From 1928 to 1941 different oil companies carried an oil lease on the property.
From the years 1950 to 1960 I lived with my parents and siblings on Port Sheldon Drive, one-half mile west of the Borculo corner. My dad, George VandenBosch, owned 41 acres which extended from Port Sheldon Dr. to Blair Street. The property was sold to Ken Austhof shortly after my mother's death in 1985. I have the abstract of title for that property, and the first entry was made August 9, 1861 when ownership was transferred from 'United States' to R. Coon. Each transaction is numbered It isn't until the 22nd entry that I find a name I recognize, that of John Hieminga on May 14, 1889. This is the Hieminga that become the first president of Calvin College. Other Borculo names after that are Simon Stremler, Wiebe Stremler, Atte Talsma, Lubertus Kraai, John Masselink, Bert Wabeke, Len VandenBosch in 1946, Peter VandenBosch in 1947, and on April 13, 1950 to George VandenBosch, my dad.
From 1928 to 1941 different oil companies carried an oil lease on the property.
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The change from this 1939 K 1 2 classroom to this 2016 banquet hall appears pretty dramatic, but the only real change was to open up the wall against which the students were standing in the first picture. Mike and Sarah purchased the Borculo Public School in the fall of 2015 and have been restoring the building to its original state. They even want to return the original bell to its tower, or at least a reasonable facsimile of the bell if they can't have the original. What was the 3-4-5 grade room when I attended BPS looks original to me. The 6-7-8 grade room had been transformed to a restaurant kitchen by the Schoolhouse Restaurant, so a great deal of work was necessary to restore it. Much work still needs to be done. One big job will be to remove the tiled floor to return it to the original wooden floor. One neat feature which will be a great asset to wedding parties is that the restaurant kitchen's walk-in cooler has been saved and repaired and can now be used by caterers and florists.
Another necessary improvement was to re-roof the building. The District 5 Schoolhouse has been the site of several weddings already and some of the pictures can be seen on their website at http://schoolhouse5.com/ or on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/District5Schoolhouse/ Mike and Sarah continue their restoration work almost daily, so if you see their car standing in the back, I don't think they would mind if you asked to see the progress. |
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