ASTLEY-MARIS
427 West Jefferson Street

1894 Queen Anne
Home Tour 2001

The graceful Queen Anne home at 427 West Jefferson was built in the last years of the 19th century. Elizabeth Krupp sold the building lot in July 1893 to a Grand Ledge businessman named Thomas Astley, who paid the grand sum of $350 for it.  Mrs. Krupp was the daughter of Edmund Lampson, the first permanent white settler who arrived in Grand Ledge in 1848.  Lampson owned over 150 acres on the south side of the river, and this lot had been part of his property. 

Thomas Astley was the son of Edmund C. Astley and Elinor Baker Astley.  His grandparents brought their family to Oneida Township and settled on a farm, which remained in the family for three generations.  The large Astley farm was just west of Grand Ledge on Benton Road, and remnants of the old farmhouse are still on the property today.  Union Cemetery is on the family farm.  Thomas was born November 5, 1868 in Oneida Township. He was named for an uncle who died in the Civil War and who was buried at Murfessboro Tennessee.  Young Thomas grew up on the family farm, and after attending college, he was a teacher for several years.    His father, Edmund, and brother, Robert, had a successful grain elevator business in town, and Thomas followed in their footsteps, and opened the Grand Ledge Implement & Coal business. 

The Grand Ledge Independent made note of Astley’s building plans in the March 9, 1894 edition of the paper: “The prospects are favorable for quite a building boom in Grand Ledge this year.  Already Malon Gillam, O.L. Wright, Thomas Astley, and Lou Stark are booked to erect new houses.”  The progress of the building project was noted in the April 20, 1894 paper: “Joseph Astley is making some improvements to the exterior of his house on West Jefferson, and Thomas Astley is making the foundation for a new house in that locality.”  And on January 11, 1895, in a retrospective look at 1894, the newspaper reported Thomas Astley had built his new house for a cost of $1000.

Thomas still had his farm property and a house on that land, and he moved between the two homes as many farmer did. The United States census of 1900 shows that at that time he was living on his farm with his first wife Laura. He had a son, Howard, from that marriage. He also managed his father’s adjacent farm. He was a buyer and shipper of hay and wool.  He owned several homes that were rental properties.  In February 1909 Thomas married Maude Allen and the Independent announced that the couple planned to live in the West Jefferson Street house.  Maude was the daughter of another pioneer family, which could trace its ancestry back to Ethan Allen.  She was born June 21, 1875 in Eagle Township, the daughter of John and Lucina (Shadduck) Allen.  She attended school in Grand Ledge, and studied to be a teacher at Michigan State Normal College.  Thomas and Maude lived in the West Jefferson Street home during the early years of their marriage.  They had two children, but sadly neither child survived infancy.  Virginia, their first child, was stillborn in January 1911.  A son, Edmund, died at the age of 14 days of a congenital heart problem in October 1914.  Both infants are buried in Union Cemetery, which contains many of the family graves.  Thomas served a term as mayor of Grand Ledge 1916/1917.  In 1925 he sold his implement business to Phillip Bomersheim and retired to the farm where he had grown up.  In 1934 he broke his leg in an accident on the farm when a cartload of hay overturned.  The newspaper reported that he was expected to recover, but he developed complications and died on September 15, 1934.  Maude had a successful teaching career, and was the principal of Moore’s Park School in Lansing for a time.  She died at the age of eighty on June 28, 1955. 

The second owners of the home were Cornelius and Ethel Maris.  The Grand Ledge Independent (November 21,1919) reported the sale: “C. M. Maris has purchased the residence property of T.W. Astley on West Jefferson where Mr. Maris now resides.”

Cornelius Maris started his career in the furniture business at the age of twelve in Grand Rapids.  He moved to Grand Ledge in 1905 to be a salesman for the newly established Crawford Chair Company.  In 1912 he took a position as salesman for the Grand Ledge Chair Company, but before he even started that job he was made plant superintendent.  When Grand Ledge Chair Company president Edward Turnbull died in 1916, Mr. Maris became the general manager of the company.  Cornelius married Ethel Brown in November 1906.  She was born in Mason,  Michigan and moved to Grand Ledge as a young girl.  Their only son, Cornelius Jr. “Ted”, grew up in the West Jefferson Street home and graduated from Grand Ledge High School in 1937.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Maris were active in the community.  Ethel was a member of the Congregational Church, the Eastern Star, and the West Jefferson Street Circle.  C.M. Maris was a charter member of Rotary, was a 32nd degree Mason, a Shriner, and served as mayor of Grand Ledge in 1923.  The Marises lived the rest of their lives in the home.  Mr. Maris died in July 1960, and Mrs. Maris died several weeks later, in August 1960. 

Their son Ted has fond memories of his youth in that house.  He recalls that his parents made some changes to the house throughout the years.  They removed the wall and pocket doors that divided the living room from the parlor to create a larger L-shaped room.  His parents added an awning to the front door and a roof over the front porch.  He does not recall the coat closet in the front vestibule, so that was probably added at a later date.  His parents added the enclosed porch off of the dining room, but Ted is not sure whether they added the enclosed porch off of the kitchen; it was always there as far back as he can remember. He does recall the little closet in the back porch where they stored (root) beer he and his father made. The telephone niche and the old milk chute in the dining room are probably original to the house.  The main floor bathroom was probably added some time after the house was built while Astleys were there; the Buckhaves believe it was added to what was once a full-size bay window.  The downstairs bedroom was Mr. and Mrs. Maris’s bedroom.  Ted’s room was the corner bedroom upstairs.  The attic room off of his bedroom was used for storage and had a closet—and bats!  The small bathroom at the top of the stairs was probably added by the Marises; a newspaper found in the wall was dated 1920.  Ted’s grandfather lived with them for a time and his was the front bedroom overlooking Jefferson Street.  After graduating from Grand Ledge High School, Ted attended the University of Arizona. After college graduation he worked briefly for the Grand Ledge Chair Company.  Later he trained at the Arthur Murray School of Dancing in Detroit and in 1947 moved to Toronto Canada, where he lives today.  He kept the house for a few years after his parents died and rented it out.  In 1967 he sold the house to George and Katherine Lake.

Kay Lake Howard remembers that she and her husband decided to move from their home in Evergreen subdivision to be closer to their children’s schools and activities in Grand Ledge.  Their house sold in the fall, and they needed a house, so they decided to buy the older home on West Jefferson, and build a new home in the spring.  Their children loved the home and the neighborhood, and the Lake family canceled their plans to build. Following a divorce, Kay Lake became the sole owner of the house.  She stayed there until September 1971.  She remembers that Ted Maris left a few items from the Chair Company in the house when he sold it, and her family enjoyed them for many years. 

The house changed hands often over the next thirty years. George Feldpausch owned the house from September 1971 to July1975.  Jerry and Karen Smith owned it until April 1980.  Gilbert and Pauline Ensign owned it until November 1985.  Clifford and Gloria Logan were the owners until August 1987.  Penny Reid and Sheila Clouse owned it until June 1990.  Kevin Dolan and his family moved into the house in July 1990 and they have fond memories of their time there.  They loved the nearly-one-hundred-year-old Victorian home and began to update and renovate it.  He recalls that they put new siding on the house and replaced the roof.  He sold the house to the current owners, Bryan and Pam Buckhave, in September 1997.

The Buckhaves have embarked on a restoration project to accentuate the beauty of their Victorian home.  The home also serves as a showcase for the Buckhaves’ talents.  They have remodeled the kitchen.  Pam did the lead glass work in the doors of the cabinets.  They put down a new floor in the kitchen and exposed some of the old brick wall.  They put in the dining room chandelier and hung wallpaper.  They divided the two front rooms with French doors which will feature a glass panel created by Pam. Pam has done the stained glass and stenciling in various places in the house.  Bryan put down new oak steps leading to the second floor and refinished other floors.  The floor on the back porch was old linoleum, and Pam has painted and stenciled the original pine floor they found underneath.  The first floor bath had a shower unit, which they replaced with an old fashioned tub and sink. The house still has many of its original style elements: the original milk box and doorbell, as well as the original glass windows and most of the original woodwork with the delightful floral corner pieces framing doorways and windows.  The house is decorated with family keepsakes, antiques and reproduction pieces, which accentuate the Victorian beauty still evident in this wonderful 19th century home.