Grand Rapids Christian High School, Grand Rapids Michigan

History of Grand Rapids Christian High School

Grand Rapids Christian High School was the Grand Rapids' Dutch Reformed Christian community's first high school, and the site itself is at the very heart of the community's belief in, and value placed upon, religious education. There was built their first theological school in 1892, to which a junior college would later be added, and which would house the first iteration of Calvin College. When the college moved to a larger site in 1920, the original building became Grand Rapids' first Christian high school.

The 1931 addition to the 1892 building utilized Henry H. Turner's twenty years of design experience during Grand Rapids Public School's early-twentieth-century building boom and expressed his take on the Lombard Romanesque style, a distinct classification within the broader Italian Renaissance Revival style. James K. Haveman's and Antoine B. Campau's collaborative 1947 addition took the place of the outdated theology school building, came at the very forefront of the post-war school-building boom.

Dutch settlement in Grand Rapids

From its 1827 origins as a trading post on the banks of the Grand River, Grand Rapids continued to grow - officially organized as a village by charter in 1838 and as a city in 1850. With river access for power and transportation, as well as proximity to vast stands of timber, the growing community was rich in the resources that would one day make it nationally known for the mass manufacture of furniture.

In the earliest years, however, fledgling factories, manufacturers of all manner of goods, required an ever-larger labor force; civic and business leaders, envisioning a newly industrialized Grand Rapids, had a vested interest in bringing more workers to the growing village. This need was recognized by Michigan's governor, John S. Barry, as well. In 1845, he created the position of "immigration officer" to act on the state's behalf in attracting recent immigrants to the state and appointed John Almy of Grand Rapids to the job. In addition to his duties for the state, Almy enlisted fellow Grand Rapids citizen Edmund Bostwick to help compose a booklet extolling the virtues of their city as a place to live and work. More than five thousand copies were printed and distributed to immigrants in New York City and to groups that promoted immigration. Among the first groups who responded were Dutch immigrants fleeing religious oppression and eager for economic opportunity. The first Dutch settlers in West Michigan arrived when Reverend Albertus C. van Raalte brought seventeen families (one hundred nine followers), to the Holland, Michigan area in 1846, and were soon followed by hundreds more. Within a few years, Dutch settlers in West Michigan numbered in the thousands. Those who preferred industrial work to farming looked to the numerous factories and more urban settlement of Grand Rapids, approximately thirty miles northwest of Holland. By 1850, there was a thriving Dutch community in the city, a well-established communication network with friends and families in the Netherlands, and an immigration society in Grand Rapids to help newcomers find housing and employment. A decade later, the number of Dutch in Michigan exceeded 6,300, with the vast majority located in communities along the shores of Lake Michigan, on the west side of the state.

After meeting their immediate needs of finding jobs and living spaces in a new city, the immigrants attended to the matter of their religious heritage and, in 1849, a group of settlers established a Dutch-speaking congregation, Second Reformed Church, on Bostwick Avenue near Lyon Street in Grand Rapids. As Dutch immigration increased, and the newcomers established distinct enclaves, churches were built to serve the respective neighborhoods. Across the congregations, a close relationship to the culture of their homeland was preserved in the liturgy. For example, the timeline Christian Reform Church - Memorable Events' notes that the first English-language service in a Christian Reformed congregation was not delivered until 1871. In fact, a few Dutch-language services continued to be offered until late in the twentieth century. Bolstered by weekly services in their mother tongue, most of the Dutch held fast to their traditions and strengthened their communal bonds with Dutch-language periodicals and businesses established to cater to their neighborhood needs. One of the foremost needs identified by parents in the Christian Reformed faith was providing their children an education rooted in their denomination's religious beliefs. As Dr. Henry Beets would write, "the responsibility of securing a child's education rested first upon the parents. To be truly Christian in nature, an education must, in all branches of study, rely upon principles of faith and show the inseparable connection between true religion and true science: One may know many facts and have much learning, but unless he is a Christian, he has no knowledge, in the deepest sense of the word." To this purpose, a church-sponsored Dutch-language school opened in Grand Rapids in 1873 on Williams Street near Division Avenue.

The Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church

It should be noted that the Christian Reformed Church is not the sole Reformed denomination in Western Michigan (or in the United States). Although both trace their beginnings to the teachings of John Calvin in sixteenth-century Switzerland, the Christian Reformed Church and Reformed Church in America have existed separately since 1857. In that year, a small group seceded from Albertus van Raalte's church (joined with the Dutch Reformed Church in New Jersey to become the Reformed Church in America) and formed the Christian Reformed Church.

Although the two denominations share their Calvinist roots and confessional standards, use the same hymnal, and often publish collaboratively, there have long been differences between the Reformed churches. Christian Reformed churches emphasize doctrinal purity and are the more conservative group. The Reformed Church in America had dropped services in Dutch by the mid-nineteenth century, two decades before the first sermon in English was heard in a Christian Reformed Church. Reformed Church in America congregations have more readily accepted changing social values, such as acceptance of minorities and women, especially women in the ministry. Perhaps a bigger divide was created when the Reformed Church in America welcomed members who are also members of "secret societies," such as the Masonic Lodge, something that is still forbidden in the Christian Reformed Church. While the less conservative church utilizes public schools for the education of their children, the Christian Reformed Church promotes and funds Christian schools that stress the religious basis of all knowledge. This difference has meant that Grand Rapids Christian High Schools students are predominantly from Christian Reformed families, with a small number of Reformed Church of America students.

Development of religious education in the Grand Rapids Dutch Community

As congregations grew and as more churches were established, church leaders identified a need for new ministers to fill a growing number of positions. The original plan to bring clergymen from the Netherlands proved almost fruitless and left many positions unfilled. Training ministers in individual churches - each seminarian studying with an individual minister - proved impractical when a minister was called to a new location. A local institution for the training of ministers would allow seminarians to complete their preparation for the ministry in one location and with consistency of doctrine. To this end, De Theologische School was established on March 15^th, 1876, on the second floor of the Dutch language school on Williams Street. The first class consisted of five students, and the curriculum consisted of seventeen subjects. For the first eight years, all courses were taught by Rev. Geert E. Boer. The Rev. Geert Hemkes joined Rev. Boer in 1884, and Dr. G. Vos in 1888. Between 1876 and 1894, the number of students enrolled in the school grew from the original student population of five students to forty-eight. This increase resulted in crowded conditions in the Williams Street school and, in 1890, the General Assembly of the Christian Reformed Church bought land at the corner of Fifth Street (Franklin) and Madison Avenue, and commenced construction of a new school.

Over the years, this site at Franklin and Madison would become the very heart of Christian Reformed education in Grand Rapids, and that history began when the new school of theology was dedicated in 1892. Instruction commenced with forty students taught by three instructors. As Grand Rapids developed into a center of Christian Reformed education (three Christian schools, which offered instruction through the eighth grade, were in operation in the city by 1883, and only twenty in the entire United States the following year). Parents began to question whether their children would benefit from a proper Christian Reformed education and where teachers with a proper Christian Reformed background would come from. The answer was to open enrollment at the theology school to students other than those studying for the ministry. Accordingly, in 1894, the literary curriculum was made available to non-seminary students. In 1900, a four-year preparatory school, separate from the theology program, was established. In 1906, the name was changed to John Calvin Junior College and Theological School. The school's 1906-07 yearbook notes that entrance into the junior college program (four years of preparatory education and two years of junior college) required "a certificate from a good school establishing completion of the 8^th grade," and came at the annual cost of twenty-six dollars.

By 1915, the 1892 building was overcrowded with student populations of 326 and 44, in junior college and seminary programs, respectively. A ten-acre site, located farther east on Franklin, purchased earlier by the Board of Trustees, was chosen as the expansion site rather than adding to the existing facility, and the first building on the new campus opened in 1917 as Calvin College. As the campus was completed, more students were moved to the new facility; by 1920, the entire student body was attending classes at the institution's new location, by then a four-year college.

The property at Franklin and Madison was purchased that year by the Grand Rapids Christian School Association, and the preparatory program of the junior college was reorganized as Grand Rapids Christian High School, Grand Rapids' first Christian high school. This resolved the issue of further education when Christian schools' students completed eighth grade: they could attend Christian Reformed-affiliated city schools from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Not only was Grand Rapids Christian High School the first such school in Grand Rapids, it was established at the forefront of a movement to establish Christian high schools throughout the country. The first such high school was established in Chicago in 1918, just two years ahead of the Grand Rapids school. A second Christian high school was established in New Jersey in 1919. These first two schools were joined by both Grand Rapids and Holland Christian high schools in 1920.

Christian High continued to attract students from the Grand Rapids area whose parents valued the concept of a Christian Reformed education, and overcrowding became an issue once more. Exacerbated by the advanced age of the original seminary building and the inadvisability of trying to renovate it, the decision was made to add a building to the north of the older building. Henry H. Turner, well known for overseeing a twenty-year expansion program for Grand Rapids Public Schools (and designing fifteen new schools), was chosen to design two three-story classroom wings and an auditorium. The new building was opened in 1931 and was equal to the task of containing the student population for several years. By 1946, however, the buildings were once again bursting at the seams. The antiquated 1892 theology school was razed in preparation for the construction of a new wing to adjoin Turner's building. James K. Haveman was chosen as the architect, and Antoine B. Campau would bring his years of school design experience to the project as consulting architect. Construction began in 1947, and 360 Christian High students were housed in the vacant Buchanan School nearby during construction.

As the school-age population surged after World War II and the resulting Baby Boomer Generation began to reach high-school age in the early sixties, school leadership foresaw another round of overcrowding. It was decided to split the students into two separate student bodies and build a second high school. A new campus was built off Plymouth Avenue, to the east and south of Christian High. The new facility was named East Christian High School, and the Franklin location was renamed Central Christian High School. By 1972 the postwar student boom had subsided, and, rather than maintain buildings at two separate locations, the Christian School Association began the process of closing the Franklin facility and transferring all students to the Plymouth location (to be known as Grand Rapids Christian High School). The Franklin building was sold in 1973, and tenth-grade students were housed at the former Seymour Christian Junior High building, while additions were made to accommodate them at their new school home.

Later use of the building

The old high school was home to Kent County's Department of Social Services for several years. in 1979, the building was renamed in honor of the late Paul I. Phillips. Phillips was prominent in Grand Rapids community affairs as Executive Director of Grand Rapids Urban League from 1947 to 1976, the first African-American elected to city office (Grand Rapids Charter Commission, 1951), elected to the Grand Rapids Board of Education (1962 to 1970) and as a member of the Board of Control of Grand Valley State University, appointed by Governor William G. Milliken in 1976.

The former school has been vacant since 2009, when Kent County moved its offices to another location. As of 2017, the site is to be redeveloped into multi-family housing.

In 2021, it was renovated with 41 apartments on the upper floors and office space and community gathering spaces on the first floor. It was renamed "415 Franklin".

Grand Rapids Christian High School Architecture, 1931 and 1947

The conjoined sections of the Grand Rapids Christian High School building present an interesting perspective on twentieth-century school architecture in West Michigan. Although only sixteen years separate them, the two sections chronicle the move from revival styles and historic antecedents to a more modern sensibility emphasizing clean lines and minimal ornament. The three architects involved represent two of Grand Rapids' most prominent school architects of the first half of the twentieth century and a third, then at the earliest stage of his career, who would continue to design schools well past the middle of the century.

The 1931 section of the building, designed by Henry H. Turner, displays the practiced hand of more than twenty years of school design. Turner's designs consistently featured elegant brickwork highlighted with restrained used of terra cotta, and Christian High shows him at the height of his ability - delicate floral columns, restrained use of tile inlays, terracotta delineating first-floor windows, and "dentil" brick detailing capping third-floor windows. The blind arcade above the uppermost windows had been used by Turner in his design for Grand Rapids Public School's Lafayette Elementary School in 1922 and appeared in most of his subsequent designs for the district. (Of his designs for the district that remain standing, the feature is found on Burton Middle School and Stocking, Eastern and Aberdeen elementary school buildings.) Sometimes referred to as Lombard bands, these arcades were a natural choice for Turner's Christian High addition, which is appropriately classified as Lombard Romanesque (the media of the day described it as Italian Renaissance). His Eastern and Aberdeen elementary schools for Grand Rapids Public School incorporates the same style, and both Italian Renaissance and Lombard Romanesque were popular from the 1920s into the 1940s when tastes favored a number of revivalist visions.

From the perspective of cycles of school construction, Turner's design for Christian High is very late in the early-twentieth-century construction boom. The Great Depression had put an end to expansion programs in many school districts (Grand Rapids Public Schools oversaw their last new construction - the previously mentioned Turner buildings - in 1929 and would not build another new school until the early 1950s), and the war years kept construction at a further standstill. When school construction resumed, nuanced use of historical references was no longer in style; in addition, use of terracotta, widely popular in the first three decades of the 1900s, had all but disappeared by mid-century. Although Turner would design one more building in the Grand Rapids area (a school in East Paris Township, 1933), Grand Rapids Christian High School might well be considered his last major building in West Michigan.

Adjoining Turner's section to the south, the 1947 wings of the building present a modernist elevation to Franklin Street. The restrained use of ornament announces the building's mid-century timeframe, slightly to the forefront of the 1950s school building boom to come. The 1947 addition presents, as well, an unusual co-mingling of the work of an architect contemporary with Henry Turner with that of a practitioner born a generation later.

Robinson and Campau and Henry H. Turner (under his own name or under that of Turner and Thebaud) designed twenty school buildings constructed for Grand Rapids Public Schools between 1909 and 1929. Although Christian High, one of Turner's last school designs, was a tour de force of his established style, as one of Antoine Campau's last school buildings, the 1947 design was a distinct departure from the styles of many of his previous projects.

As a combined effort with James K. Haveman, Campau's work on Grand Rapids Christian High School must be viewed through the lens of what the younger architect brought to the project, just as Haveman's must be considered in the light of the influence of the more experienced architect. As a 1932 graduate of University of Michigan's College of Architecture (program established 1906, officially organized as a college, 1931), Haveman was likely influenced by its first dean, Emil Lorch, a pioneer in modern architectural education, who had adapted the Theory of Pure Design concept of education to architectural instruction. Although Haveman's better known later work in churches and schools was true to its era in minimalist ornament and honest in its simplicity of form, his 1941 design for Seymour Christian School still showed vestiges of colonial revival details grafted onto a low-rise, neighborhood-scaled building (work completed before Haveman started his own firm, but the AJA Historical Directory of Architects does not indicate a firm or firms for which he worked during that time). His work on Christian High is clearly maturing, and the building presents a uniformly streamlined approach. This building may, in fact, have been a first step in his use of the concept of Pure Design to progress to simpler school buildings over the next decades, and his realization of a full-fledged Mid-Century Modern ethic in his designs at Calvin College's Knollcrest campus in the 1960s.

While Haveman brought modernist principles to the work on Grand Rapids Christian High School, it would be wrong to assume that his was the only such input. Robinson and Campau's 1932 design for downtown Grand Rapids' Civic Auditorium (renamed Welsh Auditorium; mostly demolished 2003, south facade and lobby retained as part of the new DeVos Hall) was a finely executed Art Deco public space, showing a sure grasp of modern aesthetics. Campau's ability to design across varying styles is borne out in schools the firm designed for Grand Rapids Public Schools - from Collegiate Gothic Central High in 1909, to more classically influenced Union High School and South High School in 1911 and 1916, respectively, and back again to high Collegiate Gothic for Harrison Park in 1924. As a contemporary and surely familiar with Turner's Grand Rapids Public Schools designs, it is probable that Campau was familiar enough with the other architect's work to accomplish the subtle echo of the 1931 building's brick detailing, yet another indication of Campau's ability to grasp the nuance of a particular style and add it to his own design vocabulary.

In experience brought to the Christian High project, Campau certainly possessed the greatest amount. Perhaps most importantly, he brought expertise in designing large-population buildings as the designer of three high schools for Grand Rapids Public Schools. (Haveman's earlier work, and most of his work in the early fifties, would be in smaller elementary buildings cued to a more residential scale.) Campau's honed ability to house a larger student body efficiently came into play. In fact, the mass and detailing of Christian High, compared to Robinson and Campau's latest high school for Grand Rapids, South High School, is remarkably similar.

As Turner's 1931 building was an important marker on the timeline of his school design experience (toward his last), Grand Rapids Christian High School's 1947 addition was an equally important dot on those of Campau and Haveman. This would be the older architect's final school design and nicely sets off his earlier designs with a fresh, modern approach. As a first marker on Haveman's continuum, Christian High finds him leaving behind the pastiche of historic styles and working with a unified and streamlined approach. If Grand Rapids Christian High School represents Antoine B. Campau at his best as an experienced architect capable of schoolhouse design spoken in any stylistic language, it also shows James K. Haveman with potential to hone his own work in the years to come.

Architect Henry H. Turner

Henry H. Turner (born 1881, Auburn, New York; died 1974, Cleveland, Ohio) received his architectural education at Harvard, graduated in 1907, and trained with two influential, nationally known school architects of the early twentieth century before commencing his own career as a noted school architect, much of it in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He first worked in the office of William B. Ittner, Saint Louis, Missouri's first Commissioner of Schools. As Consulting Architect to the Board of Education, Ittner's designs were widely acclaimed for functionality and artistic excellence, fifty of them built in Saint Louis and twenty-five in other states. He lectured on school planning at New York University, was appointed to the National Education Association's Committee on Administration of Secondary Education, and was invited by President Herbert Hoover to address a White House conference on education in 1926.

Turner next trained with architect Frank Seymour Barnum, the Cleveland, Ohio Board of Education's Superintendent of Buildings from 1895 to 1914. Like Ittner's work, Barnum's was recognized nationally, as was his early advocacy of school fire safety. In 1908, a devastating fire at the Lake View School in North Collinwood, Ohio, a suburb to the east of Cleveland, resulted in the death of one hundred seventy-two students and teachers. Barnum's design for the replacement school focused national attention on modern building techniques and fireproof construction. His specifications for fireproof materials and emphasis on safe exit design were models for new fire safety standards.

In 1909, the Grand Rapids Board of Education offered Turner employment as designer of high school equipment for Central High School (designed by local architects Robinson & Campau), then under construction. (William Ittner, consulting architect on the high-profile project, may have recommended Turner.) The city's population was rapidly increasing, and existing school buildings were woefully inadequate. The Board realized that retaining an architect in its business department would allow advance planning for areas of identified need and implementation when resources became available. In 1911, the Board offered Turner the position of Board Architect, which he held through 1919. After leaving the Board's employ, Turner established his own firm, with associates Victor Thebaud, a Cleveland architect, and William Bradfield, an engineer with whom he had worked on Board projects. Although school designs through the 1920s were attributed to the firm of Turner and Thebaud, Turner is generally credited with major design responsibility.

In both the direct employment of the Grand Rapids Board of Education and under contract to it, Turner oversaw the move to schools constructed with increased emphasis on safety. (National focus on fireproof construction after the Cleveland fire was echoed by heightened local concern after Grand Rapids' Turner Street School burned to the ground later the same year). Also during that time, school design began to reflect early twentieth-century educational reforms: early-childhood education, vocational and manual arts training, focus on physical activity and health, and inclusion of handicapped students. Turner designed schools that were the city's first to include child-friendly kindergarten rooms; modern facilities for sewing, cooking, and construction classes; gymnasia, shower facilities, and rooms for school nurses; and facilities for physically and mentally disabled students. As schools began to be seen as social and educational focal points within their neighborhoods, his buildings included public gathering spaces (most often the school gymnasium), public library branches, and separate entrances for non-school-hours use by the public.

Turner's first designs were for additions to two existing buildings in 1914. His 1915 Lexington Elementary School, and Franklin Elementary School were clean-lined structures with minimal ornament. Fourteen years later, Eastern Avenue Elementary School, and Aberdeen Elementary School displayed mastery of decorative use of brick complemented by distinctive terracotta ornament to enhance each building's individual character. Both featured rounded blind arches - some infilled with a variety of masonry bond patterns - and entrances delineated by recessed brick arches. By 1929 these features were well-established Turner signatures, and earlier use of them had garnered national recognition. An American Architect article cited his 1922 design for Lafayette Elementary School for its sparing use of terracotta in conjunction with brickwork of carefully selected colors in well-placed patterns. The writer concluded that the design "… appeals to all lovers of fine brickwork," as would many Turner designs to follow.

In an essay in a 1927 Grand Rapids Teachers' Club Bulletin, Turner espoused the ideal of beauty as every child's heritage: "… the American Public School should good enough for the best child in the land …" He provided beautifully designed educational environments where children could experience freedom of expression, learn to appreciate beauty, and search for truth, "the most lovely thing in the world." This was the legacy Henry H. Turner bequeathed to Grand Rapids children - a physical expression of the quest for truth and beauty.

As an architectural consultant to the Muskegon (Michigan) Board of Education in the 1920s, Turner designed several schools for that district, as well. His designs graced Kalamazoo's Western State Normal School (Western Michigan University): the Manual Arts Building, a state-of-the-art facility for teaching instructors of manual training, 1921; a 1924 library was a component of the Western State Normal School (demolished). Turner designed the Grand Rapids Christian High School addition in 1931 and an elementary school in East Paris Township (East Grand Rapids) in 1933. Grand Rapids commercial buildings included the Medical Arts office building in 1925, the Art Deco-inspired 1933 American Laundry (demolished), and the Georgian Revival style Tourist Building in Veterans Memorial Park, a 1935 WPA project. In the early 1940s, Turner returned to Cleveland to work for The Austin Company, an engineering and design firm pioneering the use of systematized construction for industrial buildings.

Henry H. Turner's schools served their communities well beyond his time. After the opening of the Aberdeen and Eastern elementary schools, the Grand Rapids Board of Education's next construction project was a 1948 addition, followed by a building boom in the 1950s. Turner's school designs express, in terracotta ornament upon brick, the educational growth and progress of the early twentieth century. They were the work of a craftsman who fulfilled the modern office of architect and planner, brought efficiency to the early-twentieth-century school building boom, and gave beautiful form to a new philosophy of education.

Architect James K. Haveman

James K. Haveman (born 1905, Grand Rapids, Michigan; died 1983, same) was educated in the Christian Reformed schools of Grand Rapids and was an early graduate of Grand Rapids Christian High School. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1932 with a Bachelor of Science in architecture and established his own practice in 1945.

A major component of Haveman's work was school architecture that expressed modernist design principles freed from historical or revivalist influences. His elementary school designs were mostly single-story and expansive, educational peers of the era's ranch homes; they were straightforward structures with minimal ornament and generous natural lighting from horizontal bands of windows; simple laboratories for learning. His later, multi-story secondary buildings, also presented form-follows-function elevations with understated decorative elements that did not detract from the buildings' sense of educational purpose.

The middle of the twentieth century brought a boom in school construction. The Great Depression was past, and the country was enjoying post-war prosperity, building homes and starting families. Suburban growth and birth rates surged upward, and existing pre-Depression building stock would not handle the new generation heading to school in the early 1950s. When a 1951 Grand Rapids Public Schools millage campaign succeeded, Parks Superintendent Fred See suggested building new schools in the midst of parkland, with recreation programs jointly administered by school and city parks administrators. The Board of Education appointed an Architects' Collaboration Committee to steer the project's implementation. Composed of seven architects from Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Kalamazoo, the group oversaw the construction of seventeen buildings between 1951 and 1961. James Haveman, one of the committee members, designed three of the park school buildings - Palmer, Crestview and East Leonard elementary schools.

Haveman also made a name for himself within West Michigan's Christian Reformed education community. In the 1940s, he designed the Seymour Christian School building (kindergarten through grade nine, closed 2002; currently houses Seymour Christian School Christian Learning Center, an inclusive learning facility) and additions to Oakdale Christian School and Grand Rapids Christian High School. Through the 1950s and 1960s, he designed elementary, junior high, and high school buildings for the Christian Reformed community in Holland, Zeeland, and Hamilton. When Calvin College moved to a large suburban site east of Grand Rapids in the 1960s, Haveman was one of a group of local architects collaborating with Perkins & Will, a prominent Chicago firm that specialized in campus design; his designs for the Knollcrest campus included residence and dining halls.

As more couples started families and residential construction boomed, churches faced the same challenges the schools did. Buildings in early Dutch enclaves dated to the late nineteenth century. Often small, economically built structures, generally wooden, they were long out of date and served growing populations then seeking housing beyond the central city. As congregations moved, Haveman designed several buildings for Christian Reformed churches that sought to relocate to newer areas of the city and suburbs. As with his school designs, he eschewed ornate decoration; his mid-sized brick churches were orderly, straightforward houses of worship.

James K. Haveman fit the tenor of his times well. He was skilled at conceiving buildings with few distracting decorative elements, his design vocabulary suitably modern for mid-century tastes. In a boom time for construction, his work was recognized and frequently commissioned by church leaders and school administrators throughout West Michigan.

Architect Antoine B. Campau

Antione Blackwell Campau (born 1878, Grand Rapids, Michigan; died 1963, same), was the grand-nephew of Louis Campau, founder of Grand Rapids. He graduated from the city's Central High School in 1897 before attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology (at the time, the only school in the United States offering an education in technical architecture). Upon graduation from MIT in 1901, he studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris' world-famous school of art and architecture, for two years.

Upon his return to the United States, Campau was briefly employed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge (successor to the office of Henry Hobson Richardson upon Richardson's death in 1886) before returning to Grand Rapids and joining the firm of W.G. and F.S. Robinson. When William G. Robinson died in 1907, Frederick S. Robinson and Campau formed the firm Robinson and Campau. (Although Robinson died in 1931, the firm would continue to be known as Robinson and Campau. When Charles A. Crowe became a principal in the firm, it was also known as Robinson, Campau and Crowe.)

One of Robinson and Campau's early commissions was the 1909 design for Grand Rapids' new Central High School (William B. Ittner of Saint Louis, consulting architect). A large, up-to-date structure in the popular Collegiate Gothic style, the building replaced schoolhouses dating from 1867 and 1893 (the latter designed by Robinson and Campau's predecessor William G. Robinson), previously used to house the city's burgeoning high school population. Continued growth necessitated further expansion, and Robinson and Campau were chosen to design an addition to the 1875 Union School building on Grand Rapids' west side. Although Union had a high school curriculum, lack of space meant students completed their high school classes at Central High on the east side of the city; Robinson and Campau's 1911 addition housed all the functions necessary to complete a high school education in accordance with the broadened curricula of the early twentieth century, and the first class was graduated from Union High School in 1912.

With experience designing Grand Rapids' first two twentieth-century high schools, Robinson and Campau were chosen to implement its third, as well. Burton Heights, to the south of the city, was annexed in 1910, and school administrators had begun considering an additional high school once the expansion at Union addressed overcrowding on the west side. Robinson and Campau's three-story South High School opened in 1916 and represented a somewhat more restrained style referencing classical elements. Although the firm designed two elementary schools for the district - Sibley in 1923 and the quintessentially Collegiate Gothic Harrison Park in 1924 - their most widely recognized work for Grand Rapids Public Schools was their designs for larger schools to serve the more diverse needs of high school education.

Although the firm displayed early expertise in school design, Robinson and Campau's work was by no means limited to educational architecture. Their advertisement in the 1911 Grand Rapids Board of Trade Publication Grand Rapids: Beautiful Industrial Commercial includes a list titled "Erected from our drawings" comprised of department stores, factories, and commercial buildings in addition to schools. They continued to design buildings for many purposes - the Peninsular Club in 1913, the YMCA in 1914, a new Steketee department store, the First United Methodist Church in 1916, and Butterworth Hospital in 1922. The firm proved adept across a variety of styles, adopting sturdy Gothic for the church, neoclassical references for commercial buildings, and Romanesque touches as appropriate for the implied gentility of a men's club. When it opened in 1933, the Civic Auditorium presented a modern sensibility in its Art Deco style.

Antoine Campau had been an early trustee of the David Wolcott Kendall Memorial School, which opened in 1933, and served as its president from 1940 to 1946. The school was created by Kendall's widow to honor his legacy as a nationally known designer for Phoenix Furniture and to promote education and innovation in furniture design and related industries. As student enrollment increased, the school required additional space, and Campau designed two additional wings and a library, which opened to the public in 1945. When the school's previous president returned from leading a "Monuments Men" group in Europe, Campau resigned the presidency and returned to his flourishing business. In a memoir in Kendall College of Art and Design's fiftieth anniversary booklet, Antoinette Campau recalled that her father, who was very interested in furniture design and all artistic endeavor, greatly enjoyed his years at the helm of the school and retained a great interest in its progress for the rest of his life.

Grand Rapids Christian High School Franklin Street Building Description

Grand Rapids Christian High School is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just southeast of the city's downtown. The building is on the site of the original Calvin College; a college associated with the Christian Reformed Church and Dutch immigrants in West Michigan. The high school, built to house students with the same religious and ethnic affiliations, consist of a 1931 addition to the 1892 college building and a 1947 addition that replaced the 1892 building. There is an auditorium on the north end of the building and three classroom wings, all three stories in height, that encircle a courtyard on the east, south and west sides. Beautiful brick detailing ties the two styles, one Lombard Romanesque and the other a transition into Modern architecture, together into one harmonious creation.

Detailed Description

Grand Rapids Christian High School is located just outside Heritage Hill Historic District in the southeast quadrant of Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is located on a corner site, bordered on the west by Madison Avenue; on the south by Franklin Street; and on the east by Morris Avenue. There is a vehicular drop off on the east side of the building. To the north are two small apartment buildings that date from the early twentieth century and a Mid-Century Modern Gymnasium designed by the same architect as designed the later additions to the school. Although close to the historic district, this building sits in a transitional neighborhood. The homes are smaller and less decorative than those in the neighboring historic district, even though they are of the same age. They haven't been as well or carefully maintained, although this is changing as people moving into the neighborhood are more financially capable.

The school consists of two adjoined buildings, three stories each, that roughly form three sides of a square centered on a courtyard and, at the northwest corner, a one and a half story auditorium. The wings on the north and east were added to the original 1892 Calvin College building in 1931 and were designed by Henry H. Turner, a local architect with significant experience in school design. His design reflects his signature brick and terracotta detailing in the Lombard Romanesque Revival style architecture he favored late in his career. His love of complex brick patterns was evident in all his work. Delicate floral terracotta columns, mosaic brickwork, and an understated blind arcade above the uppermost windows are all recognizable hallmarks of Turner's interpretation of the style. He reserved terracotta decoration for emphasis at entrances and was a master at balance and massing. Beckering Construction Company was the contractor. Originally, there were two classroom wings, one on the north and one on the east side of the 1892 building, with an auditorium at the west end of the north wing and a new main entrance at the south end of the east wing.

Finding the 1892 building outdated and unusable for their growing population, it was razed to make room for two new wings that would tie into the 1931 wings of Turner's design. In 1947, the south portion of the east wing was removed, and new south and west wings were added. This created a new entrance on the south side of the building. The construction signs that are visible in a photo taken during construction note the following: James K. Haveman is listed as architect, Osterink Construction Company is the general contractor, Snyder & McLean are the engineers, A. B. Campau is the consulting architect, Holwerda Huizenga Company is the heating and ventilating contractor and Herman Remtema is the electrical contractor. Designed during a transition period between revival styles and the Modern style, this addition is a fine example of restrained detailing, organized massing, symmetry, and balance. It echoes the materials of the 1931 building, but does not detract from it. Its streamlined design also reflects the design wisdom and technical experience of the elder consulting architect (Campau) and the architectural theory and creativity of the young, Modernist architect (Haveman).

The classroom addition of 1947 provided thirty new classrooms over three floors. The 1931 building that remained housed six hundred students. With this addition, they could now house twelve hundred students in this high school. The new addition was built at a cost of $450,000. Tn an article announcing its opening, the Grand Rapids Press praised the technical innovations that were added to the building. These included "clocks in each classroom that were controlled by the central office, a loudspeaker in each study hall for presentation of assembly programs and an intercommunication system that will permit teachers to talk directly to the central office."

The article also noted that this addition housed the first new high school classrooms to be constructed in Grand Rapids since Christian High itself was built in 1931 (a reference to the 1931 Turner designed wings). There had been a boom in school construction in Grand Rapids through the teens and twenties, but with the depression and World War II, school construction took a hiatus until the late 1940's. This project was at the forefront of a new wave of construction with design focusing on the new Modern style of architecture, quite a leap in style from the revival architecture of the 1920s. With this new wave and new style emphasis, doors were opened for younger architects eager to make their mark on the city.

In the early 1970s, with slipping enrollment in the Christian Schools due to smaller families and moves to the suburbs, it was decided that the Franklin Street building would be sold and the high school consolidated at the newer Plymouth Avenue building. Kent County negotiated to purchase the building for their Social Security offices, and despite protests by four urban congregations, the building was sold to Kent County in 1973. In 2009, the County vacated the building.

The 1931 auditorium is traditional steel structure with bearing masonry walls and a flat roof behind parapet walls. The floor is concrete, and the walls and ceilings are plaster. The classroom wings are concrete structure, floors and roof with brick-faced exterior walls. The roofs are flat and sit behind parapet walls. Walls and ceilings are gypsum board with some plaster remnants. Corridors are single-loaded, addressing the courtyard on the opposite side that originally set the building off from the earlier 1892 building.

The brick in the 1931 building is laid in an English bond with Dutch corners. It is a random pattern of cream and buff with yellow, purple, orange, and brown. All have a smooth finish with dark iron spots. The terracotta is mottled buff and cream. The windows are dark bronze anodized, sliding, replacement windows set in a bronze infill panel. A concrete base runs around the entire perimeter of the building and is consistent around the building, but varies in height as the grade fluctuates.

The auditorium projects out from the remainder of the building in two bays and is a jewel of brick and terracotta detailing. Its main, public entrance is on the west face of the building, setting behind a single-story arcaded portico with a decorative pedimented roof line. The one-and-a-half-story auditorium sets behind and expresses the same detailing seen throughout the 1931 building. It is situated on the bank of a hill with two sets of concrete stairs with an intermediate landing leading up to the delicately detailed entry.

The portico is defined by three arches carried on two columns in the middle and one pilaster on each end. The columns and pilasters are decorative, floral terracotta; the capitals are Corinthian in style. Terracotta tiles outline the arch and its inner face. The entire opening is outlined in brick with floral terracotta tiles at the spring line, the keystone, and halfway between the two. A soldier course of brick is used at the spring line and interspersed with terracotta tiles at corners that horizontally wrap around at the sides. This course separates the English bond brick at the lower portion of the entry bay from the stacked header bond courses above. Crowning this entrance, is a soldier course interspersed with terracotta tile, outlined top and bottom with a course of header brick, and capped with terracotta coping. The entire recessed entry area, including ceiling, is faced in terracotta tile. A trim piece that aligns with the top of the doors also aligns with the spring line of the columns. In each of the side walls, there is a blind pointed arch set in slight relief from the tiles. There are terracotta medallions, with a diamond shape in relief at their center, above each door. The entry doors appear to be original and are wood with fifteen true divided lite panels. The top row of lites form a segmental pointed arch.

Enclosed behind the portico are the auditorium's staircases, one on each side of the entrance. The west wall is adorned with two arched windows containing stained glass set in a diagonal pattern. They are located on either side of the entry. Each contains a terracotta keystone and terracotta sill. At the cornice line, there is a row of flat blind arches. Three courses step gradually out until the fourth course is projected the depth of a full brick. This detail wraps to the sides as courses of corbeled brick. Further up the parapet, there is a decorative panel of bricks laid in stacked header courses with every other brick projecting out. There are six blank concrete panels that are located within this decorative brickwork. They cover where the name of the building was located. The parapet is topped with terracotta coping with an outlining edge that adds horizontal emphasis.

Behind the staircase bay is the auditorium itself. Only the parapet and a small portion of wall rise above the lower projecting elements of the west facade. The parapet is detailed with the same flat blind arcade, corbeling, decorative panel of undulating bricks and terracotta coping as is used at the staircase bay.

The one and a half story auditorium has five large, original windows and a replacement window and door combination along its north wall. The windows are painted wood in bays of three windows each with segmental pointed arches on the transom over tall double hung windows. All windows have terracotta sills. The replacement door is painted metal with four square painted metal frame transom windows above. At the top of each window bay is the same corbeled brick detailing as is located above the third-floor windows on the north face of the classroom wing. The auditorium is detailed with the same type of corbeled brick detailing with a flat blind arcade as is noted elsewhere. Three courses step gradually out until the top course is projected the depth of a full brick. At the side of the bay, the courses of corbeled brick wrap to the east elevation and west elevation. The terracotta coping extends around the building at the top of the parapet.

On the north facade, a low addition has been removed from the stairwell at the east side of the building. The remains of the flashing where the addition was attached still hang from the brick. The former entry into the addition has been boarded up. There are windows in this stairwell at the second and third floor. They are set into a recessed bay, have terracotta sills and corbeled brick at the top of the third-floor windows. The north facade of the classroom wing is very similar to the classroom facade on the east. There are recessed bays of two windows on each floor. Windows all have terracotta sills. There is a course of soldier brick at the top of the second-floor windows and courses of corbeled brick detailing at the top of the third-floor windows. The terracotta coping extends around the building at the top of the parapet.

The chimney is quite decorative, and its brick detailing mimics the corbeling and dentils on the building. The brick is laid in English bond to match the remainder of the building, but the upper portion of the chimney is courses of stacked header bond.

The east face of the classroom wing consists of six identical three-story bays; five with window infill and one with a ventilation grill infill. At the north end of the wall is a recessed stair bay. This wall was originally built with seven window bays, but one bay was removed to attach the 1947 addition at the south end of the wall. To the right of the recessed stair bay, is a concrete cornerstone carved with "Grand Rapids Christian High School 1931".

Under the first-floor windows, there is a wide terracotta sill band with an intertwining pattern. There is a brick soldier course at the top of the first and second floor windows. A smaller sill band runs under the second-floor windows; it has an outline edge that matches the terracotta coping on the parapet above. The brick between the second and third floor windows is slightly inset from the vertical piers between the bays and is laid in stacked header courses. The windows on the third floor have terracotta sill bands that are interrupted by the vertical piers running between the second and third floor. Over the pairs of windows, there are three corbeled courses of dentils. Above that is an arcade of round blind arches projecting out from the face of the wall. In the face of the parapet wall, there is another panel of bricks laid in stacked header courses with every other brick projecting out. This provides a creative texture at the top of the wall. The parapet is topped with the same terracotta coping used throughout.

A three-story recessed brick and terracotta bay with a further recessed round blind arch top denotes the rear entry stairwell on the east facade of the 1931 building. Metal replacement entry doors are set in a recessed, compound round blind arch. The arch is infilled with brick laid in a basketweave pattern. There is a canvas awning over the doors. There are large terracotta tiles that face the wall between the doors and the windows above. A projecting terracotta sill sets the base for two small double-hung windows. Above are four more courses of terracotta tiles that lead to another sill holding two tall double-hung windows that are inset and surrounded by terracotta pilasters in a floral pattern with Corinthian capitals. They support two blind arches of terracotta tile with brick header courses infilling the arches. Above them are more courses of header brick infilling the single arch that marks the bay. Centered just under the arch is a terracotta medallion.

Corbeled brick detailing above highlights the entry arch, creating five flat blind arches. Courses step gradually out until the top course is projected the depth of a full brick. At the side of the bay, the courses of corbeled brick wrap to the north elevation and ends after a few feet. On the south side of the bay, they create the arcade of round blind arches. Further up the parapet, there is another panel of bricks laid in stacked header courses with every other brick projecting out. The parapet is topped with the same terracotta coping used throughout.

The 1947 wings are a concrete structure with brick-faced exterior walls and flat roofs behind parapet walls. The floors and roof structure are concrete and the walls and ceilings are gypsum board. Corridors are single-loaded in the west wing, addressing the courtyard opposite, but are double-loaded in the south wing at the courtyard.

Brick in the 1947 building is laid in Common bond with seventh-course headers. All have a smooth finish with dark iron spots. The brick is a blend of yellow, purple, orange, and brown; a close match to the 1931 building, but without the buff and cream base. There is a horizontal concrete trim band above the top row of windows and a concrete parapet cap, running around the perimeter of the addition. Sills are also concrete. The windows are dark bronze anodized, sliding, replacement windows set in a bronze infill panel. There is a concrete base that runs around the entire perimeter of the building. The top of the base is consistent around the building, varying in height as the grade varies.

The north wall of the south classroom wing has two recessed bays of two windows each on all three floors. There is a soldier course of bricks above the first-floor and second-floor windows. The panels between the first and second floor windows and between the second floor and third floor windows are made up of courses of stacked stretcher bond. The four courses of corbeled brick that tops the 1931 building on the north side of the stairwell are repeated above the third-floor windows.

The east wall of the south classroom wing duplicates the details on the north wall, but uses two recessed bays of three windows each on all three floors. A concrete trim piece that resembles a simple, stylized column capital is added at the top of the pier between the bays.

The main entry to the building is off the south facade. This is a three-story, masonry structure of Modernist design. The very long, symmetrical facade consists of five recessed bays of three large windows each on either side of a projected entry bay. A simple, concrete stylized column capital is added at the top of the piers between each bay. The use of soldier courses, stacked stretcher bonds, and corbeled brick are repeated on this elevation. Per old photos, the windows were originally four-over-four double hung.

On each end of the building is a windowless masonry wall that projects out and frames the facade. The windowless masonry walls are detailed with a matching horizontal concrete band that aligns with the one above the windows. The wall is further divided by three vertical concrete bands at its center, breaking up the large massive wall.

The entry bay has a deeply inset series of windows above an equally wide series of doors. This bay acts as the central stair. Per old photos, the doors had eight glass panels in each door. They are currently four doors and two sidelights in clear, anodized aluminum. Above the doors is a flat awning with a ridged aluminum edge and glazed ceramic soffit panels. Letters affixed to the edging spell out "Paul I. Phillips Building." The cornerstone to the right of the doors is carved with two dates, 1920 and 1947. 1920 is the date that Christian High took over the site from Calvin College.

Above the awning is a large recessed bay outlined with half-round concrete molding. There are three shorter windows on the second floor and three taller windows on the third floor. Separating each window vertically are half-round concrete moldings. Separating the windows horizontally is a panel with the words "Kent County Department Social Services" in black letters. Old photos show "Christian High School" carved into the concrete at this location, and it is assumed this name may still be located below the panel holding the new sign.. There is a concrete, rounded dentil trim reminiscent of Dutch lace under the name. Centered above the framed entry bay is a concrete medallion with the monogram CH for Christian High.

The west elevation repeats the detailing and rhythm in the brick and window bays on the east and south elevations with six bays of three windows on each floor. At the far north end of this wall is a recessed stairwell. There is a round, blind arch over the door with concrete plinth blocks. The brick in the blind arch are stacked header courses. The doors are painted metal with a canvas awning above. Windows are created on the second and third floors using glass block with a concrete sill. They are framed in a stacked bond course with stacked bond courses between and with soldier courses at the top of each window. The connector between the 1947 building and the 1931 building is deeply recessed at this location, allowing the 1931 building to retain its prominence and historic character.

The interior of the auditorium is remarkably intact, with simple plaster and wood detailing and the row of tall north windows as a major feature of the space. The large windows on the south wall were filled in when the 1947 addition abut this wall. Long plaster-wrapped beams stretch across the space and rest on understated pilasters. A decorative plaster cornice defines the perimeter of each structural bay. At the front of the room, large, oversized columns support a slight, segmented arch wall that creates a simple proscenium. At the rear of the room, the slight arched, two-story opening is duplicated on each side of the entry to reveal staircases leading to two small balcony spaces. The floor is bare concrete, and the ceiling tiles have been removed within the structural bays. Fire sprinkler lines have been added to the space, but hang below the decorative ceiling work. A wood chair rail runs around the perimeter of the room and continues into the narthex space where the wood staircases exist. In the entrance area of the narthex, set between the stairs, there is a lovely terracotta floor with yellow and buff diamond shapes set in a diagonal pattern.

The classroom wings of the 1931 building were heavily renovated at the time the 1947 addition was built. Some of the inner rooms still have plaster walls and a few wood doors, but the main corridors have been remodeled with gypsum board walls. The windows that once looked into the courtyard are missing or covered over with infill added during the 1947 construction, creating very dark and uninspired corridors. The floors are concrete, and the lay-in ceiling tiles and grids have been mostly removed. Acoustical tile had been glued directly to the plaster coating on the concrete ceiling. Classrooms have concrete floors, most likely originally covered in carpet or linoleum, with a wood base and wood chair rail at the window wall that also acts as a window sill. Some of the dividing walls have been removed for more contemporary folding partition walls. Lay-in ceilings have been removed, and the plaster finish on the concrete ceiling is in very poor condition. Many blackboards are still located on teaching walls. The stairwell at the north end of the wing is fairly intact and is still clearly representational of Turner's other schools with low curved walls with wood rails and trims, brass fittings, terrazzo floors, and simple plaster detailing.

The classroom wings of the 1947 building have also been heavily renovated, having had the corridor walls eliminated in most cases to provide open office space for the county offices when they occupied the building. Heavy, boxed-in concrete columns define where the corridor walls would have been located. Walls that remain are gypsum board. Those facing the courtyard in the south wing have a partial glazed tile wainscot. Floors are concrete with patchy remnants of linoleum in some areas. Floor finishes, bases and ceiling finishes are all missing. The entry stairwells on the south side of the building have retained their simple design flourishes in the form of ceramic tile and decorative glazed block. The large central double stair is faced with a mottled green and buff glazed wainscot and features a two-tone terrazzo floor to match. The stair adjacent to the auditorium is much lighter in its design and features a classic three-dimensional, butter-yellow, glossy, mid-century ceramic tile wainscot, edged in black. Floors are terrazzo.

The four walls of the courtyard are defined by the two Haveman wings added in 1947 and by the infill additions he added to the Turner wings at the same time. Those narrow additions were corridors that vary in height. A tall concrete base ties all sides together. At one time, there was extensive landscaping and trees in the courtyard. This had become overgrown with time, and much of it was eliminated recently in an effort to clean up the property and sell it.

The three-story south and west wings have bays of windows that are less organized than their street-facing facades. The windows on the second and third floors are typically grouped in pairs or threes and are usually slightly recessed in a bay that includes both floors of windows. The top row of windows features corbeled brick courses above. The first-floor windows below are a pair of windows that align on one side only with the bays of three windows. Sills are concrete. There are locations where single windows and glass block windows are used. They align with a row of windows vertically, have no trim, and have a simple concrete sill.

On the west end of the north wall of the courtyard, the one-story corridor features glass block windows and a shed roof. Above and behind, the upper level of the auditorium is visible. Windows have been infilled, but the dentil work at their tops is still in place as is the blind arcade and terracotta coping at the parapet. At the east end of the north wall and at the east wall, the height varies from two to three stories. Window locations appear to be unstructured. The third floor of the 1931 building is visible beyond the two-story portion of the east wall.