Zutphen

You may read the title of this post and wonder - What is a Zutphen?
Zutphen is a place!  It's a small rural community in West Michigan a few minutes from the farm I grew up on.  It may seem like a strange name, but the name comes from the Netherlands.  This area was home to many immigrants from the Netherlands (including my great, great grandpa who came to this area in 1867.  These immigrants named their communities after the areas they came from in the Netherlands. Therefore we have places named - Holland, Zeeland, Vriesland, Drenthe, Overisel and Zutphen which are all in close proximity.
Imagine my surprise when I started reading a blog that was written by someone in the Netherlands and she did a post about her city - which was Zutphen!    Susanna Redeker of Susi-Art is a talented artist who shares some wonderful drawings on her blog.  She asked some time back that I share pictures of my Zutphen and I'm finally getting around to doing that.   Her Zutphen is a bustling city, mine is more of a crossroads in the country!

 

Here we are approaching that crossroad.  As you see, it's a country road without much around.

 



 

There are lots of open fields.

 



 

And plenty of corn!

 



 

Even the cemetery is not very large.  My Mom is buried here, along with many other relatives.

 

 

 

When I was young, this house was next to our church and was used as the parsonage (where the minister lived).  When a new church building and parsonage was built, this house was moved and restored inside and out, to it's former glory.  It was opened to the public under the name 'The Dominie House'.  (Dominie means minister).  They accepted reservations for small groups, gave tours of the home and served a wonderful meal to the guests.  I was able to go through it and enjoy the visit several times.  It's now a private home.

 



 

This little building was a small store when I was young.  I remember stopping here with my parents to buy a few things from a lady named Fanny, and thinking that was a crazy name.  (Isn't it funny the things you remember?)  This store closed when I was very young and I don't know how the building is used now, but it's nicely kept up.

 



 

This is the only business in Zutphen.  It sells farm equipment, which is fitting since the area surrounding it is farmland.

 



 

The only other public building in Zutphen is this church.  This is the church I grew up in.  It was built when I was in Junior High, so I spent many hours here!  I was married in this church and it holds good memories for me.

 



 

This is the house I lived in until I was 12.  It's the house my dad and his siblings were born in.  It's been moved from the spot it was in for all those years, and I'm sad to see the condition it is now in.

 



 

This is the house my parents built when I was 12.  My Dad and stepmom still live here.  It's not truly in the little community of Zutphen but is very close and I thought I would include it as I shared about the other areas from my childhood.  I now live about 20 minutes from here.

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing this small community that means a lot to me!