06/02/2026
In a recent post about the 100th anniversary of Huizen’s Furniture, there was quite a bit of interest in the Fryling building sitting on the west side. This post is only about about that particular business.
In the photo (below), which does not have a specific date, only the Fryling Jewelry business is shown. Later, an optometry business will open next to it.
In all the different directories, census, and newspaper reports, here’s what we know about the Fryling businesses.
In 1930, Frederick Fryling, his wife Hildah, and their infant son, Gordon, were living on Church Road in Paris Township. We haven’t pinned down what road today that would be, but Frederick was working on a carving machine in a furniture factory. It was not until 1937 that he shows up on Burton Street operating a barber shop and watch repair business. The 1940 city directory indicates the shop was at 1033 Burton Street next door to Huizen Furniture, and the family, now including a daughter named Esther, was living further west at 1045, next to the old Galewood Theater.
In early January 1940, the 1033 Burton Street location burned in a fire. Later that month, he sought approval to build a barber and beauty shop at the 1045 location to replace the one destroyed by fire. Fred’s World War II draft registration indicates both the home and the barber shop business are in that same location. By 1946, the city directory is showing Fred as a jeweler still at the 1045 address. Meanwhile, son Gordon is living at home and attending school at Grand Rapids Christian High School. In 1950, Fred’s jewelry business shows up as adjacent to Huizen Furniture with an address of 1035. Son Gordon has moved on, residing in Grand Rapids with his wife, Francis, and two very young sons – Marc and Gregory. Gordon is working as a timekeeper for a hardware manufacturing firm. His sister Esther is a student nurse in a hospital.
Five years later, the address of Fryling’s Jewelry shows up as 1045, leading us to believe that between maps and directories, mistakes were made. The 1955 Abrams Aerial section, below, shows the Fryling Jewelry building adjacent to Huizen Furniture, and the house still sitting next to it. Meanwhile, that same year, Gordon F. Fryling is graduating from the Chicago College of Optometry. By 1960, Dr. Fryling had opened his optometry practice in a new building erected along the west wall of the jewelry store.
A 1976 advertisement in The Grand Rapids Press shows Fred Fryling still operating what is now called the Fryling Diamond Company at 1033 Burton Street SW. However, it indicates he had been in the business since 1932, but we have not found evidence that dates further back than 1937. He retired from the business in 1979 and three years later, at the age of 81, while living at 784 68th Street SW, in Byron Township, Fred passed away leaving his wife, Hilda, son Gordon, and daughter Frances, along with 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
To further muddy the dates, a death announcement in the January 25, 1982, edition of the Grand Rapids Press stated that Fred had graduated from the Fox Barber College in 1927 and worked as a barber until 1945, when he went into the diamond business.
