Hermanus Boone loved horses.
Boone was born in 1840. He married Helena Pfanstiehl in 1866. The ceremony was performed by Albertus Van Raalte. Hermanus and Helena had seven children: Fred, Hermanus Jr. (Hub), Albert, John, Helena and two additional girls.
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The Boones lived at 100 W. 11th Street. Helena’s parents were Pieter Pfanstiehl and Helena Meulenbroek Pfanstiehl. Pieter had opened Holland’s first tannery; ran a general store, schooner, stagecoach and lumber mill; and owned and operated the City Hotel, located on the northeast corner of Central Avenue and Eighth Street. The hotel was destroyed in the Great Holland Fire of 1871.
After the fire, Boone and John Duursma rebuilt the City Hotel, turning it into a luxury hotel. They leased it to a Grand Rapids investor and later sold their shares.
In the 1880s, Boone became very active in the horse trading business. His livery was located at 209 Central Ave. — south of Eighth Street. He had a barn along one side of the street and a feedlot on the other. Hermanus also raced horses. Back then, the land between Ninth Street between River and College Avenues frequently served as a venue.
In 1881, Boone was an investor in (“Black”) Jake and Adrianus Van Putten’s Holland City Butter Tub Company. In 1884, his livery was one of the first businesses to install a telephone. In 1885, Boone was also one of the first movers behind the formation of the Holland Community Fair, which leased land from Hope College on the west side of present day Kollen Park. There, the organization built a horse track and other amenities.
In 1890, Boone and Martin Beukema operated the Lizzie Walsh, a steamer that took Holland residents to hotels on Black Lake. The steamship service had competition — a newly built C&WM Railway now connected Holland to Ottawa Beach. Later, the railroad’s track bed became Ottawa Beach Road.
In 1895, Boone bought back the City Hotel and renamed it Holland Hotel with partner E.O. Philips. After fitting it with electric lights and steam heat, they renamed it New City Hotel. They sold the business in 1898. Later, the Boone family acquired it again.
In the 1890s, Boone turned over the livery business to his son, Fred, and it became the largest wholesaler of horses on Michigan’s West Coast. Another son, Hub, also worked at the livery.
By 1902, Boone was traveling out-of-state with his racing horse, McKinley, in search of bigger prizes.
In 1905, Hub rented a horse and wagon to Louis Padnos, thereby helping launch another family business. Later, it seems, Hub copied Padnos. In 1918, after the state fire marshal ordered the razing of the wooden structures on Eighth Street, Hub and his brother, John, formed the Holland Salvage Company to recover and resale every reusable part. The Boone hotel, however, was not salvaged because it was made of brick.
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In 1913, the fairground’s horse track hosted the Belvedere Cup, named after the owner of Williamson’s Belvedere Farms which was located along the interurban route to Saugatuck. The race attracted thoroughbred owners from Kentucky.
Around that time, Helena Boone Pardee — the couple’s widowed daughter — was managing the family’s hotel. A member of the Century and Women’s Literary Clubs, she was also singing in various venues in Holland and Grand Haven, and she loved to ride horses. Given her success, Hermanus and Hub contemplated tearing down the west half of the family’s hotel and building a five-story edition to add 100 beds, most with a bath, a new lobby and offices in 1916.
But then tragedy struck. Helena Boone Pardee died after a short illness. According to the Holland City News of November 7, 1916, she was “the most popular woman in Holland and possibly in Ottawa County” because of her singing talents and professional management abilities.
The Boones never completed their planned hotel renovation. That would be done by a relative newcomer to Holland.
Hermanus Boone died in 1918; Helena Boone died in 1921.
In 1923, the Boone family sold their hotel to August Landwehr, co-founder with his father-in-law, John Kolla, of the Holland Furnace Company. Both had moved to Holland around 1905. Landwehr had the building demolished in 1924 to make room for the impressive Warm Friend Tavern, which still stands today.
Information for this article comes from Robert Swierenga’s “Holland, Michigan,” Calvin University and findagrave.com.
— Community Columnist Steve VanderVeen is a resident of Holland. Contact him through start-upacademeinc.com.
