken branch of the Schavey and Sons implement business.  Archie Schavey operated the Grand Ledge branch of the business, which was established in 1913 on North Bridge Street, at the corner of Main Street.  The Grand Ledge business grew and expanded with the times.  Ford cars were added as well as gasoline, oil, coal, and the fuel business.  In 1917, the Schavey Garage was built on East Jefferson, just west of the present-day library.  Archie Schavey became sole owner of the business in 1929.  He also had a gas station on North Bridge Street and one in Potterville in the 1930s. 

Archie Schavey and Mertie Allen were married in 1915 and moved to Grand Ledge.  They lived in this house on Taylor Street for most of their married life where they raised two daughters, Leone and Janette.  Archie died on April 2, 1966.  Mertie was a lifelong area resident, the daughter of Josiah and Rosina Allen.   She was a member of the First Congregational Church, a former rural and Grand Ledge schoolteacher, and member of the Wacousta Alumni Association.  She was a community leader in many women’s organizations.  Mertie was one of the founders of the Child Study Club, Garden Club, and was past-President and honorary member of the ABC Club.  Music was one of her joys and she was president of the PTA when the high school band was formed. 

When Mertie Schavey’s died in the spring of 1986 at the age of 95, the house was sold to Laraine Nelson and B. J. Marple-Reeve, owners of Hair Razors salon.  Although the house was always used as a private residence, the first block of Taylor Street between East Jefferson and East Scott was zoned for commercial use in the early 1960s.  Several of the older homes were converted to commercial use as a means to preserve Victorian houses and expand the commercial district of the downtown area.  Hair Razors converted the home into a beauty salon without significantly changing the character of the structure.  Hair Razors was in operation in the building for sixteen years.

In February 2003, the building returned to the ownership of a member of the Schavey family.  Kathy Black, the current owner, is a niece of Archie and Mertie Schavey.  She has a sense of family attachment to the old home—her mother dressed for her wedding at this house.  Kathy bought it from the owner of Hair Razors, Laraine Soltysiak.  She has reconfigured some of the rooms to adapt them to the needs of her business, which offers a full range of salon and spa services.  One of her goals was to retain the “comfortable” atmosphere of a home even though it is a place of business, a place her clients would just enjoy visiting.  All mysteries aside, this building is an excellent example of adaptive reuse of an old building and how one family can care for a historic home for many decades.