history of how and how long was founded in eight team forty seven by albertus the role to be in a group of sixteen dutch settlers  matter of fact where we're standing is your original market plots six acres where the original city hall and farmer's market was in a still the center of the city every summer on friday nights there are concerts here with various performers and various bands of morning and even as we stand here you look across the square you see the city hall behind you and to your left behind you on the next corner is a hauen historical museum theme here with sixty of his followers he originally emigrated to this country to avoid religious persecution he was a minister his ideas is far is how to worship varied with those of the state church so one of the reasons they immigrated was so they could practice religion as a perceived to be important and to do that in freedom with no encroachments on the part of the state and of course tool time is a natural  offshoot when you were dutch the community was founded in eight hundred forty seven but to all of time wasn't started until nineteen twenty nine a local school teacher said you know we need to celebrate our dutch heritage we're good to go oh ok i'm  continuously ever since and has become one of the twenty best known international festivals they tell me in the world and we host approximately a half a million visitors every tool  it is interesting to reflect on how to of time got so well known in such a small town well at one time there was a local company called the holland furnace company that was a very successful very prosperous company that was the world's largest installer a furnace and we now oh tough network television at that time they head a weekly network radio program on the c b s radio network that broadcast throughout the entire country and during tulip time they used to bring in the rock stars and the famous actors and actresses of the time to do the broadcast right from the r ray and george raft right here in holland michigan broadcast the the tulip time parades to the entire nation to talk about downtown h you think back this hotel was built in one thousand and twenty five when holland was a relatively small town what is a major six story hotel doing in a little town like  well it was put up by the holland furnace company to house their guests and their sales people when they came to town as a matter of fact i'm told that the hotel lost money at one time there are no fewer than eight different residential furniture manufacturing companies and when you say why furniture manufacturing well number one michigan was almost entirely a first growth hardwoods force at that time so you had very inexpensive raw materials secondly you a dutch craftsman who enjoyed working in wood and had woodworking skills i don't maybe came from making wooden shoes for so many hundreds of years and they were people that took pride in what they did so they sold they made excellent furniture an i'm your left once we get past the next light you will see the last standing of those eight furniture for the factories it's now been converted into the hauen rescue mission and interestingly enough all those companies are almost all gone matter of fact the only company making residential furniture in the area and you maurice howard miller clock company manufactures  both residential furniture and clocks what happened well we ran out of cheap hard wood at the same time with the growth of other industries and especially automotive manufacturing which were much higher pain industries the furniture industry could no longer compete because furniture making is a rather labor intensive product and so the furniture industry moves south first of all for inexpensive wood in inexpensive labor and now most of your residential furniture is not even manufactured here any united states is migrated offshore to such places as vietnam china and thailand but we still do have a very important dimension of furniture making three of the five largest office furniture companies in the united states are all located here within a twenty five mile radius and that would be the heyworth corporation located here in holland herman miller furniture and steel case who i am told is not all of the largest in the united states but the largest in the world and they're located twenty five miles away in grand rapids and there are many other institutional office furniture manufacturers as well in the area  and just ahead of you you have watched a train go by and i have nothing to tell you about that it hahaha watch your language we're on television yeah ok as we get up to the next block we will be turning a corner here and will be called driving down what i like to call sculpture boulevard and on both your left in your life right side you will find a number of very arrestee in brightly painted sculptures and as we drive down this wall of art i want you to look at what they are made of and see if you see things that might look like all engine camshafts or barrels and truck springs and things like that they're coming up right here on your lap on both sides of the street plastic ok here we are largest recycle errors of scrap materials in the state of michigan one of the owners in his retirement was walking through the yard who knows he might have been walking right through there we looked at him and he said that looks like it could be a sculpture and so on his retirement he became a sculptor of sorts with some of these very very interesting he was originally on his way to west cons but he found this site with the water and said this is where i want to settle with my people and that first winter was a very hard winter i am told that the death rate was so high that one of the first bit buildings they built was an orphanage because over fifty percent of those settlers died that first people who came with fifty six there were sixty people in all and they were soon joined by many others but the good news is that they never had to use your phonied as an orphan each the community open there are there are many of these children and they are all incorporated in the remaining family and that strong sense of community runs seven miles from east to west and opens on the lake michigan as we look down the lake here you will see a lot of very lovely homes and one of the questions that was once asked on the tour and that is what does it cost to live on late macintosh well i'll give you an idea they talk about lots in terms of our front foot which is one foot wide on the lake itself now you probably would like at least  hundred feet and so you take that hundred foot wide lot and you multiply that by five or six thousand dollars a foot so you have a lot that runs i half a million to six hundred thousand dollars and all by the way then you have to build a home on it so i hope you saved a little money but you know what it's  that is a bargain if instead you want to live on lake michigan it's ten dollars or front foot so if you want a hundred foot lot you're looking at a million dollars and of course when you have a million dollar lot you probably aren't going to put a twenty thousand dollar home on it either anyway as you look down the lake eyre you go look straight west about seven miles and that is where the lake empties into lake michigan and is also the route that been rolled lee and his followers took when they you know you're assuming they came by car i'm sure early spyro road well they didn't even have roads everything most transportation was by boat so they came via lake michigan and they got to the harbor mouth and you think all there was a channel there wasn't there no there was a sandbox so everything that came into the community had to be unloaded from boats under the sandbar reloaded the smaller boats and taken six miles up to this area where the city was originally started maintain it for themselves for many years until the federal government finally put in the expensive system we have now followed shortly after that in one of the reasons at the experience and you are chip these were not people who are necessarily skilled in accustomed to farm in outdoor work i mean these night have been people who have been townspeople all their lives so you can imagine the challenges of coming and finding this heavily forested site that had to  the trees and not only to be cut down but the stumps had to be cleared out so that they could do and farming and hunting for food as well so i would like to speculate they learned a whole new set of skills very rapidly or they didn't last very long now we talked about when raul t and his in the settlers landing in this area you'll see straight ahead of us a wonderful school sure of a family a dutch family that might have been one of those original sixty settlers dressed in period costumes and to the left you see the outline of a ship that was reminiscent of the ship that carried them across the atlantic so they landed in this area and th along where you see the highways building as well this also happened to be where the ottawa tribe of indians was living and they had purchased their land from the federal government and had lived here for many years but the ottawa indians were the first snow birds but they did it in reverse they came here to live in the winter during the summer they moved further north to the harbor springs petoskey area because the honeymoon the fish sheen was much better up there so they summered up north and for them holland was down south for the winter months well the dutch many who are arrived during that summer assume that these indians had migrated north and were no longer going to live in holland so they took many of the things that were left behind like ten whole number of other things misfire would use incorporating their own buildings and much to their surprise and dismay the original residents came back in october wondering where all their possessions were so again you just another example of all the mixing of cultures and home port is to communicate when you have diversity they compensated the indians in the indians settle elsewhere in michigan but you notice i pointed out the age she heinz plant that's one of our oldest industries  i will build a pickle processing plant here and this plant now not only processes all of heinz pickles it also makes heinz the shire saw us a number of their other products such is their jack daniels barbecue sauce and vinegar employs about two hundred sixty people a year round and that's doubled during the green season in holland when they hire about two hundred college students now as you well know pickle processing has a distinctive odor to it that permeates the area and i had a friend who's who dated a girl who worked there during the summer to pair way through college and she said you know i've come home from the night shift and i take a shower i take another shower i take another shower and there is no way that i could get rid of the smell to which her boyfriend turned to me and her and said phil you have no idea what it's like to kiss a pickle we're going to notice is that they have been happily married for forty some years now this intersection later in the week is part of six a point how close a few that are yeah there's one and there are six more know where white ones are just take a good look at them close your eyes very tightly are you all squinting you think technicolor because that's what it will be we do our best to welcome you but we do not have any hotlines that control the way of the weather here but we do plant six different varieties of tulips some of them early bloom means some of them late blooming so there is diversity here we are coming to the kapan house which is an example of not only an outstanding museum it is really a very authentic to its period it was the finest hole in holland and they see in western michigan want it was built in eight hundred seventy four by isaac upon who was holland's leading and a very energetic citizen on its largest industry and he also had a family of eleven children at which point his wife died figures doesn't he proceeded to marry his housekeeper to much conversation you can imagine in a small town and had five more children now even with my trouble with math i come up with sixteen children seems to me it gives a whole new definition to the word energetic don't anyway why is there such an authentic home here some of the original colors much of the original furniture it has one of the finest selection displays of quality west michigan furniture anywhere  because two of his youngest daughters never married they were born in this house they live there their entire lives and died in this house the net result is there was very change to the original house so when they died in one thousand nine hundred eighty we had this wonderful historic structure and around the corner you have the sutler's house what she is a great example of the of home that a modest working one man's family would a lived in in the hundred fifty s much as i hate to lose any of you you're a wonderful audience i do encourage you to get off it is  or if you're going to be here for a few days you may want to drive back and spend more time here because those white tickets enable you to get into the here any time during the week to go around the corner settlers house was not built at this site it was moved here to be in close proximity to the museum but this would be a typical residence in the eight hundred fifty s and eight hundred sixty s just one step above a log cabin if you looked in the backyard you saw the outhouse and so that would be a very typical residence in holland at that point in time this particular one was one of the few homes that survived holland's fire of eighteen seventy one now we talked about isaac upon being holland's first mare it was also holland's lead at that time holland was a town of less than five thousand people and his tannery employed four hundred in ten people at its peak so who employed almost ten percent of the entire population of the city no wonder they elected him to also want to mention market plots is set up in that area right there during the week i don't know whether it's open today but it will wonderful they have some bleachers for convenience viewing of the parades we're now coming into the hollands historic district where you're seeing some of holland's oldest homes and also some of holl  a nice five bedroom home or any mints church which one do you think was a better value burned down the city of chicago well on that same day the city of how on had a fire like the chicago fire they tell me that if across the lake and chicago's only ninety miles away as a kid as a crow flies or last you could see the illumination in the sky from the chicago fire and somebody wants to jest and that was probably the spark from the chicago fire that blew across the lake and started the holland fire i think that makes for a good story the truth is that the local farmers were burning some of their brush in it was a day with a high wind but it burns eighty percent of the city and it happened to this eighty percent of the city burned within a period of two hours so the residents many of them didn't even have an opportunity to move their value possessions out of the way of harm some of them took some of the smaller possessions and were able to bury them in the sand and protect them that way as astrue of all survivors they recovered and built back bigger and better than ever which leads me to a conversation on the city and immigration here in holland michigan for many years we were a very homogeneous dutch community and it was a good place to raise a family but it was pretty boring it was so conservative that if you needed gas in your car you better gas up on saturday night because on sunday you might not find a gas station open and and by the way you didn't ever mow your lawn on sunday and there were signs on the tennis courts that said no tennis playing on sunday we have a gentleman here who said you know you didn't mow your lawn on sunday because that was working and you didn't work on the seventh day of the well i like to say we have gone from being the end of the earth to the center of the year over the years we have had two additional waves of immigration the area has a strong agricultural industry which attracted a substantial number of hispanic people who came as migrant worker here workers during the forty's and the fifty's and they said this and brick that came from a local graveyard and you'll find many of the older homes and commercial all of commercial buildings in the community built of by these were built rental homes but you talk about quality look at the beveled corner the arches over the windows only in holland would they build rental properties with that attention to detail and quality but getting back to my story the hispanic community settled here in the fifty's and they brought a sense of on and a sense of knowing how to live a love of color and an energy to the city and had the same kind of work ethic that the dutch here had and fit in very well the next wave of immigrants came in the seventy's and how it is known is a city of churches and the majority of these churches sponsored vietnamese  refugee families and as you go around the town you'll find that many of the newest small and oftentimes residential businesses have been started by these immigrants that immigrated asia during that period so it is the diversity of the seasoning that each new wave of immigrants brings to this community that makes it a better place we are now approaching western seminary like to point out the apartment building here in the left called the friendship house western similary was originally founded to train ministers for the reform church which was the dutch to nomination of the albertus and royalty but it is a unique place in that it is a seminary that not only preaches and teaches but it practice what preaches that home is designed though each of those apartments how young developmentally handicapped adults who live with so many students the concept is to enable these young adults to you volved into being able to live independently as adults they're not so sure that there is an even more benefit to the seminary students who learn about people who are not like they are and prepare them better to go into a career of service as a ministry is next in weekday if you want to go through those doors behind you with the pillars on the left and you're indigent you are treated to a free meal any weekday noon joining the seminary community and there are they feel they serve approximately two hundred people from the community each week days throughout the year into hope college of college is a liberal arts college of approximately thirty two hundred students very highly regarded u s news and world report which is one of the defended of college guides ranks it is one of the top one hundred liberal arts colleges in the country it's known particularly for suffering from the sciences and it has a program of undergraduate research that involves no fewer than fifty professors and one hundred fifty students doing summer research together in many years in many areas in the sciences or graduates more science majors that go on to get a ph d s in the sciences per capita than any other college in the united states as we are coming along columbia avenue here on your left you'll see the student center followed on your right by the martha miller center for international studies that i'd like to point out before i sent her along the side in the other side of the arthur miller center it's the international student center for the college of each one of those flags represents a different country that current's hope students are coming from and it's just one of the ways that they encourage it again the correct title is a martha miller center for international education but leave it to the students stiff shorten it down and get it right they simply call it the mark next time you're right is a new concert hall that is going up well will also house a music department and you're notice the massive poured concrete almost looks over built even for a concert hall well it is about one hundred feet behind a concert hall is a road tracks with a string of hundred car freight trains going back and forth and as you can imagine freight train whistles and classical concerts don't mix very well so they have been very intentional on making a very sound proof so you probably won't have to hear the train whistles but i'm sure you'll what are the major industries in holland today well first of all if your car has a passenger visor that flips up  that was invented in holland by the prince corporation if you go home and look at a clock on your wall at one time there are five different clock companies in in the area the only one left if your car has a remote garage opener in the roof that was manufactured here if you are a member of sam's club or cosco and you buy some of those prepared foods in the frozen food section it's a good chance it came from request foods here in holland you go to the supermarket deli counter and you see boards boar's head cheeses and meats they have a major plant here in holland on your right we have the padna center for transportation you may have noticed another one of mr pad sculptures there on the right and that is where the train stopped in the bus stop that was given by the patmos family we're now approaching united states now as you look at it across the ponds here you say that's a nice looking modest when will there well distances are deceiving that when mel is one hundred and twenty five feet tall and as you look at the blades on the windmill each pair of blades on that when mel what you figure must be made out of balsawood or something very like each pair of those blades ways over three times so as you see the windmill operating and revolving that represents almost seven tons of are very fond of there are nine hundred windmills that are still in the netherlands and they are not quick to part with one it's a matter of fact it took ten years of negotiation to convince them to part with one one mil to share with their dutch brothers and sisters here in holland michigan and that when mel was disassembled brick by brick and board by board and reassembled here in holland michigan but it's not only a part of dutch history you're also going to find evidence of some of the very significant european history if you look carefully you will see the bullet holes in marks in the wood and on and on the bricks from the battles of world war two that were fought in another i am told that it was a place where at least wants it concealed resist dutch resistance fight but you notice i will tell you that i am told that which means that i do not believe i do not make that a guarantee you may just be a story this is not only a windmill village reproduction along with bridge and canals wonderful tool of plants and you can claim you can there are tours of the windmill the windmill actually grinds grain so you can purchase flour that was ground here in the windmill and i'm told it's a tremendous bargain because they tell me it costs more to grind it than they charge to sell it  and there are trolleys sick come along every fifteen minutes so you a plenty of time to get off you can either do it hard and you can pick it up right here and you can either do that or if you're going to be here for a few days you may choose to come back by car the ticket you received when you got your arm bands have stubs on them that permit you to get into any time throughout the week in addition to an excellent public school system there are also a substantial number of charter schools and there are not one not two but three parochial school system cabins to house people but that was their continuing commitment to education how it is also very popular place to retire in a matter of fact money magazine identified it as one of the five best small cities in the country to retire and now you're probably scratching your head and say why would somebody retire in a community that got one hundred fifty inches of snow this past winter well there are a lot of other things that make for a good life and living in holland is a wonderful life one of them is facility on your right you see freedom village which is a retirement community with shops you know a beauty shop bar barber shop and several hundred very high quality apartments with a continuum of care for the rest of one's life i pointed out the war friend  hotel which is a senior living community there are excellent medical facilities in the area but it still other things the cultural life the community life  the college has a substantial number of lectures concerts music throughout the year and outstanding athletic program matter of fact if you're considering moving to holland your retirement and taking in the whole college basketball games you need to put your name on the waiting list now because with a basketball facility that seats fractionally three thousand people there is a waiting list of up to two years to buy season ticket also find that many people who perhaps came here regionally to go to school come back here and retire in this year and leave to add to both its diversity and the quality of community there are some of our best volunteers matter of fact the majority of the people that are tulip time probably got our retirees that have come from freedom village  are coming around on our right we'll be stopping at the city to look gardens which will have some wonderful photo opportunities for you will be an arrest scene we have been doing these to will be stopping here for about five minutes and you do need to get back on this bus and i think will ring the bell when we need freedom come back in if you like to get out and walk around  we are going to be going back down across in a street which is the downtown area and it's a very dynamic downtown area interestingly enough that is very much the exception rather than the rule in small states cities of the united states where a mall will come in and it will really replace the leader said this is not going to happen to us we had a couple who had a major industry in holland the prince corp elson ed prince said that a little skeptically and of course it does snow in downtown howard but there are lead under the streets and sidewalks of all of downtown holland one hundred and twenty five miles just like this downtown holland during the winter you have almost as much traffic because it's a wonderful place to jog it's a wonderful place to walk your children in your p i suspect that they put it there so that the ice cream cone store next door could sell ice cream during january february we're now approaching the old pillar church this magnificent white clapboard church on the right as we get across the intersection here and i want to show if you look up at the top of the church the weathervane has a rooster on by handsome greek columns here now again to put in perspective this church was built in eight hundred fifty one in a community that was started just four years earlier and look carefully at those pillars you can see horizontal lines about every thirty six inches and you've see of iesus between these handsome solid wo columns one barrel on top with another during the week downstairs there are a lot of historical dutch artifacts that you may want to walk through and see it through and that is open weekdays every day you know these dutch services were no small thing originally they ran three hours in the morning and sometimes they had an eye afternoon services well i don't know about you but i have a little trouble after forty five minutes staying awake and they dealt with it i put in the women and children on one side and the minimum the other and the other thing they did is the women generally had ruled up in their her chiefs in their  pockets strong dutch performance that they gave to the children midway through the service and i you've been with me for almost a long and so i want to make sure that i hold your complete attention so i have a nice region as well now we're again coming you know the scene you hope college did i don't believe did anybody in the previous part of the tour talk about the vena cause and brick ok we can we cover that right all right and you'll notice take a look on your left here there are some other examples of that we talked a professors the best selling college psychology textbook is written was written by a whole colleague psychology professor by the name of dave myers several the english professors have had books cetera have made the new york times bestselling book list the most recent one would have been by heather sellers in title the men and i in the little black dress  i graduated from hope college in one thousand sixty five went back and just check to see how much my tuition was nine hundred and fifty dollars not a semester for the entire year now to wish an and i mean boarding room and books to that is approaching thirty nine thousand dollars a year when i went to school working summers vacations and part time i could almost pay my college tuition i don't know any summer jobs that pay thirty nine