This historic home sits on land that was once a peach orchard owned by prominent businessman Aaron S. Dyckman. His 1860's residence, with its tall cupola built to watch over the orchard, still stands around the corner at the end of Chambers Street. His success in the lumber trade and peach farming, and his family's subsequent donation of land to the city of South Haven, lead to various streets and parks being named in his honor.
Dyckman sold off his peach orchard at the turn of the century, with the land being added to the City of South Haven as the Crystal Springs Addition. This home was the first to be built and according to a 1902 South Haven Daily Tribune article was completed in the Fall of 1901 at the cost of $4,000. It "consists of a 14 room house, main part finished in quarter-sawed white oak, balance in Georgia pine, some hardwood floors, furnace heat, hot and cold water upstairs and down, nickle open plumbing, electric lights, everything first-class from the foundation to the top."
Spencer Van Ostrand, a lumber jack, turned railroad worker, turned successful pharmacist had lived down the street at 525 Broadway (the corner of Broadway and Chambers, where present day Jaqua Realtors sits). His pharmacy's success enabled him to move down the street and make this grand house his family's home.
Built upon a foundation of solid limestone and locally-made yellow brick, the home has stood the test of time. Through times of war and peace, economic booms and busts, families have come and gone. The home served as a boarding house for a time and then apartments in the early 2000's. In June 2005, Larry Sneathan purchased the home and began restoring it back to its original use as a single family home. Outdated mechanical systems were replaced and plaster gave way to drywall. However, Larry's updates retained much of the original character and charm. The original Georgia pine floors were lovingly removed piece by piece, planed until smooth, restained, and reinstalled. The fire place tile, mantle and surrounding quarter-sawn oak woodwork are the original mentioned in the 1902 newspaper article. Some of the doors, moulding, and baseboards required replacing and were salvaged from the 1913 Central High School along Broadway St before it was converted into contemporary lofts in 2006.
In 2009, after years of work, the Sneathans relocated due to a work assignment and were forced to sell their labor of love. A subsequent owner converted the attic into the third floor loft, removing wallpapered plaster, whitewashing the beadboard, and commissioning a local artist to adorn several walls with murals of South Haven scenery. The home was named the Sunset Victorian Retreat and made available as a weekly vacation rental. Its current owners who purchased the home in 2016 continue to honor the home's history and lovingly care for the property.
Dyckman sold off his peach orchard at the turn of the century, with the land being added to the City of South Haven as the Crystal Springs Addition. This home was the first to be built and according to a 1902 South Haven Daily Tribune article was completed in the Fall of 1901 at the cost of $4,000. It "consists of a 14 room house, main part finished in quarter-sawed white oak, balance in Georgia pine, some hardwood floors, furnace heat, hot and cold water upstairs and down, nickle open plumbing, electric lights, everything first-class from the foundation to the top."
Spencer Van Ostrand, a lumber jack, turned railroad worker, turned successful pharmacist had lived down the street at 525 Broadway (the corner of Broadway and Chambers, where present day Jaqua Realtors sits). His pharmacy's success enabled him to move down the street and make this grand house his family's home.
Built upon a foundation of solid limestone and locally-made yellow brick, the home has stood the test of time. Through times of war and peace, economic booms and busts, families have come and gone. The home served as a boarding house for a time and then apartments in the early 2000's. In June 2005, Larry Sneathan purchased the home and began restoring it back to its original use as a single family home. Outdated mechanical systems were replaced and plaster gave way to drywall. However, Larry's updates retained much of the original character and charm. The original Georgia pine floors were lovingly removed piece by piece, planed until smooth, restained, and reinstalled. The fire place tile, mantle and surrounding quarter-sawn oak woodwork are the original mentioned in the 1902 newspaper article. Some of the doors, moulding, and baseboards required replacing and were salvaged from the 1913 Central High School along Broadway St before it was converted into contemporary lofts in 2006.
In 2009, after years of work, the Sneathans relocated due to a work assignment and were forced to sell their labor of love. A subsequent owner converted the attic into the third floor loft, removing wallpapered plaster, whitewashing the beadboard, and commissioning a local artist to adorn several walls with murals of South Haven scenery. The home was named the Sunset Victorian Retreat and made available as a weekly vacation rental. Its current owners who purchased the home in 2016 continue to honor the home's history and lovingly care for the property.
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Citizen Biography
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Biography of Spencer Van Ostrand
A History of Van Buren County Michigan - 1912
Whatever may be said of native gifts, inherent traits and hereditary characteristics in determining a man's course in life, no thoughtful and observant person can deny the force of circumstances in the same connection, which not infrequently bend every qualification a man has in accordance with their requirements. His situation and surroundings made S. Van Ostrand, of South Haven, a student of medicine in his youth and early manhood, and circumstances afterward veered him from his contemplated professional career and made him a merchant and promoter.
Mr. Van Ostrand is a New Yorker by nativity, and was born in the town of Rose, Wayne county, in that state, on December 20, 1844. His parents, Dr. and Sarah (Tuller) Van Ostrand, were also natives of New York, the former born at Sennett, Cayuga county, and the latter a Wolcott in Oswego county. The father lived to the age of eighty-four and the mother to that of fifty years. Their son Spencer Van Ostrand, was the first born of their six children.
The father was a physician and obtained his professional training at the Geneva (New York) Medical College, being graduated from that institution under F. H. Hamilton, of world-wide celebrity. Dr. Van Ostrand served three years in the First Michigan Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics during the Civil war, and after his release from that engagement returned to Albion, Calhoun county, this state. There he was busily occupied in a large general practice of his profession for a number of years, but about ten years before his death he was appointed examining surgeon in the regular army of the United States and assigned to duty at Yankton, South Dakota. He then moved to that city and there he passed the remainder of his life in faithful attention to his duties to the end.
Before the Civil war he was a strong Abolitionist and a devoted worker against the curse of human slavery in this country. As such he rendered very efficient service to the cause of freedom for the slaves as a division superintendent of the famous "Underground Railroad," through the aid of which a great many Southern slaves escaped from their involuntary servitude to Canada, where numbers of them became citizens of approved demeanor and some persons of consequence and influence. He joined the Republican party when it was founded and always adhered to it firmly.
Mr. Van Ostrand, the son, lived at home with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age, and, with a view to making a physician of himself, studied medicine under the tuition of his father. But instead of entering on the practice of his profession he became a lumberman in South Haven, and followed that business for about two years. He then clerked in a drug store for five years, after which he opened a general store at Kibbie, this county, where he was also postmaster and agent for the Michigan Central Railroad for a period of ten years. At the end of that time he returned to South Haven and began an enterprise in the drug trade which he is still conducting, and has been ever since.
In 1902, in conjunction with Dr. A. C. Runyan, he organized the Light, Fuel and Power Company of the city, which was later reorganized as the South Haven Gas Company, and of this he has ever since been secretary and treasurer. His political faith and support are given to the Democratic party, and he is an energetic and effective worker for its success, although not himself desirous of any of the honors or emoluments it has to bestow, as his various business interests occupy all his time and claim all his energies except what are required for the ordinary duties of citizenship, and these he never neglects or gives half-hearted attention.
Mr. Van Ostrand was married on August 22, 1867, to Miss Fanny H. Overy. She was born near the historic old city of Hastings, England, and is a daughter of Charles and Harriet (Wood) Overy, who were born, reared, educated and married in England, and remained in the country until they reached middle age. They then came to the United States and located in Calhoun county, near Albion, Michigan, where the father died at the age of fifty-four and the mother is still living, being now ninety-four years old. Mrs. Van Ostrand was the second born of their six children, four of whom are living.
Mr. and Mrs. Ostrand have had five children. All the members of the family enjoy in a marked degree the regard and good will of the whole community, and are admired throughout the county for their genuine worth and the elevated character of their citizenship. They are earnest supporters of all commendable projects involving the growth and improvement of their home city, and manifest in the most helpful and practical way their deep interest in the welfare of the county in which they live and all it's residents, and the people esteem them accordingly.
Mr. Van Ostrand is a New Yorker by nativity, and was born in the town of Rose, Wayne county, in that state, on December 20, 1844. His parents, Dr. and Sarah (Tuller) Van Ostrand, were also natives of New York, the former born at Sennett, Cayuga county, and the latter a Wolcott in Oswego county. The father lived to the age of eighty-four and the mother to that of fifty years. Their son Spencer Van Ostrand, was the first born of their six children.
The father was a physician and obtained his professional training at the Geneva (New York) Medical College, being graduated from that institution under F. H. Hamilton, of world-wide celebrity. Dr. Van Ostrand served three years in the First Michigan Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics during the Civil war, and after his release from that engagement returned to Albion, Calhoun county, this state. There he was busily occupied in a large general practice of his profession for a number of years, but about ten years before his death he was appointed examining surgeon in the regular army of the United States and assigned to duty at Yankton, South Dakota. He then moved to that city and there he passed the remainder of his life in faithful attention to his duties to the end.
Before the Civil war he was a strong Abolitionist and a devoted worker against the curse of human slavery in this country. As such he rendered very efficient service to the cause of freedom for the slaves as a division superintendent of the famous "Underground Railroad," through the aid of which a great many Southern slaves escaped from their involuntary servitude to Canada, where numbers of them became citizens of approved demeanor and some persons of consequence and influence. He joined the Republican party when it was founded and always adhered to it firmly.
Mr. Van Ostrand, the son, lived at home with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age, and, with a view to making a physician of himself, studied medicine under the tuition of his father. But instead of entering on the practice of his profession he became a lumberman in South Haven, and followed that business for about two years. He then clerked in a drug store for five years, after which he opened a general store at Kibbie, this county, where he was also postmaster and agent for the Michigan Central Railroad for a period of ten years. At the end of that time he returned to South Haven and began an enterprise in the drug trade which he is still conducting, and has been ever since.
In 1902, in conjunction with Dr. A. C. Runyan, he organized the Light, Fuel and Power Company of the city, which was later reorganized as the South Haven Gas Company, and of this he has ever since been secretary and treasurer. His political faith and support are given to the Democratic party, and he is an energetic and effective worker for its success, although not himself desirous of any of the honors or emoluments it has to bestow, as his various business interests occupy all his time and claim all his energies except what are required for the ordinary duties of citizenship, and these he never neglects or gives half-hearted attention.
Mr. Van Ostrand was married on August 22, 1867, to Miss Fanny H. Overy. She was born near the historic old city of Hastings, England, and is a daughter of Charles and Harriet (Wood) Overy, who were born, reared, educated and married in England, and remained in the country until they reached middle age. They then came to the United States and located in Calhoun county, near Albion, Michigan, where the father died at the age of fifty-four and the mother is still living, being now ninety-four years old. Mrs. Van Ostrand was the second born of their six children, four of whom are living.
Mr. and Mrs. Ostrand have had five children. All the members of the family enjoy in a marked degree the regard and good will of the whole community, and are admired throughout the county for their genuine worth and the elevated character of their citizenship. They are earnest supporters of all commendable projects involving the growth and improvement of their home city, and manifest in the most helpful and practical way their deep interest in the welfare of the county in which they live and all it's residents, and the people esteem them accordingly.
