90 years of history is a good foundation

The roof was fixed by Tuesday morning and the ice cream truck was planning to come help them celebrate Wednesday night anyway, so the owners of Vander Stoep Furniture treated community members to ice cream from Lingen Dairy as a way to say thanks for all the help they received after the fire on Monday afternoon. Pictured is the crowd that came to enjoy the sweet treats.

Vander Stoep Furniture has a rich, 90 year history – a history that has helped shape the town of Edgerton. Last week, when a fire started in a wall of their building, many folks were praying that the 70-year-old building would not go up in flames.

Firemen arrived quickly on the scene and worked to open the roof to fight the fire that was inside the wall and rafters. There was a lot of smoke damage, but the actual structural damage was limited to an area near the front entrance.

Later that evening, about one hundred volunteers arrived to help move the smoked-up furniture out of the building and into storage where it can be assessed by insurance adjusters. Many people quickly stepped up and offered trailers and trucks to help with the work, and offered storage space to keep the inventory.

Wednesday evening, the owners had planned to host an open house and continue their 90th anniversary sale. Instead, they gave out free ice cream to their supporters and were making plans on how to reopen the store. Thankfully, the warehouse area was not damaged by smoke or fire. Towards the end of the week last week, they were selling off their used furniture at half price to make space in the warehouse area.

While they are currently closed, they plan to reopen the store in that warehouse area as soon as possible.

Edgerton Fire Chief Huck Tinklenberg commented that if they had been ten minutes later, they might not have been able to save the building. Thankfully, Greg Arp, a local fireman and carpenter, was working a few blocks away. They brought their telehandler to the fire immediately and were able to lift firemen up to open the roof and get at the fire.

The firemen used a foam additive to put out the fire, so it took much less water to put out the same amount of fire.

Vander Stoep Furniture began in 1930 when Frank Vander Stoep and Jerry Brink began Vander Stoep and Brink Hardware & Implement Store. The country was one year deep in the trenches of the Great Depression, but these two entrepreneurs had a dream for their own business.

They opened their business in the south half of the Meacham building, in what is now the NAPA Auto Parts store. They sold everything from nuts and bolts, to implements and tractors.

They kept their business going through WWII. By 1946, when the war was over, business was booming. So the partnership split up, with Frank moving his half of the business south to the Scott Brother’s building and Jerry staying in the Meacham building as Brink Implement (yes, the same Brink Implement that later moved southeast of town to the top of Mill Hill, where C&B is now located.) Frank’s son, Fred, and Bertus Kooiman joined the business that year. Marvin Tinklenberg started working for them in 1947, and later became a partner in the early 1950’s.

Vander Stoep Hardware & Furniture and Plumbing & Heating continued at the Scott Brother’s building until 1961, when it expanded yet again. That same year, the Edgerton Roller Rink, which had been built on 4th Avenue in the late 1940’s, was going through bad times.

For the complete article, please see the June 10th edition of the Edgerton Enterprise. If you do not currently receive the Enterprise, CLICK HERE for information on how to subscribe!