Holland is 150 this year. Take a look back at how this Dutch community started out and has grown to become the city it is today.

This year marks exactly 150 years since the Dutch Protestant minister landed on what has become Holland, Michigan. While the present-day community is populated by individuals and families from a diversity of ethnic and national backgrounds, the community Van Raalte helped found remains steeped in the traditions and heritage of his Netherlands homeland. From the two-century old DeZwaan Windmill to tulip fields to young "Klompen" dancers, the "new" Holland looks a lot like the "old" Holland.

During the mid-1800s hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, fleeing famine, taxation and religious persecution, sought freedom and economic opportunity in the New World. When the Rev. Van Raalte and his followers arrived on the southern shore of Lake Macatawa in February 1847, the 35-year-old churchman realized he had found the ideal place to fulfill his mission.

The original Van Raalte colony was comprised of one-room log cabins and huts made from hemlock boughs. Meanwhile, other groups of Dutch immigrants continued to arrive, including a group of 425 settlers who founded the village of Zeeland in 1847. Each group had its own minister and parcel of land purchased from the government or the local Ottawa Indians.

A climate moderated by nearby Lake Michigan, and ample lake and river trade routes, had already attracted settlements of Native American pioneers. By August, 1847, with the influx of the new immigrants, the community of Holland had grown to over 600 residents, most of Dutch ancestry. By October of the same year, the population had risen to 1,700.

By 1852 Holland had seven stores, two hotels, a bakery, and shops for a tinsmith, jeweler, tailor, machinist and wagon maker. The close-knit nature of the community and its collective enterprise was reflected by the fact that Holland and its own community-owned sailing ship, the A.E. Knickerbocker, which transported goods to and from Chicago.

The early Hollanders quickly proved they intended to plant deep roots. When the U.S. government refused to fund a shipping channel from Lake Michigan to Lake Macatawa, Holland residents took up picks and shovels and dug it themselves. Needing better access to the previously settled Grand Haven to the north across the Black River, they built the first River Avenue bridge over the course of one winter.

Holland was officially incorporated as a city in 1867. In 1871, the new city's prospects for economic growth and development were enhanced significantly by the announcement that two railroads would extend their tracks to Holland.

The year of 1871 also brought disaster, however. An extremely hot and dry summer led to a brush fire which, fueled by strong southwest winds, swept through Holland destroying almost the entire city. The blaze would have received national attention, had it not been overshadowed by the blaze that ravaged Chicago the same day.

The Dutch traits of perseverance and industriousness emerged from the ashes, however, and the city was quickly rebuilt.

By the late 1920s, Holland had grown both in size and economic strength, with the population still 90 percent Dutch. Community leaders saw the marketability of this singular colony with an intriguing Old World flavor and established an annual festival to capitalize on it. Tulip Time continues today as one of the country's most popular community events, drawing 500,000 people from all over the world over a ten-day period.

Nineteen-ninety-seven is a historic time to visit the Holland area. Both Holland and Zeeland are celebrating their sesquicentennials with a variety of cultural activities, including art shows, family history workshops, the unveiling of a Van Raalte monument, a time capsule, history books, historic markers and special exchanges with the Netherlands. It is easy to see that Holland has accomplished a great deal in 150 years.

Source: The Holland Museum
Photos: Holland Museum Collection at the Joint Archives of Holland