The 1920’s saw a boom of home construction in East Grand Rapids with craftsmanship and hand-detailed work rarely done today without a computerized machine. Among these homes, one estate was built that was more aristocratic, more stately, and was better known than all the rest. This was the estate of Brookby, a 41-room mansion which sat on eight acres and included three other cottages and an 8-stall heated garage. Its owners, John W. and Minnie C. Blodgett, were lumber barons who owned and controlled millions of acres of land across the country. Today, the Blodgetts survive only in memory, in yellowed newspapers, in black and white photos, and as names on buildings. This class will look at the Blodgett family, their lasting philanthropic legacy in the community, and the palatial home which still stands as a testament from the last days of the Roaring 20’s.  

Jeffrey Sytsma is a former high school history teacher who, after teaching for 10 years, changed careers into landscape construction. As one who is passionate about historical gardens, Jeff was drawn to the original gardens at Brookby and has helped with their partial restoration over the years. What started as a research paper on the Blodgett family and their estate in 2005 slowly blossomed into a pet project that now contains almost two decades of research. Along with extensively researching the family, Jeff has also catalogued all the invoices for the construction of the Brookby estate, and also cataloged the original blueprints for the home, numbering in the hundreds. Jeff has worked closely with Aquinas College in the past on preserving Brookby. He is currently a Trustee of the Grand Rapids Historical Society.