Christopher Family Page

Links: Family Main Page Email Us

Roy Gilbert Ackerman House - Harbert

(Back to Houses Page)

Gib Ackerman House - Harbert Road, Harbert, Michigan (1934-52)

Gib built his first house right next door to Rose (Nana). She had bought the two adjacent lots to the south of her home so her daughters Lil and Sal could live nearby. Gib built a very small home on the lot immediately to the south of Nana's in 1933-34 (see the first photo). Gib bought the land three years later - see a newspaper listing from March 29, 1937 below the slideshow (also see property transfer recorded with Clerk). The original home was only one bedroom, bath, kitchen and living/dining room. Gib added on over the years, including an additional bedroom for the kids, a foyer, a garage and workshop in the back of the house toward U.S. 12 - which is now Red Arrow Highway. The Ackermans lived in the home for about 18 years. This is the house Mom was born in and she always considered her family home.

In 2001, Karen (Mom) described the home: "When I was really small our living room was also the dining room. We had a table and chair set for my sister and I that was by the front windows. There was a couch and a chair. The swirl plastic was painted teal. The front door came into the room. There was an arch into the kitchen. When I was ten my parents added on to the house, a very large living room with a big fireplace. We had a picture window to the front, hard wood floors, with pale rose rugs, two davenports and 4 overstuffed chairs, a desk and built-in bookshelves. The walls were pale green plaster. My sister and I shared a bedroom. We had twin beds and a dresser and dressing table with a mirror. We had a big closet you could walk into. We used to play in there when we were really little. We had chenille bedspreads, rose and tan and white design. We had pictures of sleeping babies over our beds. The ceiling light was shaped like a captains wheel. The walls were tan with grooves in them."

Gib ran his well and pump business out of an outbuilding he built just east of the house. That building had a basement and his shop - sadly, there are no photos of the building or the shop - it described in the ad Gib placed when he sold the home - see ad below. Gib would bring the family south with him for the winter and he often would try to rent the house out. He tried to sell the home in 1951 and then rented it instead - see ads below slideshow.

In November 1951, Gib came home with a brand new 1952 Royal Spartanette house trailer without telling anyone, even Lillian (see the newspaper ad below of him selling it two years later in 1953). Patty and Karen recall coming home and seeing the trailer and him telling the family they were selling the house and moving to Florida with this trailer. He told them they could each bring their bikes, one game/toy/doll with them as they spent the next year moving from one place to another, including a cross-country trip to San Diego. To see photos of the Ackermans with the Royal Spartanette trailer along with photos of what one looked like on the inside visit Gib and Lil's Travel page.

Gib sold the house September 5, 1952, to the Denks. They would come back to visit Nana and some of the photos of the house were taken after he sold it. The photo of Mom in the light blue dress in front of the house is when she graduated 8th grade in 1952. They had come back from traveling in the trailer and Mom had the photo taken in front of their old house. The house is still standing and there are photos of it from April 2024 in the slideshow below.