Historic Homes of Southwest Michigan
Digging up the dirt, the details, and the decades of history behind our local homes.
103 South Lincoln Avenue
"If these walls could talk, they would speak with a thick accent of fresh sawdust and old-world craftsmanship."
When you look at the stunning, intricate woodwork inside 103 South Lincoln, it makes perfect sense who built it: a family of master woodworkers. This home was constructed between 1904 and 1907 by Joseph Skalla Junior and his brothers, using lumber harvested directly from their own family sawmill.
The roots of this home go back to 1850, when the family patriarch, Joseph Skalla Senior, immigrated to America from Bohemia. After a brief stint farming in Wisconsin, he moved to the local area to work as a cabinet maker. Joseph Sr. eventually decided he could do better on his own. He started his furniture shop right inside his own family dining room. Through sheer perseverance, that humble dining room workshop grew into the famed Skalla Furniture Company.
While their large factory on Clay and State Streets was tragically destroyed by a fire in 1913, the family's incredible legacy of master craftsmanship permanently lives on inside the framing and detail of this very house.
Digging into the Details:
- The Timeline Old Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from the Library of Congress show a blank space here in 1900, but by 1907, the home proudly appears. A local newspaper clipping from 1906 even captures a mention of the construction progress on Joseph's new home.
- The Original Address If you try to look up the oldest records of the home, you won't find it at 103. It was originally designated as 207 South Lincoln until a city address shake-up rearranged the grid in the 1920s.
- 80 Years, One Family The original owners, Joseph Jr. and his wife Harriett, were the first to raise a family here. Incredibly, the Skalla family held the keys to this property for roughly 80 years. Their daughter, Josephine Skalla, was born just as the house was completed and lived here her entire life until she passed away in 1986.
- The Undertaker Connection The Skalla family talent wasn't just limited to living room chairs and beautiful molding. Joseph Junior's brother, Paul Skalla, served the community as the local undertaker. Back at the turn of the century, undertaking required serious woodcraft talent. Before specialized funeral homes existed, it was the local cabinet makers who were called upon to hand-craft coffins, build the transport hearses, and handle the woodwork for local burials.
From a dining room workshop to a bustling furniture empire and eight decades of family milestones, this home is a hand-crafted piece of local heritage.
Archive Photography
