There’s a lot of things to love about Grand Haven, isn’t that right? It’s a great town. There’s so much here as far as kind of a sense of community. Everybody’s friendly and hardworking and good-natured.
— John Morgan, J. Morgan Limited
“I moved over from Wisconsin. I was 29, and moved my family over here to start a little business. We’d been making jewelry in our basement, and doing some art fairs and work for other jewelry stores—repairs and stuff like that. We opened up down the street next to the old movie theater, the Grand Theater. We were there for 25 years and started busting at the seams, so we moved here in 2012 after completely gutting this building—tore up the whole facade, put in this beautiful limestone and brick facade that you see here now, and restored this building.
The only thing we kept was the wooden floor, the hardwood maple. Originally I was going to carpet it, but I’m so glad I didn’t—when it creaks, you can hear the history.”
“I think the thing about jewelry that’s so satisfying to me personally is it’s a combination of technique and craft as well as a business. You’re working with precious metals and gems, but you’re not just selling a piece of gold or a diamond—it’s a symbol of sentiment, of love, of accomplishment. It’s a beautiful gift that speaks to the heart. A guy gives his love of his life a diamond ring, or a grandmother gives her lovely granddaughter a gift to remember her by. That’s what people are really buying. It’s not the gold. It’s not the diamond. It’s the idea. The feeling. The moment. And those moments are where jewelry has it over so many other things—jewelry lasts a lifetime and beyond.
There’s a lot of things to love about Grand Haven, isn’t that right? It’s a great town. There’s so much here as far as kind of a sense of community. Everybody’s friendly and hardworking and good-natured. We don’t have a lot of crime. It’s a great place to raise a family. And we’re close to nature with the wonderful lake—you can’t talk about Grand Haven without the lake.
“Then you’ve got most of the amenities that you really need for day-to-day life. But if you want something different—maybe bigger or fancier—nearby is Grand Rapids, the second biggest city in the state. Chicago’s not that far away, either.
But man, it’s that lake. It’s that lake!
I’ve lived in all four states around Lake Michigan—Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan—and this is the best by far. And here’s why: we’ve got better sand, better beach quality. It stays light later at night by an hour because we’re on the edge of the time zone—pretty nice. 10:00, 10:30 at night, still light out. The water’s warmer because the wind turns it over as it blows this way. And we’ve got those flipping beautiful sunsets. I mean, that’s a California sunset out there, brother!”
