PENTWATER STORIES

MARTENS HOUSE

photoS/Text by Pam Vanderploeg copyright 2019. Special thanks to robin Martens for editorial assistance.

MARTENS HOUSE, AN 1872 two-story gable and wing farmhouse, IS the labor of love of two former Chicago area residents, building contractor Roy and retired fourth-grade teacher Robin.

ABOUT THE HOUSE

In March of 2014, the Martens purchased the rather dilapidated house on Rush Street. Roy began renovation by shoring up the existing foundation, and leveling the slanted floors. Roy’s attention was diverted from this house for 10 months in 2015 and 2016 while he renovated the Sheehan home at Lowell and Mears. It is no surprise that both the Martens’ House and the Sheehan cottage were featured on the 2017 COVE Home Tour.

Martens House is a blend of art, custom cabinetry and woodwork and hand-made textiles. It is a playful check on the current open-concept mania, and surprises the visitor with unique and cozy spaces around every corner. As the Martens embarked on this enormous project, one consultant advised them to tear the house down and build a new house, their dream home. Roy and Robin went a different direction, because as Robin said, this was their dream home. They began to rework the interior structure, respecting the home’s good bones, and a mostly new house took shape within the home’s historic exterior. Robin and Roy were the designers and the framing contractor on this project was Ludington contractor Andy Barrette. A Ludington architect drew up plans for Andy to work from.

THE ORIGINAL WINg

The original wing holds a large bright dining room/reception hall with its vaulted ceiling, skylights and pretty glass pendant lamps over the large farmhouse table designed by Roy with a quilted maple top and trestle-style base. Roy used a catalyzed finish (also on the kitchen counter tops) that resists water damage. One of the light green walls, above the deeper green wainscoting, is an art wall where hang representational paintings of old sailing vessels, dune and farm scenes that could be described as “painterly.” Most interesting of all, Robin’s father, Ted Reser, is represented on that wall. A model ship and more paintings by Reser are also in the collection of the Pentwater Historical Museum.

THE SIgnature simple WHITE DOOR TRIM ties the rooms together

One dining room door leads deeper into the wing to the all-new kitchen with maple cabinets, a stunning v-groove knotty pine ceiling and polished wood floors. The butcher block counters and a farmhouse sink are new, but the compatible industrial style lamps were installed by the previous owners.

Through the kitchen and one step down, is the inspirational work space with the same knotty pine ceiling and a gleaming custom work surface and drawing table. Textile wall hangings introduce a Native American flavor. The original six over six window was one of several front windows moved to the back of the house. Now they provide interest and overlook an expansive yard with perennials and vegetable raised beds. The bathroom on the main floor of the original wing features honey colored wainscoting and cabinet, charcoal-colored floor tile and walls painted with a Benjamin Moore paint “Warm Springs.”

the PARLORS are SEPARATED BY A PARTIAL fireplace WALL

Separated by a two-sided fireplace wall is a small comfortable den on one side and a more formal living room on the other side. The living room mantle was a “meant-to-be” find by Robin, exactly the right size with no need for alteration. A new cream sofa brightens this room filled with old treasures including the Tiffany-style floor lamp from Robin’s mother, family piano, antique secretary and architectural chairs in the bay window. A page of an 1868 Irish newspaper was found in between the layers of the wall of the dining room. This is a mystery really since the home’s Irish born occupants were not the first owners. More house history is represented by a glass jar of amber liquid found in the crawl space, attributed to the rumored 1920s distillery. All of the paint colors in the parlors and dining room were custom-mixed by Benjamin Moore.

In the entry hall, the Martens painted the original wooden staircase a deep red. The wool runner was hand woven by Robin at Pentwater’s popular Artisan Center, where members who join for a mere $120 annual fee enjoy a workspace where you can make just about anything from pottery to stained glass and use an amazing variety of woodworking machines to make furniture and even build boats— in the company of other creative individuals.

On the second floor, the Martens made cosmetic changes to the bedrooms, now used as guest rooms. That the upstairs bath (only one) was already modernized by the previous owners was a key selling point for the house.

THE NEW WING WITH MASTER SUITe

Hand-crafted elements abound in the hall leading to the master suite addition, including the wall-mounted coat rack designed and built by Roy, and the knitted floor runner and hand-stenciled curtains made by Robin.

The expansive master suite painted in Benjamin Moore “Normandy Blue,” has an Arts & Crafts flair with mission period furniture and pretty woven rugs. The corner sitting area is decorated with vintage travel posters. A large ensuite bath has a retro-look with a combination of dark wood and cream-colored custom cabinetry and cream-colored subway tile with black accents.

Once their lovely home was finished, Robin went about researching its early history. As a result of her diligence, a 100-year plaque was recently issued by the Pentwater Historical Society and is proudly displayed on the house.

A brief note about the Pentwater Historical Society’s (PHS) plaque program.

In the Village of Pentwater, you cannot help but notice these 100-year plaques prominently displayed by front doors on the picturesque old streets. Residents must document that the home is at least 100 years old to be eligible for the plaque. It’s amazing to see so many homes, still intact and charming, dating back to the 1860s and 1870s, a measure of how much Pentwater homeowners love the special quality of the village streetscape and village life.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE HOUSE HISTORY

THE MARTENS OWNERSHIP BEGAN IN 2014

Robin’s family has a long history of summering in Pentwater in a 1930s cottage, now gone, built by her grandparents on Channel Lane. Robin and Roy looked for a home of their own in Pentwater, and found the run down house on North Rush Street for sale in 2012. The house was taken off the market later that year. In snowy February of 2014 the house was for sale again, and without hesitation, Roy and Robin saw its potential and purchased it. In the fall of 2014, they began to create their retirement home, complete with a carpentry workshop in the barn behind the house.

Roy’s sensitive renovation work has been honed through a lifetime of building that includes the renovation of the Glencoe Castle, an ornate 1870s Second Empire style complete with typical mansard roof and towers. The “castle” replaced a simple farmhouse there when Walter Gurnee, Mayor of Chicago from 1851 -1853 and the president of the Chicago and Milwaukee railroad, first bought the property from his father-in-law early Glencoe settler Matthew Coe. Gurnee located the train station on the property as well. In the late 1990s, owners Chad and Tricia Smith, who had bought what was at that time something of a wreck, worked with a group of architects and contractors including Roy Martens to bring the house back to its former glory using the Chicago Landmark restoration specifications. See Resources/Citations at the end of this story for an article about the house. On their first date, Roy and Robin realized they had in common their friendship with Chad and Tricia Smith. The Smith’s daughter was in Robin’s first class at Glencoe School where she taught for 22 years, and of course the Smiths attended the Martens wedding.

BEFORE THE MARTENS, THE MCMAHONS LIVED IN THE HOME BEGINNING AT LEAST IN 1904

Robin shared with me that in 1904 the home was listed in property records as owned by Sarah McMahon.

I was able to determine that this was Sarah H. or J. (Jane) McMahon, born in Dublin about 1854, and Henry P., born in Northern Ireland in 1848 or possibly 1855, who were married in Pentwater on December 6, 1879. Henry was listed variously as a lumberman, a fireworks finisher, painter and laborer.  Of their six children, three lived with their parents in Pentwater, Herbert the youngest born in 1897, Harry born in 1891 and Mark born in 1887. In 1900, their father Henry had been unemployed or 4 months so and perhaps that explains why three of the children were sent over the next ten years to live in Ann Arbor with an Aunt Margaret and Uncle John Delaney.

Daughter (Mary) Maude McMahon, born in 1882, went to board with the Delaneys at least by 1900. Fred McMahon born in 1893 and Anna McMahon born in 1884 were both living with the Delaneys by 1910. Maude McMahon married George Kress and died in Ann Arbor in 1931 at age 40 of pregnancy complications. Fred McMahon worked in Ann Arbor as a baker and moved back to Pentwater in 1940 to live in the family home. While in Ann Arbor, Anna was a student, worked in a department store and also was a telephone operator. There was an Anna McMahon living the Martha Cook dormitory at the University of Michigan in 1916 during the time she was in Ann Arbor, but more research would be needed to verify that this was the same Anna.

By 1930 Anna had returned to Pentwater and “kept house” on North Rush Street for Harry and Herbert in the family home. Her Census occupation was listed as an artist in the fashion industry. Mark McMahon, a World War I veteran, was already married and had his own home and owned a barber shop in Pentwater. He died in 1961. After Herbert married in 1939 and moved out of the Rush Street House, Fred came back in 1940 to take Herbert’s place, and Anna continued to keep house for her “bachelor” brothers Fred and Harry.

In the mid-1930s, Anna made her mark on Pentwater, earning the title of “the bird woman of Pentwater,” according to the Grand Rapids Press. Anna had read an article that stated the birds were starving due to the severe winter of 1936. When one died at her feet in the yard, Anna began a wild bird feeding project that was supported by the Pentwater Garden Club, the Conservation Club and received help from the local grocers. Anna established and stocked feeding stations in the woods adjacent to Pentwater and even developed a method of using a coffee grinder to make the food the right consistency for the birds. She would bundle up and travel to the stations by snow-shoe in the winter months. Self-described as shy, Anna wrote a paper chronicling her bird-feeding project that was read by someone else at a September 1946 Pentwater Garden Club meeting. Anna died in 1954, Fred died in 1971 and Harry died in 1975.

THE 1880s AND SPECULATION ON THE IDENTITY OF C. BLANK WHO OWNED THE HOUSE

In her methodical property research, Robin also determined that from 1883-1888, C. Blank was listed as the owner.

After looking through historical records, I found a Charles Blank, age 68 in 1880, and his wife Christina Blank, age 50 in 1880, who may have been early owners of Martens House. They were both born in Prussia and were residents of Pentwater and Oceana county according to the 1880s census. Charles was a farmer. This was Christina’s second marriage. Her children 18 year-old John, 15-year old Andrew and 10-year old Louiza Conklin, all from her first marriage, lived with them.

THE SEARCH FOR HISTORIC RECORDS

White this is the end of this story for now, the search for information on original and early owners of Pentwater’s 1860s-1880s housing stock continues. It has proven to be an amazing adventure of discovery into the lives of these inspiring early settlers who created a thriving village in the Michigan wilderness.

Pam VanderPloeg

martens house Resources/Citations

2019 interview and follow-up with homeowners Robin and Roy Martens

Ann Arbor City Directories

Glencoe Castle Story: “Fit for a King,” Chicago Tribune, July 27, 1997: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-04-27-9705010326-story.html

Michigan Death Records

Michigan Marriage Records 1867-1952

“Musher of Mercy: Pentwater Woman Makes Bird Feeding a Hobby,” Grand Rapids Press, February 25, 1947.

U.S. Census Records, Various Years

Other articles in various newspapers