GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Lit GR venue in downtown Grand Rapids has been listed for sale.
The historical, 6,962 square-foot building has been listed for around $900,000, according to the building’s listings. There is also an option to lease the property.
The Lit GR, located at 61 Sheldon Blvd. south of Fulton Street, was built in 1887 for the Ladies Literary Club. The historical site is currently an event venue managed by Rye Venues, which manages multiple venues in the Grand Rapids area, including the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
For now, The Lit is remaining fully operational, executive director Rob Deverna said in a statement to News 8. He noted that no sale is currently pending, and the team does not anticipate any events scheduled within the next six months will be impacted.
“Rye Venues manages operations but does not own the property. We’ve proactively reached out to clients with events scheduled more than six months out to offer options, as a future buyer may not continue the space’s current use,” Deverna said in the statement.
He said most of the clients that have been impacted chose to have their events moved to other venues. Others are considering their options, and one has opted to cancel for a refund.
“We are committed to ensuring a smooth experience for all our clients and will share updates as needed,” he said in the statement.
A STORIED HISTORY
The Lit GR and the Ladies Literacy Club have a long history. It was one of the first women’s clubhouses in the country.
Archives at the Grand Rapids Public Library detail the club’s advent and building’s history, including a write-up by Mary Anderson Seeger, Ph.D., and writer Chris Meehan, as well as clippings from the Grand Rapids Press.
In the 1860s, shortly after the Civil War, Marion Louise Withey went down to visit her aunt, Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, in Kalamazoo, the archives show. Stone, married to the president and founder of Kalamazoo College, was an advocate for women’s rights and women’s education. Stone was working on putting together a history class for women at Kalamazoo College, and her niece suggested she make the trip to Grand Rapids to host a class there, too.
Stone, Withey and a few other women got to work to make it happen. The first meeting was held in an unfurnished, unfinished church, with the women working to bring in chairs and sweep the floor to make it presentable.
Soon, they started hosting frequent meetings, though they had to work hard to find books to study. Eventually, they combined their books and books from two local high schools to form a free library. In 1871, that library would become the Grand Rapids Public Library, along with books from the YMCA, according to the library’s website.
As membership grew, the club made the decision to buy land for a permanent meeting space. In 1887, the historical building at 61 Sheldon Blvd. was built. The Richardsonian Romanesque-style building cost around $6,000, with an auditorium that could seat more than 400.
Over the years, the group hosted lectures on everything from child labor and alcohol use to Norse mythology and the future of electricity. They had several national and international speakers, including presidents Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson.
Roosevelt announced his support for women’s suffrage at the Grand Rapids Ladies Literacy Club, according to Seeger and Meehan. The group also brought in women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” writer Julia Ward Howe, who signed copies of the anthem.
The club helped with war efforts, raising $40,000 in liberty bonds and volunteering with the Red Cross.
It also saw some hardships, like a fire that caused $7,000 worth of damage in 1939 and the 1944 arrest of a janitor for filming “indecent movies” in the club’s basement, according to the Grand Rapids Press.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that at its height, the Ladies Literary Club had 900 members in 1950. But at the turn of the century, as the roles and opportunities for women in Grand Rapids and beyond shifted, the group was faced with declining membership levels, expensive building maintenance, high speaker fees and a lack of parking. It voted to disband in 2006, donating its records to the Grand Rapids Public Library and looking for a new owner for the property.
It considered Calvin University and Cooley Law School, hoping to find a property owner that would preserve the building’s heritage and keep it available to the community. Cooley offered $150,000, but had no restoration plans, the Grand Rapids Press reported at the time. Calvin University, meanwhile, offered to spend $1.5 million in repairs on the building. Ultimately, the Ladies Literacy Club voted to gift the property to Calvin, which had already been renting the venue for various events.
“I know Calvin will be a good keeper of the facility,” Rosemary Van Houten, chairman of the transition committee, said at the time, according to the Grand Rapids Press.
But in 2018, Calvin sold the building for $485,000, property records show. It was working to reduce its long-term debt, according to the Grand Rapids Press, which at the time was around $102 million.
It’s unclear what the next chapter of the 137-year old building holds. Ashlie Kuiper with Bradley Company told News 8 the real estate company has had a lot of interest in the property, with at least one showing a week. While it’s listed for either sale or lease, she said those that have seen the property have all been interested in buying it. She said the team is not sure if it will remain an event center and that there have been several uses potential buyers have considered.
Regardless, the story of Stone and countless other women who played big roles in its history will live on.
“It is their story that looms in the background, offering insight into a time when women had few rights but were nonetheless able to accomplish a great deal,” Seeger and Meehan wrote. “They were the forerunners in Grand Rapids of promoting literacy and a love for the arts. They were socially active and determined. They and other women of this club … were innovators and pioneers.”