Well then, they would have been a “West-sider”!
Much of the traditional Dutch neighborhood long ago become a ghetto area, though the Heritage Hill preservation work started “gentrification” of the nicer homes long before that was a concept. Short story is that the 1960s urban renewal movement threatened to destroy many of the most beautiful and architecturally significant homes from Grand Rapids’ heyday as the “Furniture City,” when upper managers and owners of furniture companies spent the money to have beautiful gabling and woodwork done in their homes and the skilled craftsmen took the time to do in their own homes the type of craftsmanship they were doing for their bosses. A lot of the homes have been saved that had been destined for the wrecking ball in the 1960s.