[1] In the 1840s, what is now the Vine Area Historic District was part of a large farm owned by Michigan governor Epaphroditus Ransom.

Ransom sold this tract of land to Paulus DenBleyker, a recently arrived Dutch immigrant, in the early 1850s.

DenBleyker platted the land into streets and lots, many of which he sold to his fellow Dutch immigrants.

[2] Significant early residents of the neighborhood include pioneer druggist James P. Clapham, furniture dealer Edwin A. Carder, brickmaker R. Dexter Walker, and lawyer and politician William M. Stearns.

[2] The Vine Area Historic District contains 175 structures, covering six or seven square blocks of tree-lined streets.