Steve VanderVeen: The beginning and end of the neighborhood business district
In Holland’s older neighborhoods, there are repurposed commercial buildings. Many of them were grocery stores.
In 1897, with a population of 7,000, Holland had 16 grocery stores, or 3,437 people per store. By 1921, with a population of 12,000, Holland had 35 grocery stores, or 342 people per store.
The lowest people-to-grocery-store ratio (287) was in 1950, when Holland had 55 grocery stores and a population of 15,800. I surmise this is the reason: 1950 was a post-World War II year. As GI’s returned, they were seeking employment, getting married, and starting families.
The grocery industry back then had low barriers to entry, and the thought was that every neighborhood needed its own store. However, by 1960, with a population of 24,600, Holland had fewer grocery stores than it had in 1921 (see the table below).
Year | Population | Number of grocery stores | Population per store | Automobiles per 1,000 people in US | Automobiles in Holland (est) |
1897 | 7,000 | 16 | 437 | ||
1906 | 8,500 | 26 | 327 | 1.27 | 10 |
1915 | 11,000 | 30 | 367 | 24.77 | 272 |
1921 | 12,000 | 35 | 342 | 96.68 | 1,160 |
1931 | 14,300 | 46 | 310 | 217.34 | 3,107 |
1940 | 14,600 | 23 | 635 | 245.63 | 3,586 |
1950 | 15,800 | 55 | 287 | 323.71 | 5,114 |
1960 | 24,800 | 32 | 775 | 410.37 | 10,177 |
In the 1920s, small business districts consisted of bakeries, drug stores, dry goods stores, groceries, hardware stores, butchers and shoe stores. By 1960, that was no longer the case.
One reason was the emergence of mass merchandisers who offered one-stop shopping. Because of advances in food processing, packaging and transportation, capitalists could create big box stores which, because of their buying power, could muscle suppliers into selling them large quantities of goods at low cost, enabling them to sell those items at prices below what neighborhood grocery stores could offer.
To build their stores, mass merchandisers needed land, and the least expensive and properly-zoned land was outside of the city. Thus, developers built big box stores near major highways and byways, which provided the stores the needed transportation infrastructure.
A second, related, reason is the proliferation of the automobile. In 1921, in Holland, there was approximately one car for every four people; in 1960 it was approaching one car for every two people. The average grocery store commute today, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, is four miles. I suspect, before 1921, it was four blocks.
If you lived in 1897, here’s where you would've purchased groceries:
Boot and Kramer at 32 W. Eighth St.
Botsford and Co at 19 W. Eighth St.
J and H De Jongh at 16 E 10th Street
Dirk DeVries (Corner of River Avenue and Ninth Street)
Holland Tea Company at 182 River Ave.
Tubergen and Komparens (Corner of 16th Street and Central Avenue)
John Kruisenga at 120 E. Eighth St.
H. Olert at 129 E. Eighth St.
A Roose at 108 E. 15th St.
G. Smeenge at 155 E. Eighth St.
W. Van Dyke (Corner of River Avenue and Ninth Street)
Van Zwaluwengerg at 321 Central Ave.
John Verhulst at 112 W. 14th St.
L. Vissers at 188 River Ave. and 230 W. 12 St.
Henry Werkman at 238-242 River Ave.
Of those business people, I know little. What I do know is (Peter) Boot and (A.I.) Kramer’s building at 32 W. Eighth St. boasted a Waverly Stone edifice. In 1879, workers had moved that wood-framed building, and their business, from the southeast corner of River and Eighth Street, so Engbertus Van Der Veen could build a new hardware store.
By 1906, Kramer's son John turned Boot and Kramer into a dry goods and notions store, which prospered for the next 30 years.
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In the 1880s, John and Henry De Jongh Grocery at 16 E. 10th St. sold eggs purchased from farming families in exchange for groceries. Around 1905, the family replaced their frame building with a two-story brick store across the street at 21 E. 10th St.
Paul Tanis owned the Holland Tea Company at 182 River Ave. — then Martin Looyengoed. In addition to teas, the store carried coffees, spices, crockery, glassware and silverware.
Back then, shoppers would tell store clerks what they needed, or hand them a list, and the clerks would put the needed items in a bag.
We’ll say more next week.
— Steve VanderVeen is a resident of Holland. You may reach him at skvveen@gmail.com. His book, "The Holland Area's First Entrepreneurs," is available at Reader’s World.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland History: The beginning and end of the neighborhood business district
