DeVries Nature Conservancy (2635 N. M-52)

The DeVries Nature Conservancy at 2635 N. M-52 was stop 11 on the 2026 Owosso Historic Home Tour. Unlike the four other additional institutional and commercial stops identified in the program, this property was originally a private home. The booklet identifies it as the former residence of Dr. Jack DeVries and Fran DeVries, subsequently used as a nature center. Its inclusion in a home tour reflects that residential origin.^[1]

A midcentury modern residence

According to the program, the house was built in the early 1960s and designed by Flint architect Sulho Nurmi. The booklet characterizes the building as midcentury modern, emphasizing a rectangular composition, floor-to-ceiling glazing that connects the house to the landscape, and unusual built-in details including an entertainment console, toaster and toothbrush holders. These descriptions are evidence of what the organizers observed and reported; the architect attribution and construction date still need confirmation from plans, firm records or county assessments.^[1]

The estate and historic carriage collection

The program describes a property of 136 acres along the Shiawassee River, with four barns. It says one barn houses the DeVries Historic Carriage and Sleigh Museum. The collection includes carriages, buggies, surreys, sleighs and cutters, and some examples associated with local carriage production. The acreage is a 2026 booklet figure, not a current survey, and should be checked against land records before being used as an exact parcel size.^[1]

The booklet connects several examples in the collection to Owosso Carriage and Sleigh Company, tracing that enterprise back to the Owosso Carriage Works in 1886 and describing production of many vehicle styles before closing in 1915, as automobiles gained popularity. This is a valuable research lead connecting local industry to a surviving museum collection, but object provenance and business history will require museum catalog records and independent industrial histories.^[1]

A private home adapted for community history

The property illustrates a form of historic-home preservation different from the nineteenth-century mansions on the tour: a twentieth-century private residence became part of a publicly oriented nature and local-history institution. The architectural character and historic vehicle collection are both integral to that story. The house is counted among the additional numbered 2026 tour stops in the tour index, rather than silently added to the earlier 58-property catalogue.^[1][2]

DeVries family legacy and the carriage museum

Confirmed by the Conservancy: Its own organizational history says the nonprofit was established in 2006 from the estate of veterinarian J. R. “Jack” DeVries and his wife Frances. Its current grounds description identifies the site as 2635 N. M-52 and describes 136 acres, corroborating the figure in the 2026 tour program. This substantiates the institution's origin and association with the DeVries couple, but it is not a retrieved deed or probate file showing the complete ownership chain.^[2][3]

The Conservancy's own museum page describes an original personal collection assembled by Dr. Jack DeVries and says it now contains more than 25 vehicles in restored or partly restored condition. It also corroborates that several vehicles relate to the Owosso Carriage and Sleigh Company. These institutional/collection facts are supported independently of the 2026 program, though provenance for individual artifacts remains an accession-record question.^[4]

Unverified central architectural claim: The 2026 program's early-1960s building date and specific attribution of the house to Flint architect Sulho Nurmi have not been corroborated with architectural plans, an assessor building card, a building permit, or a dated architectural publication. The AIA historical directory separately identifies architect Sulho Alexander Nurmi, but it neither mentions nor attributes this particular property to him and flags its biography as unverified. It would be misleading to treat proof the architect existed as proof he designed this house.^[1][5]

What remains uncertain: The exact date of construction, the architect's commission and the legal chain of title are not independently established by the available sources. Those open questions do not alter the independently documented establishment of the Conservancy or the tour program's contemporary description of the former residence.^[1][2]