Dick Huizenga had the itch.
He was born in 1889 in Friesland, the Netherlands, to Cornelis and Nellie Bennema Huizenga. In 1914, Dick married Rena Haakma. She was born in 1892 to Jan Haakma and Tetsje Spoelman, also in the Netherlands. Dick and Rena married in the United States. Their son, Cleo, was born in 1918.
Back in those days, before automobiles were ubiquitous, each city neighborhood had its own grocery store; in Zeeland alone, there were more than ten stores. There was one store at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Maple Street. Its first owner was Mr. Manning, followed by Steve Buter, then Henry Faber and Ed Van Zoeren, then Henry Faber. The locals affectionately called it “The Corner Store.”
By 1920, Dick Huizenga was operating a food store in Hamilton in a rented building. To keep prices low, Dick joined the Grand Rapids Wholesale Company, a retailers’ cooperative and forerunner of Spartan Stores. Dick’s business was doing well; then, unfortunately, the owner of the building decided to sell. So, Dick and Rena moved to Zeeland and Dick took a job in a factory; but not for long.
In 1922, Dick purchased from Henry Faber the Corner Store and the building behind it, in which Henry had operated a hatchery. When Dick started, he sold not only groceries, but also brooms, pails, brushes, margarine, and cheese cut from nine-inch thick cheese loops measuring twenty inches in diameter.
Because one-third of neighborhood families raised chickens, they needed cracked corn and oyster shell supplements; at the Corner Store, they scooped what they needed out of recycled Good Luck brand margarine cases. Because many neighborhood families relied on kerosene-burning stoves, the Corner Store would fill their one-to-two-gallon containers from a 50-gallon drum in the basement, using a hand dipper. They got the kerosene odor for free.
Because charge accounts were available, often neighbors would send their children to the Corner Store without money. Customers would then pay the balance weekly and, in gratitude, the Corner Store would tip them with candy or a cigar. For customers who couldn’t walk to the store, Dick delivered goods in his Model-T Ford.
In 1926, Dick formed a partnership with Andrew VanderPloeg. “Andy” was a meat cutter who made various kinds of sausages as well as dried beef. To prolong the shelf-life of their meat products, Dick and Andy had a giant ice box, with a large bunker above it.
Men from Hall’s Trucking Company would park their truck along the side of the store and place a long ladder with metal runners under an upstairs window. Then, using a rope, they would drop large blocks of ice into the bunker by pulling them up the ladder and pushing them through an open upstairs window. That task ended when Dick and Andy purchased a mechanical Kelvinator brand walk-in meat cooler.
When Andy left to buy a food store at 200 W. Main St., Dick took over the role as meat cutter and store manager, named the store Huizenga’s Food Market, and hired Harold DeKoster to make deliveries. Dick also added a second phone and a second delivery vehicle for Saturday business.
In 1935, Cleo married Genevieve. In 1941, Cleo left Zeeland to serve in World War II. When he returned four years later, he noticed the business was changing. Rationing was over, and many new types of food and food equipment began to appear, such as varieties of frozen foods and the refrigerated cases to display them. As automobiles became more prevalent, customers became more mobile, and free delivery ended. In 1947, Dick remodeled the store, adding 40 percent more floor space.
In 1955, Cleo purchased Dick’s share of the business and, in 1959, purchased VanderPloeg’s store. In 1960, Cleo opened Huizenga’s Food Center at 435 W. Main Ave. Over the years, he enlarged it to include a bakery, deli, and pharmacy. In 1964, he closed VanderPloeg’s store and, in 1969, closed the Corner Store.
In 1974, Cleo and Genevieve’s son, Rick, became a partner in the business. In the 1980s, they purchased Zeeland’s Land of Food. In 1994, D&W purchased Huizenga’s Food Center. Cleo died in 1997, Genevieve in 2019.
Information for this story comes Antonia’s “Thumb Nails” in the Zeeland Record (7/24/1980) and from Cleo and Genevieve Huizenga’s “The Corner Store,” available at the Dekkerhuis Museum/Zeeland Historical Society.
— Community Columnist Steve VanderVeen is a resident of Holland. Contact him through start-upacademeinc.com.
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