LANSING, Ill (June 12, 2024) – Standing on a hill at the corner of Ridge Road and Lange Street sits a regal, white Cape Cod house that has been home to many individuals over its almost 14 decades.
The first Meeter House
Built in 1892, this house became known as “The Meeter House.” A photograph from the Lansing Historical Society dated 1900 shows the Meeter family in front of the house.
John Meeter’s parents came from the Netherlands to Chicago in the 1840s with the intention of settling in Michigan. A stranger said Michigan was nothing but woods and wild animals, and that was enough to change the elder Meeter’s mind. The stranger offered Meeter housing above his pickle factory on Wacker Drive.
Meeter and Marshall Field
By the 1870s young John Meeter was raising hay on a plot along Roosevelt Road and selling it to retail mogul Marshall Field for the wagon horses his delivery men used. Meeter and Field, a staunch Presbyterian, became friends and often discussed theology in Field’s office when Meeter came for his pay.
When the city encroached on his hay farm, Meeter moved to Englewood where he leased a farm and raised cabbages. When a draught wiped out most of his competitors, and threatened his crop as well, Meeter hired Hungarian and Polish immigrant children living nearby to walk the long rows every day giving each plant a cup of water. That clever move made him a windfall as he sold his cabbages for the unheard-of price of $40 per ton. That was the beginning of his wealth.
Meeter and George Pullman
In 1881 George Pullman needed Meeter’s leased farmland to lay railroad tracks to his new railcar factory in Pullman. Meeter held out and finally sold his tenant rights for a hefty sum. With that money, in 1890, Meeter built a sauerkraut factory in Lansing. (That’s a story for another time.)
The Meeter House
Did Meeter build the house on the hill when he came to Lansing? Or did he rent from the owner? That part of the story is unknown.
We do know that Mrs. John Meeter, nee Mary Tein, died at home on March 6, 1925. The address at that time was 425 Ridge Road, but when the Lansing Post Office adopted the Chicago grid system for addresses, the address of the Meeter House became 3627 Ridge Road, as it is today.
We know the Meeter family lived in the house until the late 1920s. A clue from The Times gossip column on December 15, 1927, reads: “The Quilting Bee met at the John Meeter home on East Ridge Road.”
But another announcement in the gossip column of April 2, 1931, announces: “The Al Weidenaar family moved in the old John Meeter residence on East Ridge Road.” The Weidnaar family seems to be the first to replace the Meeters in the Meeter House.
Other tenants
Many other tenants would call the Meeter House home, including Althea Hibbs who lived there from 1938 until her death in 1942. Hibbs’ daughter, Hazel Strand, also lived there until her death at age 41. Hazel’s surviving husband, Edward Strand, continued to live in the house until he remarried in May of 1943, when he and his new wife moved to Gary, Indiana.
So in October of 1943 the Meeter House was advertised “for rent,” offering “four rooms on bus line, gas, light, heat, electricity and refrigerator.” The phone number was Lansing 158J.
Cornelius Slager and his wife Sophie purchased the home in 1945. They had four children — Carol, Larry, Jean, and Neal Jr.
Neal Jr. remembers, “We had a nice side yard, but not much in the back. But just past the alley was St. John schoolyard. We played there every day. There was a lot of ball games played there.”
Carla Rispens remembers going to that house as a young girl with her friend Carolyn Blauw. “We would walk from State Line (where they were neighbors), to see Carolyn’s Grandma Slager. After her grandma gave us milk and cookies, we played in the basement. It was a really nice house,” Carla recalls.
When the first three Slager children married, they continued to live in the house, but now in the upstairs apartment with their spouses. They each stayed for two or three years before leaving home:
- Carol married Jay Zandstra in 1957, owner of Zandstras Men’s Store in Highland.
- Jean married William Blauw in 1959.
- Larry married Janet Sheeringa in 1962 while he was at Central College, Pella, Iowa.
- Neal married Shirlee Douma in 1964. Neal and Shirlee lived in the Meeter House until 1969 when they built a home in Munster.
Cornelius Sr. died November 23, 1951, stricken with a heart ailment. Sophie eventually remarried to Walter G. DeGraff, who died November 23, 1960. Sophie lived in the Meeter House until she died on April 21, 1982.
The family put the house up for sale after her death, but it didn’t sell for another four to five years, when Jay Zandstra purchased it from the family to close the estate.
Structural improvements
Many improvements and updates were made through the years. Around 1959 the outside stairs leading to the second floor were enclosed, making it much safer in winter. A dormer was put in on the west side of the building. About that same time, Neal said he remodeled the upstairs apartment with new cabinets. A 15×15-foot bathroom was reduced in size to accommodate a bedroom.
In 1980 DeGraff received a permit to install a HVAC system. A new roof was installed in 1994. Extensive remodeling took place again in 2010 when Chick Manoussells received a permit to replace support beams, rewire the electric, and much more.
According to one real estate ad, the building was sold in 2022 for $129,000. The last tax bill was sent to Uriel Olmos of Mokena, Illinois. However, the house has been on the market again and is believed to be sold. The realtor’s account, printed in the last two months, reads: “Multiple offers, highest and best Wednesday, 7 p.m. sold as is, zoned 3 flat ready for a new owner. Top unit is rented to long term tenant paying $950 and pays for electric. Their lease is up June 30 but will stay or go depending on new owner’s desire.” Rumor has it a realtor bought the historic house.
The second Meeter House
Lansing is home to a second Meeter House at 3116 Ridge Road, two doors from First Church PCA. Now known as the PASS House, it was built in 1926 and was owned by Anthony Meeter and his wife Anna.
Anthony, son of John Meeter, was co-founder of Meeter and Son Sauerkraut factory in Lansing. Anthony died in the home on April 10, 1960, at age 80. His wife Anna died September 3, 1986.
Anthony and Anna had four children: Arthur, Lucille, Ruth, and Marjorie. Marjorie inherited the house and willed it to the First Reformed Church of Lansing (now known as First Church PCA). She died April 17, 2005, at age 88.
The church took possession of the house about one year after Marjorie’s death. There was much work to be done. Water pipes had burst, and major repairs had to be done to the front entryway. The church ultimately rented the building to an organization known as PASS, Pregnancy Aid in the South Suburbs.
To accommodate PASS, significant renovations were required. The dining room became an ultrasound room. The back sitting room became an office. And the entire building was made handicap-accessible, including revamping the bathrooms and adding a long ramp to the back entrance of the house.
Many volunteers lent helping hands to ready the center to receive clients. A fundraising dinner helped financially.
PASS opened its doors in the fall of 2009. Today it continues to offer hope, compassion, and support for young expectant mothers and their babies. An old, historic Lansing house is helping to welcome new life to Lansing.
I really liked the article about the Meeter House. I am a part of that history. My parents, Ed and Shirley Oppenhuis were married in 1948 and moved into the upper apartment. My mother was related to the Slagers. In 1949 my older brother, Greg, was born. I was born in 1952. We lived there until 1953. I have pictures of my dad holding me on the back stairs. I also have pictures of the Slagers, my brother, and I on the back stairs. I can send them if you are interested.