"History of Grand Rapids"
Goss, 1906
Pages 1284 - 1285

The Holland Union Benevolent Association Home is located at the corner of College avenue and East Bridge street. The association was incorporated in 1892, and soon after purchased from the Bernard estate the house and lot at 245 College avenue which now constitutes a portion of the site of the Home. After a time an adjoining house and lot was purchased and the capacity of the Home enlarged. The original purchases cost about $7,000. About $3,000 was spent in repairs. The association owes $4,000, and has a property worth about $12,000, which is a remarkable showing considering that the association, since its organization, has constantly cared for beneficies of its bounty to the fullest capacity of the Home. The association had nothing for a start. It was organized to provide a home for aged indigent and infirm persons of general good conduct and character. It has about four hundred members, who pay annual dues of one dollar each. The Home is managed by twelve trustees, two-thirds of whom are males and one-third females, elected for a term of four years each. All religious exercises at the Home must conform to the tenets of the Holland Reform Churches. Religious exercises are held each week, but all inmates are free to attend such church services as they see fit.

It costs about $5,000 a year to maintain the Home. Its income is derived from membership dues, church offerings, private donations, property of inmates and stipends from their relatives and friends. Church offerings are received from all Holland Reform churches in the United States. From October until May of each year the association employs a solicitor who gives his entire [Page 1285] time to accumulating funds for the Home. The Home has continuously from forty to fifty inmates, a large proportion of whom are Hollanders, but there is nothing in the laws of the association limiting the privilege of the Home to any blood, race, or religious belief. The inmates have been of various nationalities. At present the oldest inmate is ninety-five and the youngest sixty; a majority are over seventy-four years of age.

Since its opening the following have been superintendents of the Home: Mr. Vanderviere, Charles Tellinga, A. Haage and H. Zuilersma. Rev. Adrian Krukaard is now president of the association.