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 Veneklasen Brick Company / Veneklasen Brick
N 42° 48.677 W 086° 02.179
16T E 578788 N 4740309
A little park dedicated for the bridge and Historical Marker, so it has a small parking lot.
Waymark Code: WMJWQR
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 01/07/2014
Views: 12
Description:
In 1848 Jan Veneklasen and his family emigrated from the Netherlands to Zeeland, in Michigan's Dutch Kolonie. A brickmaker by trade, Veneklasen founded a brickyard within a year of his arrival - one of several he would eventually operate in Michigan,including the one formerly at this site. the mainstay of the Veneklasen Brick Company was its architectural bricks. Used primarily in houses, the color of these bricks - red, white, orange and brown - reflected the local clay of the yard where they were made. Veneklasen's brickworks operated under several names over the years. It was a family business, with founder Jan Veneklasen's descendants involved in the company until it ceased operations in the mid-1920s.
Michigan's historic Dutch Kolonie is home to a unique style of brickwork known informally as "Veneklasen," named after the Veneklasen Brick Company. Veneklasen buildings are remarkable for their decorative facades, which typically contain cream-colored brick patterns set against contrasting red brick backgrounds. In the building forms typical of nineteenth century midwestern architecture, the distinctive polychromatic brickwork carried on masonry traditions from the Netherlands, Veneklasen brick was used in the construction of the houses of Dutch immigrants as well as churches, schools civic buildings, and institutional buildings including Van Vleck and Voorhies halls at Hope College.
Parking nearby?: yes
D/T ratings: 
Registered Site #: L2217
Historical Date: Not listed
Historical Name: Not listed
website: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:Take a photo of your GPS at the marker. We'd prefer a photo of you with your GPS, but we realize that sometimes that's just not possible or preferable.
Also include a bit about your visit to the marker.
NEW: Instructions for logging Missing Marker Visits.
If the Marker is missing, but still listed here, you must provide a photo of you at the actual item historically honored. (This should be the waymark's "default" image). Indicate in your log that you took your photo at the Historical Location instead of the marker, because the marker was missing. Please also still include a bit about your visit to the site.
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