Article Featured on ARCHITECTURE GRAND RAPIDS

The old church at 1009 Hermitage and Diamond in Grand Rapids began as the Third Reformed Church in 1875. It was a place of worship, comfort and community for the newly arrived Dutch immigrants who came to Grand Rapids in the late 1800s and lived in the “Brikyaat“ (Brickyard) neighborhood. Although the price of a fine new masonry church was out of reach for these new Americans, they typically hired local architects to design impressive frame churches with Queen Anne details. A little more than 100 years and several diverse congregations later, the historic Third Reformed Church was added to the National Register. Read more in the feature “Third Reformed Restoration By a Preservation Pro” on the Architecture Grand Rapids Website, Text and Images by Pam VanderPloeg.