Last month we mentioned on our blog and email newsletter that Stuart was connecting with a local news source, On the Ground Media, a program of Issues Media Group telling the stories of the people, programs, and organizations that are making a positive impact in Kalamazoo. We're excited to share (if you haven't read the articles already) that our Stuart Neighborhood residents and homes were recently featured in a series of three news articles written by Mr. Al Jones at OTG.
People who know the Stuart Neighborhood in Kalamazoo love its large ornate houses, its fascinating history, and its convenient central location. But, more than that, they say they love the interesting people who live there now and those who lived there in the past.
“I love the people in Stuart, and I love my neighbors.”
– Gary Wark, President of the Stuart Neighborhood Association, SARA
“You stay here from any period of time, and you start to wonder who lived here before and what was their story. ... I found out a little more about Pengelly’s wife, and I was hooked.”
– Sharon Carlson, on Stuart and deciding to buy the Richard Pangelly House.
“I wanted someplace where I could walk if I wanted to ... Stuart is a place where every time you walk out the door, someone says, ‘Hi.’”
— Staci Gibson, 8-year resident of the Stuart neighborhood
David and Emma Engerer are a young couple buying old houses in Kalamazoo's Stuart Neighborhood.
He’s 28. She’s 22. He's from metro Detroit. She's from Austin, Texas. They met while he, she, and her dad were at a skateboarding contest in Houston. (Yes, Dad was skateboarding.) Now Dave and Emma live in the Stuart Neighborhood and renovate houses.
The couple is among a number of younger people who are buying or renting homes in the historic neighborhood just west and north of downtown Kalamazoo. And they are excited about it.
“I really just think it’s the love of old homes.”
– David Engerer, on what motivated them to invest in Stuart
In 49 years, Colleen Woolpert has lived in Florida, Massachusetts, Utah, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and Michigan.
The photographer and artist was born in Florida and schooled in Michigan, Massachusetts, and New York. She soul-searched in Utah and New Jersey, and cultivated her artistic outlook in Washington and New York. But she started her professional journey in 1989 at Western Michigan University, and as a resident of the Stuart Neighborhood.
“Kalamazoo is a good place for me because it packs a lot of art and culture into a walkable, affordable city ... I’ve found all the resources I need to do my work here, and it’s also a great base from which to travel.”
– Colleen Woolpert, on what brought her back to Stuart
Woolpert is first and foremost an interdisciplinary artist, photographer, and stereograph curator, but she is also the inventor of the TwinScope Viewer, a hand-held device used to see stereograph images in public exhibits. Stereographs are side-by-side pairings of two slightly different photographs or images to provide a three-dimensional experience. Extremely popular from 1850 to 1930, they were used to capture lots of scenes from long ago. Woolpert has used the TwinScope Viewer to exhibit her own contemporary stereographs.
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