Progress report through end of summer, 2010

In this 1900 view of the Black Lake lakefront East of the Hotel Ottawa, the pumphouse and its tall smoke stack are not evident. The cottages at the left survive to this day; however, the railroad freight dock at the right, and the boat houses in the foreground do not.

In March of 2010, the Pumphouse Advisory Committee, consisting of Dan, Nancy, Skip, Joyce, all from Ottawa Beach, and John Scholtz of the Ottawa County Parks and Recreation Department, was guided through a day and a half strategic planning session by museum consultant Tim Chester. To quote from the resulting document, "the strategic plan addresses the recommended process for preserving the pumphouse building, planning and constructing the museum, exhibition planning, and governance / administration".

The Strategic plan, as presented to the Ottawa County Parks and Recreation Commissioners at their June, 2010 meeting, is a developmental and operational plan for the museum as a project of the newly formed Historic Ottawa Beach Society. The Strategic Plan clearly sets forth objectives for the museum within several areas including (1.)Creation of an authorizing environment, (2.) Creating and managing operational capacity, and (3.) Creating and sustaining public value. Within each of these three areas, individual objectives are listed, followed by strategies for achieving the objective.

At the Ottawa County Parks and Recreation commission July meeting, the commissioners demonstrated their support for the museum project by agreeing to fund 2/3rds of a museum architectural study for the pump house building. The other 1/3rd of the cost of this study would come from the Ottawa Beach Historic Committee.

The purpose of the study "is to conduct the necessary architectural design work to produce detailed design plans, cost estimates, and graphics for proposed improvements" to the pump house building and "the site surrounding it, for a museum highlighting the natural and cultural history of historic Ottawa Beach." (Quotes from OCP&R's Request for Proposal for bid to be distributed September 10, 2010 by the Ottawa County Parks and Recreation Department).

Concurrently, the Ottawa Beach Historic Committee is moving ahead with their objectives as outlined in the strategic plan. By-laws have been created for the new Historic Ottawa Beach Society. Legal counsel for the Ottawa Beach Historic Committee is filing an application for status as a registered 501 (c)3 non-profit entity. The Society will also apply for a license to solicit funds from the State of Michigan, as part of its commitment to the museum project.

Formation of the museum advisory committee.

In the Fall of 2008, contact was established between John Scholtz of the Ottawa County Parks Commission and Dan Aument, President of the Ottawa Beach Historic Committee. From this discussion, the Ottawa Beach Pump House Museum Advisory Committee was formed.

In June of 2009, the Museum Advisory Committee met with Stephen Rosselet, a professional garden and landscape designer. It was our intention to have him create some concept designs of the building and grounds that would be useful. Mr. Rosselet immediately saw the possibilities of the pump house building and its location on the Lake Macatawa lakefront and he wasted no time in making suggestions.

We then contacted Tim Chester, the former head of the Grand Rapids Public Museum who is now a museum consultant. As we had done with Mr. Rosselet, we gave Mr. Chester a tour of the Pump House building and grounds, then we all sat down for an hour of discussion. Mr. Chester recommended we as a group have an all day strategic planning session.

Legal justification for the Pumphouse Museum

In July of 2005, an agreement was reached between the WMPA - the Ottawa Beach property owners non-profit corporation and the Michigan DNR, Ottawa County and the Ottawa County Road Commission regarding aspects of the undeveloped park lands at Ottawa Beach which were platted in 1886 as Parks numbered one through 12. This Stipulation and Order Regarding Park 12 Parcels states in legal language the terms and benefits all the entities agreed to. On page nine of the Stipulation Agreement is the paragraph headed PARK 12 (C) - HISTORIC PUMP HOUSE. Here are several sentences from the paragraph which follows:
"Ottawa County shall develop as provided in the Master Plan, subject to the following provisions.Ottawa County recognizes the historical significance of the Pump House to the Cottagers, WMPA, and the general public. Ottawa County shall restore and maintain the Pump House, generally developing it into a... museum. Ottawa County shall then lease the ... building to the Ottawa Beach Historic Commission...."

History of the pumphouse building

In about 1885, officers of the Chicago and West Michigan Railway agreed to form a corporation and purchase land at Ottawa Beach for the purpose of building a resort hotel and dividing some of the remaining land into lots to be sold to individuals for the construction of summer homes. By the summer of 1886,the land had been purchased and the hotel had been built. Click here to see a picture of this first hotel and note the windmill and water tower visible in the right rear of the hotel. Prior to the relocation and expansion of the hotel on the Black Lake lakefront, the water for the hotel was drawn up from a single well.

in 1901, the railway planned to expand the hotel and constructed the pump house building to house the coal-fired electric generators and water pump. Above is a rare picture of the then-new pumphouse with its tall smoke stack. To the right of the building stands a stem powered pile driver on a raft which was used to place pilings for boat docks and waterside boat houses. Also note the telephone pole in the left foreground with multiple lines going out to the hotel.

Early pictures of the pump house are rare as, after all, it was a building built to hide from view processes of little or no interest to the general public. Many early Ottawa Beach picture postcards focus on the hotel, channel, lighthouse or cottages and rarely include the pump house. In the above postcard showing the boat livery on the East lawn of the hotel (roughly where Parkside Marina is today), the tall smoke stack and roof of the pump house may be seen in the distance at the far right.
At some point in the 10's or 20's, the hotel and neighborhood cottages were connected to the local power grid. The coal fired generator was removed from the pump house, but the water pump remained in operation. Consumers Power and later Service Screen Company operated the water pump which continued to supply drinking water to many of the neighborhood cottages for almost 50 more years. With the arrival of Holland city water in the 1970's, the old water pump and the pump house building were idled.
In the late 1980's, the Ottawa Beach Historic Committee preserved the pump house by repairing rotten roof trusses and replacing the original slate roof with a new roof of asphalt shingles. With the addition of Historic Ottawa Beach to the national and state registries of historic places, the realization of the pump house museum was one step closer.

Purpose of this blog

To inform all interested parties in the progress of the creation of the Ottawa Beach Pumphouse Museum. We will write about the following areas:
1. The history of the pumphouse building itself.
2. The consent agreement neighborhood property owners reached with the county in which the county agrees to turn the pumphouse into a museum.
3. The appointment by the county of an advisory committee to plan the museum.
4. Goals, objectives and actions of the advisory committee.