This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: LUCE, HALL, MEHRTENS Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/kFB.2ACE/4165 Message Board Post: Charles M. Luce, present proprietor of the Hotel Mertens, was born at Battle Creek, Mich., Dec. 2, 1883, son of Charles A. and Ellen (Hall) Luce. After attending the public schools of Grand Rapids he went to Chicago, where he attended the Chicago Manual Training school and while there joined the Tau Delta Phi fraternity. In 1907 he started traveling on the road as a salesman of furniture, on a commission basis, but in 1910 left the road to enter the purchasing department of the American Sheeting Company, with which he was connected for one year. Mr. Luce next went to Wickenburg, Ariz., where he engaged in the general merchandise business under the firm style of Luce & Campbell until 1913, when he came to Grand Rapids and became associated with Mr. Mehrtens in the building of the new Hotel Mertens, of which he has been proprietor and manager since the elder man's death. This hotel, at the corner of Oakes and Commerce streets, was thrown open to the public, July 6, 1914. It is! a fire-proof structure, sanitary in every particular, 100x50 feet in dimensions, and has eight floors and 133 rooms, forty rooms being with bath. The house has become extremely popular among those of the traveling public who appreciates real comfort, an excellent cuisine and attentive service, and who know that their every requirement will be gladly and intelligently catered to. Mr. Luce is a Republican in his political tendencies and is fraternally affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. He has shown himself as being in sympathy with progressive movements and as a citizen has supported public-spirited enterprises. Mr. Luce was married, Sept. 10, 1913, to Gertrude Ann, daughter of Charles H. Mehrtens, and they are parents of a son, Charles Mehrtens.