William Ferry was involved in a range of Grand Haven enterprises, including stores, banking, shipping, shipbuilding, land speculation, and lumbering.

This firm platted the nearby village of Montague, Michigan in 1865; the town became a bustling lumbering center in the 1870s.

In the mid-1880s, as the lumber business sagged, Ferry moved from this house to Wisconsin, and later to Park City, Utah to take up silver mining.

[2] The Edward P. Ferry House is a narrow-front two-story Italianate structure with a hip roof on a brick foundation.

Both rooms have plaster ceilings with heavy molded cornices and a central rectangular panel and marble mantlepieces.