Long-time Charlotte courthouse caretaker had a 'knack for fixing' things

CHARLOTTE - If buildings could talk, Julie Kimmer believes the 1885 Eaton County Courthouse would say "thank you" to Gaylord Edgerly.

The massive red-brick building, a historical centerpiece at the corner of Cochran and Lawrence avenues in downtown Charlotte, is home to the Courthouse Square Association and Museum.

Residents gather on the lawn in the summer to listen to music. They stand outside in the winter after the annual holiday parade to sing carols and turn on lights that have been strung around a large tree on the grounds.

But without Edgerly, the courthouse might not be what it is today, said Kimmer, the association's manager. 

"He wouldn't give up when he was determined to get something done," she said. "He was fearless. I question where this place would be had he not volunteered."

The Charlotte resident, a retired electrician, took care of the courthouse for more than two decades.

Edgerly died March 15, at age 85, two and a half years after a massive stroke forced him to step away for his role as the building's caretaker.

Edgerly's deep-seated love for old buildings is credited with saving it, but to hear him tell it, the projects he finished there were simply about persistence.

"...you start at one end and there's a finishing point," he said during an interview with the State Journal in 2013. "You just have to get to it. If you stop you'll never be done."

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'A historian at heart'

Edgerly spent countless hours and a significant amount of his own money maintaining the courthouse.

He voluntarily repaired a leaking roof when 25 buckets were being used to catch water. He cleaned out the building's heating traps where years of debris had collected, and entirely rewired the 10,000-square-foot building. He kept up its heating system, installed sinks and toilets, painted inside and out and rebuilt the building's stained-glass ceiling. 

John Hotchkiss of Potterville worked alongside Edgerly for 18 years at the courthouse as a fellow volunteer, following his lead on projects that varied in size and complexity. Each one always got done, he said.

Edgerly simply knew what it took to keep the courthouse up, and approached each repair with infinite patience, Hotchkiss said. 

"He could recognize something that was going on in the building," he said. "He recognized a problem before it became a problem, and he had a knack for fixing them."

Edgerly lived in a well-loved historical property himself, said daughter Susan Lutterloh, 62. He restored his Cochran Avenue home, a 1904 Victorian, after moving to the community in 1980. Among his projects, he removed paint on the house's woodwork and exposed hard-wood floors that had been covered in carpet.

"He was a historian at heart," Lutterloh said. "And he could fix just about anything and make it run."

Lutterloh said her father passed some of that knowledge on to his daughters, teaching them, among other things, to change their vehicle's tires and oil, how to use a screw driver and the technique to rewiring a light.

"He taught us to be self-sufficient," she said. He taught other lessons by example, Lutterloh said, about fairness and generosity, kindness and dedication. 

Edgerly owned and restored several tractors and drove them in annual parades through Charlotte's downtown, but the courthouse is where he did some of his best work.

Lutterloh said her father enlisted the help of his family for some of those projects. She remembers painting the courthouse's basement hallway with her sister.

"He always had projects," she said. "Whenever we would go visit him family did projects together with him. He was very proud of keeping it (the courthouse) operational."

'He was fearless'

Edgerly's stroke in November of 2015 took a toll. Family moved him to Lakeview, where he grew up, to be closer to them. He was able to visit the courthouse a few times before his death.

Hotchkiss has since stepped into the role Edgerly held for 25 years as the courthouse caretaker. It was "an honor to accept the challenge," he said Thursday morning.

Kimmer said news of Edgerly's death last week shook everyone who knew him or his work at the courthouse. He's remembered for being tenacious about tackling repairs there, she said, always with a smile on his face.

Hotchkiss said Edgerly will live on through the work he did there.

"What he did for the building, and in the building, we see his name all over those projects," Hotchkiss said. "He'll always be a part of that building."

Edgerly's funeral was held Tuesday in Lakeview.

A memorial service will be held at the courthouse at 100 W. Lawrence Ave. at 2 p.m. April 14. It will be open to the public.

Contact Rachel Greco at (517) 528-2075 or rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.