and we want to welcome you to a very special show today on holland's city television and this is one of the unique places we've filmed often in the past but in holland's immediate neighborhood we have this jewel called the felt mansion and today we're out here and i'm with my dear friend wendy wigger who has been on television for the last ten twelve years and all of you will know over immediately but we're out here at the felt mansion with one of our favorite people and that is peggy who is just she's done everything out here and she's the person who is put it together and she's you can tell on her face she never stops being more more enthused about this show today we're going to be sharing about the young companies the upcoming season about all the changes that are happening about the excitement of the future which i always com here in amazement but with that we're excited to start down this path of exploring the felt mention in two thousand and twelve and it's wonderful that amazes me patti because as we were talking before we came on air here i remember one of the first interviews i know you if you do right but i remember interviewing you coming on here great spirit as usual and saying you know we're going to have our yard sale still raise some money to start to try to restore this place in yes they're like i don't know what she's doing but i know that woman can do anything and we have we have tried everything and it has evolved and thank goodness i'm not doing more yard sales because that was a lot of work and the end you start to feel like i could've written out the check and say we also know you get to that yeah so i think we way or another to us and and it's so it's really truly a community and i love that about it because people are invested in a very tangible way if a senior citizen for example comes out and does some wood work refinish and some wood work that person will take their grandchildren their children and i over here when they'll say i did this part yeah you know and that there's a really neat there because her is ownership on the part of the community  but you know we started in my husband and i found the mansion boarded up and kind of dilapidated in two thousand and one had been the glock didn't so here we are in two thousand and twelve yeah i mean it's been over ten years project officially started in two thousand and two two thousand and two and i think that's important because as we're saying we're here at the felt mansion we don't want to assume people know where it is what it is and i you know if you can share what your role is your title or you will hear and then maybe even give us just that little synopsis of how you went from two thousand and one stumble and from one across his grand property that was boarded up and we were at today and you know it was just i don't know if it's coincidence or are pretty my husband and i decided on our anniversary in june of two thousand and one to go hiking in saugatuck state park and we came out into and he said oh i do so cross country ski there and so we came out and he said let's see if the prison buildings are still there so we hit down into the park and there was to me of course the most beautiful mansion in the world and we you know it was all boarded up and the we were fifteen feet high and there was fence what's like on fencing around the top what is the story with this well i wanted my my husband didn't want to hear my husband will now call him chicken he didn't want to break in so we went through the proper channels and give found out that it was owned by like tom township and so i really sort of pest them to get inside and they had by that time owned it for about six years and really had kind of despaired of doing anything that they weren't allowed to use any private enterprise because of a covenant that they had with the state so they had bought it from the state of michigan and you know so they couldn't turn it into a bed and breakfast and have someone really set or a rough steps or anything and so they had really gotten to a point where they despaired of you know what are we going to do with this they didn't really want to use public tax money for well i came along and finally the township manager allowed me to go through the mansion i was doing an article for michigan history making and so it allowed me to go through and i just fell in love with it all the more once i got inside and after a weekend i submitted huge fifty page proposal and said this is what i think we can do as a community and we can leave that open and public and i owned by the township and he said well you know that's fine but we have zero dollars and most people at that point would have walked away and if i was smart i'm willing to i'm not that for free if she fails word no worse off than we were before while i didn't succeed in the community project succeeded and you know hundreds of people have been involved and when i said to the board in those first few months some day we'll have it rented out every weekend for weddings and events they laughed me out of the room i mean it really you have to picture how bad the place it was really a ridiculous proposition to think that it would ever be beautiful enough for that and it is and we are we're we're rented out you know most weekends at least one of several weekends we have two or three events and i think that's part of what we're going to have a chance to kind of explore is kind of that where you were and where you're at today and maybe even a little bit of the future frank and i have been so lucky to be part of the journey because like i said i remember the first interview and i remember you saying well then why have the scariest only want people  come on out and then we're going to sell these items in the money's going to go to help to restore this and then we've been here often and we've seen kind of that evolution of new paint new this new that  chapel new everything i mean it's just been phenomenal and i love that you say we're lucky enough to be part of the journey because you really were part of the irony because everyone that's what i love about the project is that everyone gives a little bit and your part in the project was helping us to promote well so as you know as you promoted it more people heard about it and as they heard about it they came out and then you know that's how we've grown because someone comes out meeting on the come out for tour but then they go back to their real lives and their nieces getting married and they say well have you heard of the felt meus should they do weddings out there and that's how it grows yeah and then as weddings became more popular that without revenue stream and then we were able to restore more of that and that made it to what was more popular again and that's how the entire thing went it just evolved on its own through word of mouth and and i think through see anding now you know my philosophy is that we send out positive and you get positive return you know we did it with the best of intentions and certainly made mistakes along the way who doesn't yes and but learned hopefully this how this mansion and to sit on this for the church and be in this atmosphere is stepping i mean it's just starting to be here now at christmas time this is a very special time of year and for the audience see when and what does take place out here this fall and we have so many things happening and really what i think is neat is something for everyone all great we have our fashion show that's going to kick off the season and that's called our season our scene for the season is it's all about the drama and what started that was that i was given a beautiful ball gown that belonged to agnes feld is from nine need restoration so we actually don't have it here today it's being restored but it will be on display during our tool tour times and as i was thinking about i jokingly said to someone well you know it's going to be all about the dress and that's what started that oh so one day i typed in it's all about the dress into the search engine just to see what ideas maybe i can find some graphics to use that kind of thing and the name vicky teal came up i didn't know who dress is such famous people as joy roberts allez the best taylor when when she was alive she traveled around for twenty five years with a lot of the best tailor she does kate hudson goldie hawn i mean why are a famous people when you watch the red carpet several dresses are always vicki teal dresses so i found out that vicki teal wrote a book called it's all about the dress that's why her name popped up so i ordered the book i went onto her website called her a job and said we're having a fashion show and i'm wondering if it will narrate it and she said where are you want to i sit in michigan and she said her son lives in michigan happened if the things that have that hasn't happened as are coming together vailable for this there are and i want and i'm not just saying this to promote my own event but they are selling like crazy yes so i really encourage people to call me here at the mansion and i'll have put that number up but it is six one six three three five eight nine two but if they call me they can make credit card purchases or they can send a check and then i'll tell them how to do that when is this show the show it's december one it's a saturday afternoon and it's the tickets are forty five dollars for that you get the luncheon you get of course to go through the entire mansion so you're getting a self guided tour and i will be here to answer any questions because i'm a quick course going to be at the event after the luncheon which is going to be me food wonderfully prepared food we're to going to have that on the main floor and then we're going to go up to the ballroom and we're going to have the fashion show and after the fashion show is a meet and greet with her so she is going to have her books there she's going to be willing to sign the books but she's just so greg area since such are just fun loving person i've talked with her several times i feel like we're friends already and so i think she's you know she's very out of the box when you've traveled the world with elizabeth pass yes you who you're a little bit different than west michigan and so she's going to be a new experience for us and i think that's a good thing no actually it's all of us and her fashions when things and so she's going to have some of those things some of our models are going to be wearing those so it's system to be so much and that kind of the theme for this season did it did that and you know so starting off with that and then it's probably something that's going to appeal more men are invited and we are sold some pictures to men but it's going to appeal more to women it has to do with fashion and i think it's just going to appeal we have a lot of groups of ladies w santa they can have a fried lunch we see we have a suggested donation of five dollars for best just to suggest donations of people don't have the money come up to the felt man can have lunch see santa there's it's just a fabulous fun day and we have that free of charge for that very reason because not everyone is going to be able to rent them like chanel that's another never once budget but everyone can visit the felt mansion and i see here mean it is so gorgeous and now that we've cleared some of the old scrub trees and things that were in front of the mansion you're going to be able to come around that that by the entrance to the state park there and when you make that left turn to come to the mansion it's be it's looks like something out of a courier i postcard it's laid up all white light every window all of the edge of a so it's just absolutely gorgeous i mean it every year takes my breath away and thank you and i'm the one that works on it you know what i've seen yet and still always you get a layer of snow and there's there's just nothing prettier and then one night we have the dickens character carolers out front and i thought isis  any idea how many there are in your trees have with the most yes i haven't done a final count yet but i i think it's thirty certain laws work twenty five through to get and i want to tell you that when it actually gets to christmas day i could wear a sign that says can make a guided tour of the self guided tours you'll still see everything that you would on the guided tour and all of our trees have themes that tell the history of the mansion so for example the tree behind wendy has fruit all over it and that's because shorey purse was a farm the felt mansion sat on shore acres in a state and as they grew apples and they grew peaches and they had groups they had a vineyard so that also it's really fun because even if they do miss guided tour they'll still get that history of the mansion and still enjoy beautiful trees your house tell you i think they're all beautiful i learnt to call out the trees that you have that have all the pictures of brides and grooms that have had weddings here tell us a little bit more about that because that also is well become one of the ways that you've bee thing right and so you know i like to when i talk about preservation and i talk about the people who inhabit a building there's the people who build it and first use it live in the in our case the family door felt had the mansion built and their family owned it for over twenty years yes but then there's you know all the people during the history of the whole mansion it was a seminary it was a state police post  thought family is but there's one more group and that's the future and i think in all of life but in preservation you are a steward you're not an owner bob you're a steward of everything and so everything you do has to be in mind how is this going to affect the future of this place and so one of the reasons that we do the weddings is because that's insuring our future if we didn't that business plan you know you've done a lot of nonprofits really struggle because they depend on donations from here two years and when the economy collapsed you know everybody with her including  or rentals for a time or at least smaller rentals for a time and we bounced back from that but it's part of what we ensure to so that that next generation can enjoy the felt mansion as well you know what i like about that is not only yes it's an independent revenue stream and those that get married here are going to very likely want to bring their kids back and say this is where mom and dad i got married and it just i like to assume my everyone's experiences here are positive we certainly try for that then they're going to want to share that with other people and so yeah it is it is kind of an insurance policy for the future quickly question here before we began  many weddings that were here in the past year and in the past year we had fifty two we have had fifty a year at least even in when the economy was a distended to be maybe a thursday night kind of a smaller because you could tell people were cutting back a little bit now we're all the force we share with are by far our biggest year plus the addition of the chapel which we're going to be soon you know i think that  when you look at the evolution of this places space one thing we didn't say much about in this particular episode has been the felt family themselves and in previous interviews frank and i've been delighted to be able to learn a little bit more and people come here they're going to hear more of that story or learn more whether it's self guided tour or a guided tour or a also a little bit about the family's connection because you you spoke of them obviously there's a tree right next to us that have some of the pictures of their grandchildren but tell us a little bit of that connection as well yeah so the phelps family has  you know for whatever reason after world war two they decided to get rid of the felt the felt mansion and the felt a state i think that had to do with the fact that the door fell and agnus felt had both passed away by the time so you had four adult daughters that were owning one place and we can all imagine the complications some use it more than others and everything so they sold it but they always loved it here and they said well they kept a connection they would check throughout the years and the seminary took absolutely beautiful care i think they were very happy with that that part when the seminary owned it but then the state of michigan owned it when it was part of the prison it became a state police post i think some of the they're now in their retirement you're seventy seventy eighty years old those were the grandchildren who were maybe ten at the time when they came out here for summers but wonderful memories of the place and so when they found out that i started this restoration project they came up here and they've been so supportive both by me and chilling with financial gifts but just emotionally to just being kind of a cheerleader on the sidelines and i love what i've done and i'm a historian that hard and you know i really love old houses anyway because they all of a story to tell the walls talk you know and so i i made contact with them to find out history and then we've just kept this friendship up you know i'm considered an honorary felt family member and so it's wonderful and now two of the grandchildren ellen earn ruth are coming up for the the for the fashion show through i think somewhere here and cultivating that next year plan or i never know when you go first and you know i like the thing that one thing we didn't mention and we won't i encourage just not to talk too much about it because it'll invite people to a machine you know you have to do all four math functions quickly and accurately and door felt while the average person would never know that name if you look kind of history of computing westside he is the bill gates of the eight hundred eighty s is  a hundred years later bill gates revolutionized the world with the personal computer in the eighteen eighties store felt revolutionized the world with the compt ometer yes it changed how business did business and it had not only business ramifications but even social ones because predominantly ninety nine percent of the students who learned to run it were female minute thought oh i like a typewriter and they thought that was women's work oh door felt warned them his male employees he said you better learn to use it because they're going to get so fast that he believes so in his product that they're going to replace accountants and he was off you know they get laughed at him and that's exactly what happened it was the first glass ceiling that was broken by women well when they were  they were able to get off the factory and up into the office and they could add columns faster than what their male counterparts could with pen and pen or pencil and paper and so they started to get the  that i tend to find on the tours the women love the house and the decorations and that kind of thing but men really love to hear about that because he invented not only the count down here but many other inventions he is seventy five patents by where we have the mundus play and that's really fascinating because we have one of each model that came out of and to see even the evelyn of the comp time and are over the years and you know how it just became more sophisticated all the  this particular one being one of them and they stayed in a farmhouse which used to be down there and if someone's real curious someday i can take them down there and look at the foundation all the nations down there even though the house isn't i did i've done a little archeological work on there too and then he built the carriage house and most people don't know this that territory was built in two phases one part went to grab stores and then three more garage doors were a so that was built in two stages i actually have a picture of one it was only two garage doors and that's a rare thing because he did that within the couple of years he added them to it but i've got a picture with all of them up and lays in that wow carriage house we call it a carriage house really a garage never pay a horse and buggy by that time they had automobiles yes it was really a garage the upper part of that building was where the caretakers live there's two apartments out there now the inside of the those buildings have been kind of neglected over the years and we haven't really started we're starting on the outside kind of buttoning him up they need some work on the rovs they need windows replaced so we're just starting that pri was his state oh he had a thousand acres nine hundred fifty of it are now saugatuck dune state park when you walk on the trails in the state park you're walking and the road to door felt made between us farms put an example of what the farm was like so i would like to put some of the vineyards for some of the orchards i'm not going to have a zoo back again i can't care for animals and zoos have their place but he did have a small do so we'll tell that story right you know i would i don't know where one of the teachers are here in west michigan so i would love to get one of those cages back and be able to tell that story playing out on the profits not on the property of a kid  at all different animals here fascinating yeah yeah well one of those cages as i actually am will do in the ride then so i'm going to talk to the owner of the right i'm hoping that we can get it i don't know but we'll get something if we can't get that one we'll create one that we feel that we can tell the story of it and that's what i think is the most important thing about history and even if they see that yeah well what these people did with their hobby farms in their retirement years which is really what this was you know because the felt mansion is is a beautiful place but it's also a great example of what was happening in west michigan at the time you had these industrialists from these large cities that came to west michigan because this was the midwest riviera or it was if you lived in a city the cities could get to be one hundred ten degrees you got a picture no air conditioning and you're still at least in the eighteen hundreds using horses and cities weren't always pleasant no no so you came up here we were you had the wonderful bruises that we still enjoy off lake michigan and in the roaring twenty's they built these fabulously large homes and you can see it in the old stairway goes up next to it that stairways all got slayton stone and in fact occasionally you'll see in the bed a penny in the stairway as he put a penny for each one of his grandchildren and when they would get out here they would run and find their pretty because he put a penny for the year that they were born so really fun but that grotto was a little meditation area  she was a devout catholic and so there was a little statue of mary in there and that was a little prayer place for her beautiful so that's original and i think in the future as we get that more landscaped and i think it's going to be a wedding where where they love the backdrop being a farm and a vineyard we're going to have that grotto as you spoke of then of course there's the mansion with the pond yes and the ball so there are so many different no matter what size of your group or yes what your event is there's a good place and we can actually have very large events because we put tents on the soccer field sure we had the lol class moment and they had six hundred kids here hundred juniors and seniors out here with parents and such and they had a very large event here so we can handle anything from you know you can have an intimate dinner in the dining room for sixteen people or you can have your corporate party for six hundred people in a moment we're going to be moving out of this incredible chapel that's been put on the grounds but before we move from the main house here remind us how many stories high is the facility that we're in right now well it has a full basement people don't go down there on the tour and that's because we keep all our tools and it's just a little too know it's not well let your typical basement but it is fall height which is what i have been usual for that day but then you have the main floor which we're on we're in the library right now you have the second floor and that was all bedrooms and bathrooms everywhere you go and people will be able to go in each and every room it's one of my favorite things about our tour here at the mansion i go through historic homes all the time and quite often areas are roped off  there's places you can't see no and i would want to see the whole thing yes i think the whole building tells a story and so they'll get to go on the second floor and then the third floor has a ballroom and of course they'll be able to go up there  of those rooms are also with period furnishings and yes they are and that probably the question i may asked most is you know are the furnishings original most of them are not in there's actually a reason maintain them we keep them out but we don't have something if you're replaceable yes yes yes you know that there's it's wonderful if you can be in a place like the void house in grand rapids or the my your main house where a lot of things are riginal in the but then you have a different use quite often too and it's a use with far fewer people than we have here one this is a place that's living breathing in and being enjoyed by so many in so many different ways and i think that's the way you've set it up such really puts itself for that use right and the family loves that they love the fact that people are in kids are here and people are all over and having fun and because that's what they did they were rambunctious family we have actual film of them here and their dogs are running everywhere and the kids are running you know yes it was full of life yes so when they come out here in the fall of l people are going from room to room and it's very busy and everyone's loving and enjoying it they love that so yeah so we have a lot of support there and that their pride must just grow as they see their homes did so to  speak and they have vacation homes and most of them live across the country but one in particular has a vacation home in bridgeman and they come up here and they will take friends and family and from all over up to see it  that you know because they are so prone and so glad that it yes yes yes and that we tell it isn't just an old house that's open to the public we'll tell that story of door fell in his importance in history and what a difference he made and he was one dollar for philanthropist for the errors certainly you know also made a difference and in west michigan and i like to think we keep some of that alive yeah now you were extraordinarily expertise all and can i take a look at that a little bit and explore how that came about what it's all about and for you take a moment and pause here where we get ourselves situated ok wonderful well you're going to notice a different background because we made our way over here to this incredible chapel and patty i remember frank and i were here when we were here last it was a slow little miniature with a box it's a donate so we might be able to someday bring this chapel on to the grounds tell us a little bit of all what this is well i found out that gibson christian reform church which still exists to a two and a half miles from here the historic chapel the chapel are now sitting in but they the future of the chapel was on search they didn't know if they were going to tear it down or what was going to happen but there was definitely a feeling that they needed to expand their parking lot and they needed to get rid of the chapel ok well being the history buff that i am of course i didn't want to see it be demolished they were talking about have giving it to the fire department to burn down and i just think it's too i of the little white church and that the history should be preserved so i started this campaign to raise funds because if we couldn't do it new year then it was going to be demolished building carol distributing that built the foundation and all of the people in between i mean people who helped to haul the pews here and people who donated the beautiful wood were just so many who have have helped out and we were able to do it and now it's it's you know probably ninety percent down that's not fully restored because as i was saying to frank it needs air conditioning yet we've used it many times already because in in august and september as it was beautiful in here it was fine but we'll need those temperature control settings but it's you know very beautiful and a really lovely place to have a more intimate you know it can hold ninety to one hundred people and i think you know that makes a really intimate nice setting for writing it's just beautiful now when people come during the year round they don't always have the opportunity to come in here correct right you know we don't always open it and part of that is because we're so poorly staffed than we can you know we  really hard to man both the chapel and the mansion at the same time but during the holidays we are going to have it open as much as possible ok the only reason it wouldn't be as if we'd get three feet of snow and i couldn't get the sidewalks but you know i want people to know that that can there are events where that can be just given that we don't have that and that it's another mild winter and then we can keep things shoveled we are going to have this aisle so people well have the opportunity to come inside here and check it out you know some people just want to see it they're curious some people are looking into the future maybe they have a wedding or they have a church service of some shorts and in this little chapel every movie i've seen about the you know one hundred years ago it was your i stepped into this and that he without you this is just one of the gifts and if people come up to the some and she did not want to see it be demolished and so she really it was very much behind it too and you know ask the congregation to give us a year before they made a move one way or another and that allowed us the time to be able to raise funds and to build the foundation so that we could move here so it takes you know while i may be the first step and my enthusiasm might get that ball rolling and it's  really it's always a community i think you know when you say that i can't help but think of this this picture goes in my head that you are the spark because that's your personality and all the community is the just kind of airing the flames and i keeps going from there i have a question and i'm trying to put this timeline in my head so folks mansion in the felt family were here was gibson church in existence while the family was here yes and actually there's a tie between thing is that he actually had been there in his daughter got married in this church that is amazing peggy we see if you're older then we just see how can these amazing things happen for another story that's just beyond  description you know and i think it's really neat that there is that time tween the two because otherwise it's like you've got this mansion you've got this chapel what at the time there actually is a historic time it's two in two things and you know and we were able to save this and eventually i want to have a historic plaque that explains that role of churches because of course historic context has been changed where that move is the ideal would have been to leave it where it volunteers over and over do you still take volunteers i mean if people see this and say man i'd like to put in an hour or two over there are we doing that i think so the role of volunteers has changed ok when we first started out i mean people straight you know for the new year and for different you know everybody has a different skill some people have gardening well then i want to plug them in as a bird you know and there's no sense in having someone who's really not into the history of the tours but some people are definitely into the history the heart of it and their love their people you know people so they want to be with the people that i'm someone to rather be in a room painting or you know doing their own thing information and for people that want to come out and visit if you go to the tours in the page at the bottom here's a calendar it's completely interactive you can click on the events and the events will pop up and give of the cost at the time b redo our website so for the rest of the year we're on our current site and our new one is actually going to look very much different it's going to be revamped but it's going to have to keep developing keys now with you know because i've been doing it all along restoration and i know we wanted to have some comments about that in me because i you yourself passionate about that bringing things from the past to the present to the future and well i have a philosophy about from the future and to me the building that we're in it's beautiful the mansions that is beautiful they're beautiful buildings i'm passionate obviously about restoring them but they are still buildings and we know  could come or have to seen on the east coast logs could come planes running into buildings and those buildings no matter how large or how they're made they can go down in the mornings time so we need to be restoring each other that's my belief is that you know two thousand years ago and there's no better time to think about this than at christmas time because regardless of your faith or your religious convictions this holiday celebrates the birth of christ two thousand years ago this person was born that changed the world and hills was the biggest restoration project of all and all somebody had to do was touch the hem of his garment and they would restart and so i think you know everything that we do here if it's just about restoring an old pew or getting some wood work or work has been in vain i think that it has to be there has to be that human component and that restoration project and then everything we do talk so much about  like the word coincidence but the miracles that have happened thank the connections that have happened i think that those things happened because we as a group as friends of the fell and as everyone involved unless we're about people i think that if we would use the places we would have failed when it's a lot about community in those community connections and what we give to each other along the way and it's not it's those gifts  of time and caring man and that can restore an individual whether your painting with the pain or you're given a toy you're just coming to something and you make a connection with somebody  woman came out last year and i can see that she was rather down hard when it was during tours and their family had trick was trying to take her up and later she shared with me i didn't know this at the tour but she shared it but it was her first holiday without her know and you know the how all of us can be very rough oh if you've lost us our loved one during that year any time but especially when it's a fresh wound like that and she wrote me the most beautiful letter because i and my talking about how we really need to restart one another that that's the great restoration project and she wrote that proud that letter to me and i received it in january and i'm always quite burned out at that point  we just got the signal to write this up and as i said at the beginning betty meyer and wendy wigger just to be on the property in these wonderful ladies and to share this story today about the mansion and for the first time we've come over to appreciate the chapel but for all the people saying they saw the website is there but what a gift of more than seen things and trying to understand this is a gift of inspiration  today and i'm so glad wendy saved that last question for you at the end of the show and i think it was sitting in this chair of that maters so much more meaningful  enough for the great time and we jealous lee say if you want to experience what we did today come out here sign up buy a ticket do whatever you have to it's one of the great great special j west michigan it's right outside the house so with that thank you for joining us and we will see you on our next show which will be as exciting and as interesting thank you and goodbye for no