HOWE-MACDOWELL
421 Madison Street

c1910
Home Tour 2004

Although the home at 421 Madison Street is in the oldest part of Grand Ledge, part of the original town as it was first platted in 1854, this home was built near the turn of the new century, around 1910. 

According to the 1910 United States Census, all of the homes at the north end of Madison Street were rental properties, and this property was probably no exception.  Grand Ledge at the turn of the twentieth century was in a period of growth and prosperity.  The population hovered around 2000, and besides agriculture, which had been the predominant business in the early days of this village, there were various industries, large and small, providing jobs for skilled and unskilled laborers, and Grand Ledge had a shortage of housing for these workers.  In those days, if you owned a rental property, you had a source of income, and people often owned several rental properties.  The small cottage at the corner of Madison and North Street, legally described today as Lot 4, Block 5, was probably built around 1910.  In 1916, Ed and Mary Armstrong rented the house with their four children.  Mr. Armstrong worked as a fireman. 

The 1920 U.S. Census has no listing for this address, possibly indicating that it was vacant at the time the census was taken in that neighborhood. 

Within a couple of years, however, the family who was to occupy the home for many years bought the house.  The Lee Howe family moved to the home on Madison Street towards the end of 1925.  It is not clear from whom the Howes received the Warranty Deed to the property.  Anna Kuester was from Wisconsin.  Lee Howe grew up on a farm outside of town.  When his parents died the farm was sold and he moved into town. They at 801 N. Clinton Street.  In May 1924 there was a fire at their home, and within the next year, they moved into the Madison Street home. Property records show that they took out a mortgage for the Madison street house in 1925 with the Loan and Deposit State Bank, which they paid off in 1926. Lee (Henry Lee) and Anna Howe had a young family when they moved into the house.  Donald was about 13; William was about 12; Thelma was about 10; Barbara was about 7.  Another daughter, Dorothy, was born in July 1925.  Lee worked at the Arctic Dairy Company, and later at the Grand Ledge Milk Company.  Anna was a homemaker.

The Howes stayed in their home for many years.  They worked on the house over they years.  Their daughter, Dorothy Howe, remembers how the house used to be.  As you entered the front door, the dining room was straight ahead and the living room was off to the left.  Between the dining room and living room was a built-in bookcase with pillars that reached to the ceiling.  On the living room side, it was a bookcase; on the dining room side, it was a china cabinet.  The rooms had very high ceilings.  There was a bedroom to the right, looking out onto the front yard.  The small kitchen was on the back, behind the bedroom.  Lee changed the lay out of the rooms, and the small back kitchen became a bedroom.  The kitchen was a larger more open room, similar to what it is today.  Later still, he enclosed what had been an open back porch.  The old furnace in the basement had to be stoked, and the only access to the basement was by going outside to the cellar doors.  By enclosing the porch, they were able to get to the basement without going outdoors.  The basement had an old cistern. They actually owned two lots, the one the house is on, and the lot next door.  In 1973 they sold lot 1 to the Grand Ledge Produce Company, which built a pole barn there.   Their daughter, Dorothy, remembers that the location had its advantages and disadvantages.  It was certainly close enough to downtown to be convenient.  You could shop for just about everything you needed in downtown Grand Ledge, from groceries to shoes to hardware.   But it was also very close to the railroad tracks--she says, “you get used to the noise”!  She remembers too the men who rode the rails during the Depression years.  Perhaps the greatest advantage was that it was near enough to the edge of the city that the large yard and open area provided a great garden setting which the Howes always enjoyed, almost a rural setting within the city limits.  The yard was planted with fruit trees—cherries, peaches, plums, and apples.   She remembers the open front porch being a favorite place to relax and enjoy the summer evenings.  Anna died in 1973; Lee died in 1975After her father died, Dorothy sold the house to David Bartlett and Lynn VanDerSteen. 

The house passed through the hands of several short-term owners:  After Barlett/VanDerSteen, Bruce Barber owned it, then Jack and Myra Thompson, and Verland and Jeannette Ward.  It was a rental unit again for at least some of that time.   

Harlan and Betty MacDowell bought the house in 1996.  Their son Bruce bought it from them in 1997, and began a restoration project that turned out to be bigger than he expected.  Bruce and his father, Harlan, did much of the work themselves, with help from Steve Campbell.  As he began to work on the house, things turned out to be in worse condition than he expected, and he ended up having to basically take the house down nearly to the floor boards.  He wanted to rebuild it to be similar in size and lay out to what it had been, and he has done that.  The basement, floorboards, and several feet above them are original; the rest of the house is brand new construction, although it looks very much like the old house and he maintained the integrity of the style on the exterior. The result is a very cozy, “country” decorated home, filled with things that both Bruce and Lynne have made themselves, from the woodworking and furniture that he loves to build, to the quilting and sewing that she enjoys.