Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.

BATTLE CREEK, MI — The Kimball House Museum becomes a classroom every semester for Kellogg Community College students taught by Dr. Ray De Bruler.

De Bruler, a History Professor at KCC, says this is an opportunity for them to engage in “accidental learning,” which happens while they’re creating different exhibits at Kimball House.

“There’s always a little bit of suspicion from the students when we first begin, but they trust my process and that we know what we’re doing,” De Bruler says. “The class gels and they become friends for at least 15 weeks. They’re not going to get this type of learning experience anywhere else.”

John GrapDr. Ray DeBruler, a history professor at Kellogg Community College, brought students from one of his classes to work in Kimball House.Students have two options to do this type of hands-on learning with De Bruler. The SERV 200 course he teaches is a history class focused on learning to serve, and his History 210 course, titled Michigan History, is offered in a hybrid-learning format with a service learning component.

Each of these courses fulfills the service learning requirements that every KCC student must complete to graduate.

However, the students working at Kimball House on a recent Wednesday afternoon seemed to view what they were doing as less of a requirement and more of a hands-on opportunity to uncover a part of history that was less familiar.

John GrapSamantha Harris, a Kellogg Community College student, dusts items on the second floor inside Kimball House.“I’m definitely a hands-on learner. I hated online classes,” says Alexis Jones, a first-year student at KCC majoring in English. “I really enjoy the aspect of coming somewhere and being told to do something. Here, I have full creative control within actual historical bounds.”

On this particular day, she was taking care of odds and ends from the ongoing work she’d been doing to dress and accessorize mannequins who would be displayed during an exhibit titled “Speakeasy: Party at Kimball House” that will be open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. on April 26. The clothing and accessories are among many historical pieces housed at Kimball House.

John GrapWilliam Wallen, a Kellogg Community College student, dusts a window and curtains on the second floor inside Kimball House.To replicate the Speakeasy atmosphere, De Bruler says he asked his students to explore the home’s attic and basement, where pieces of historical significance are stored, including 1920s-style dresses and jewelry.

“I asked students to find stuff in good condition that’s displayable,” he says.

Jones says she likes fashion and considers it a form of art. Choosing the clothes that would exemplify the theme of the exhibit was easy, she says. “But learning what people wore and why the fashion trends were the way they were, and how clothes were worn a different way,” provided learning moments for her.

John GrapAn hourglass that was used to time the length of tours at Kellogg’s cereal plant and other Kellogg memorabilia are inside a room at Kimball House.Among these, while there have been advancements, people and their behaviors haven’t changed all that much.

“When people think of the past, they think of this puritan culture and how the times we’re now living in are nothing like it used to be,” Jones says.

What she’s learned through working on this exhibit is that “people were making moonshine in their basements, they had scandalous attire for this period in time, and youth were rebellious.”

John GrapWilliam Wallen, a Kellogg Community College student, dusts a window and curtains on the second floor inside Kimball House.No one was more surprised than her that she’s enjoying learning about history.
“It wasn’t an interest I had,” says Jones, who wants to be a lawyer, “but history is how we got here.”

KCC’s History 210 course allows students to learn online about the history specific to Michigan. De Bruler says the in-person work at Kimball House exposes them to how historians work.

“Students have to have an eye for things and look at where something should go,” he says. “The parlor is Victorian, and it took us a long time to figure out how to make it look Victorian. This is a good class to teach in 2025 because everyone’s got their phones to research what they’re working with.”

A house of historical proportions

Kimball House was built in 1886 by Dr. Arthur Herbert Kimball. In November 1966, the Junior League of Battle Creek accepted title to the Kimball House "on behalf of the community." They spent the next two years and approximately $17,000 transforming the family home into a community museum and historic home exhibit, which officially opened in 1969. Although the Junior League retained ownership until 1974, the daily operations were turned over to the Kimball House Historical Society, later named the Historical Society of Battle Creek (HSBC) in 1974.
John GrapA bedroom inside Kimball House
De Bruler works with volunteers at the Kimball House Museum and HSBC board members to plan the major exhibits. He says students will also come up with ideas. In addition, there are mini-exhibits like one upstairs focused on past Battle Creek baseball teams, including the all-female Battle Creek Belles, and a hot-air balloon-themed exhibit in an upstairs sitting room.

“A museum should always look different,” De Bruler says.

“You really have to work together to create these pieces in the house,” says Kirsten Wedding, a second-year student at KCC who plans to work in Radiology. “There’s a lot of teamwork and a lot you can get done when working with a group of your peers.”

Wedding worked on the baseball exhibit and assembled mannequins for the Speakeasy exhibit. She says she’s always enjoyed learning about history and took the Michigan History class after a friend recommended it.

John GrapIn a first-floor hallway of Kimball House are photos and portraits of members of the Kimball family.De Bruler says once students get into his classes, they “love it. It’s convincing them to take the class,” which takes some doing. Between the 200 and 210 level classes, he has about 20 students each semester who assist with the development of the Kimball House exhibits.

Some of them, like Riley Poll, have taken several of his classes.

Poll is a flight attendant with Delta Airlines who works around her class schedule at KCC. She is a fourth-year student there who hopes someday to teach History. When she shares this with others, they often ask why and what she will do with a degree in History.

“John GrapRay DeBruler shows the accession number on the bottom of a vase in Kimball House. The piece was catalogued in 1977; it was the 27th item catalogued that year, and it was part of a group that was brought in together.If you love things right now, they exist because of history,” she says. “A love of history is a love of humanity. We need to remember to care for each other. I’ve known since third grade, when I read a book about the Holocaust, that I wanted to be a history teacher. I love feeling connected to people who lived thousands of years ago.”
Those connections often reveal the similarities between previous and present generations.

“We bet on football games, People used to bet on when ships would come in. When Basra would ship dates to the United States for holidays, people would place bets on when a ship from there carrying the dates would come in,” Poll says.

John GrapScene at the top of the stairs on the second floor of Kimball HouseBasra was one of three provinces incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.

Poll says she has become “obsessed” with the Ottoman Empire and the history of Islam after taking a class De Bruler taught focused on this area of history.

“I just love it. I started learning Turkish. For me, I’ve always been fascinated by religious studies and history. It just captivated me with the cultural traditions, clothing, and food.”

John GrapKimball House will host a Speakeasy Party on April 26.DeBruler says inspiring an appreciation for history with his students provides plenty of satisfying moments for him.

When working on the exhibits, he says, “There’s continual movement, and I check on the students and answer their questions. We genuinely have accidental learning.”