Steve VanderVeen: What became of the Warm Friend Tavern?
The Tavern was built under the auspices of the Holland Hotel Company, which Landwehr had purchased from the Boones. To finance the project, Landwehr spearheaded the sale of $200,000 of bonds to the Holland Furnace Company and $300,000 of stock to the local community.
Work began on April 10, 1924, when Austin Harrington's steam shovels began razing and excavating. Then, the contractor who had built Holland High School (1914), the Franklin Campus of Calvin College (1917), and Holland Christian High School (1923-1924) took over. His name was Frank Dyke.
A year later, the Warm Friend Tavern opened. According to The Holland Sentinel, its top floor had nine apartments of three living rooms each and a Warm Friend Hall to host banquets and dances.
More: VanderVeen: The man responsible for The Warm Friend — August Landwehr
The next four floors contained 144 rooms, or 36 rooms per floor. One hundred of those rooms included a bath; all rooms had hot and cold running water and telephone service.
The first floor held the Dutch Grill, decorated with unique tables and light fixtures, and a kitchen equipped with the latest appliances. It also hosted the downtown office of the Holland Furnace Company, the Allen Tot and Gift Shop and the B&M Shoe Store.
The basement contained hairdressing parlors, public restrooms, storage space, laundry, a refrigerator, boilers, truck elevators, and five sample rooms for salesmen.
Because the Warm Friend Tavern catered to salesmen and its Dutch Grill was Holland's most exclusive restaurant, it became the social hub of the city. Thus, in 1926, the Holland Hotel Company turned a profit. Unfortunately, its stock never paid dividends.
One reason was that, in 1929, August Landwehr suffered mentally after a boating accident claimed the life of his son Paul. Then, when the Kolla family elevated P.T. Cheff (married to Katherine Kolla Nystrom) to a position of authority at the Holland Furnace Company, it lost its balance.
The Warm Friend Tavern also changed. With the repeal of the Prohibition in 1933, the Bier Kelder opened on the lower level and the Tavern Club on the top floor. Then, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Warm Friend Tavern hosted Hollywood celebrities, courtesy of Cheff, adding prominence to Tulip Time and Holland Furnace Company sales meetings.
Still, the Warm Friend struggled financially. To support it, the Holland Furnace Company acquired 51% of the shares of the Holland Hotel Company. Unfortunately, by the 1960s, the Holland Furnace Company was going bankrupt. The Vannettes, however, saved the Warm Friend Tavern.
By 1961, Arthur and Jack and their wives Geraldine and Marjorie had opened Jack's 15-Cent Hamburgers at 102 W. Eighth St. and converted their Jack's Ice Cream Shop on Ottawa Beach Road into Jack's Drive-in.
In 1965, city leaders convinced the Vannettes to buy the Warm Friend Tavern.
The Vannettes stabilized the hotel's finances by converting hotel rooms into luxury apartments and expanding food services. In the process, they converted Warm Friend Hall into a chapel, let the hotel's liquor license lapse, and signified the changes with a new name: Hotel Warm Friend. Later, in 1979, Jack Vannette weatherproofed the building and closed the restaurants.
Then, in 1981, when Resthaven Patrons, under Director Rev. Gerald Postma, considered expansion with a new building, the organization changed course and purchased the Hotel Warm Friend instead.
Gerald J. Postma was born in 1921. He grew up in Grand Rapids and attended Calvin College and Seminary, graduating from the latter in 1947.
Gerald and his wife Jane then moved to Illinois, where Gerald taught Bible classes at Illiana Christian High School in Lansing. Two years later, they accepted a call from the Sanborn (Iowa) Christian Reformed Church (CRC). In 1953, they accepted a call to East CRC of Muskegon, Michigan, then Kelloggsville CRC in Kentwood, Maranatha CRC in Holland, and Olentangy CRC in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1973, Gerald became director of Whetstone Convalescent Center in Columbus, Ohio. In 1979, he became director of Resthaven in Holland. He retired in 1984. By that time, the Warm Friend's occupancy rate was 97%.
Information for this story comes from Robert Swierenga's "Holland Michigan" and "Park Township Centennial History, 1915-2015," and Donald Van Reken and Randall P. VandeWater's "Holland Furnace Company."
— Steve VanderVeen is a resident of Holland. His books on Holland's historical entrepreneurs are available at Reader's World Bookstore.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Steve VanderVeen: How the Warm Friend Tavern became a retirement home
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