Welcome!

This website highlights historic building stories of the Greater Grand Rapids Metropolitan area. The studies, Grand Rapids Downtown Buildings and Ottawa Hills: Early Owners, Architects & Builders by Pam VanderPloeg, are available in the Bookshop, in the navigation menu.

Also, look for Grand Rapids Downtown Buildings available locally at the Grand Rapids Public Museum gift shop—The Old Curiosity Shop.

Check back soon for new website content!

ABOUT Website Administrator, Pam VanderPloeg: A.B., Hope College; M.L.S., Indiana University; M.M., Aquinas College. VanderPloeg is the website designer of the Michigan Postcard Club Newsletter—the next issue will be available on January 10, 2026. Vanderploeg is the winner of local awards from the Grand Rapids Historical Society and the Grand Rapids Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. She is a researcher, writer, and historian who served for ten years as the Assistant Director of the 20-branch Kent District Library.

Her own neighborhood project, “Midtown House Stories,” is published quarterly, and the winter issue will be available January 1, 2026. Other works-in-progress include a catalog raisonné of the work of popular Grand Rapids architect Alexander McColl and a study of Grand Rapids Mid-Century Modern Architecture, available from this website in late 2026.