The Stuart Mansion

In the 1850's, there was perhaps only 1 or 2 farmhouses North of

Kalamazoo Avenue in the area known as the Stuart Neighborhood. This changed when a prominent businessman named Hiram Arnold built this prestigious Italianate Villa in 1854. Arnold was for 20 years the manager of the biggest general store in the village & later became involved in banking and other enterprises. Once this home was finished, “Stuart Avenue” as we know it was then a private road leading to the estate.

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Records show that after its completion, Arnold never actually took residency in the impressive residence, but sold it to Charles E. Stuart in the late 1850s. Records indicate Stuart had taken occupancy in 1859. Charles Stuart, born in 1810, came to Kalamazoo and settled here at age 25. Stuart was an attorney, state legislator, U.S. representative, and even a U.S. Senator from 1852-1858. He was close friends with politician and lawyer Stephen Douglas, whom he hosted as a guest

in the home during his 1860 Presidential campaign.

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Douglas gave a speech at the residence, with the Kalamazoo Gazette

noting - “Douglas stayed overnight in this home and spoke from the

broad South Style columned porch.” Subsequently, Stuart saw to it that Douglas Avenue would be named in his honor. Stuart lived at the residence with this wife Sophia and 5 children for total of 24 years and moved out in 1883. He suffered from severe rheumatism during the last decade of his life, and passed away in 1887.

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Immediately after his passing, one of the nation’s leading horse breeders of his time purchased the home. His name was Samual A. Browne. Browne came from Dublin, Ireland and first worked for a lumber manufacturer in Chicago for 2 years, then joined a lumber firm in the Grand Rapids area. He became exceedingly successful, and records indicate in 1883 - “Browne sold his lumbering business and moved to Kalamazoo, where he purchased the Charles E. Stuart home and the 5 ½-acre surrounding property between Stuart & Douglas Avenue”.

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Coincidentally, Browne would often race at “National Driving Park”, a horse racing track built by Charles Stuart that is now in the location of the Edison Neighborhood. During his first year of living here, he formed the “S.A. Browne & Company” with fellow horse breeder Frances B. Stockbridge. Their headquarters of 316 acres were on West Main St, currently where Kalsec headquarters are located. Browne and his wife Jane raised 5 children, and he passed away in Spring of 1895.

 

The home then had a variety of owners over the next Century. Prominent realtor Charles B. Hays purchased it in 1904 after Brownes death, and after several decades it became Tau Kappa Epsilon, a Western Michigan University Fraternity. After a fire occurred in the late 1970s, it was divided up into 8 individual apartments.

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The exterior of this home features large overhanging eaves, tall double hung windows, multiple stories of servants quarters and a cupola which adorns the top floor ballroom. The interior features heavily decorated plasterwork that adorns the walls of the grand room to the north. The main foyer of the home has a breathtaking staircase with a hand carved newel post, and the parlor to the east has a marble fireplace that was imported from Italy. The original wooden shutters are also still intact and in working order.

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Over the past 30 years, the home became vacant and subsequently fell into disrepair. It currently is being restored and its ground regularly

maintained.