The Houppert Winery Complex, now the Lawton Heritage Community Center, is a complex of buildings constructed as a winery and located at 646 North Nursery in Lawton, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1997 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.HistoryGrape growing in the Lawton area stretches back to 1868, when A. B. Jones planted the area's first grape vines. Realizing the potential of grape and wine production, many farmers in eastern Van Buren County began planting grapes in the latter part of the 19th century. In 1903, the Lawton Vineyard Company constructed a winery on this site. The property changed hands often over the next 30 years, and was used to make wine and grape juice. In 1933, the property sold to William C. Houppert of Indiana, whose father was a wine master from Alsace-Lorraine who had emigrated to Indianapolis to start a winery.Production at the winery peaked in 1939, with the winery taking in 200 to 400 tons of grapes daily and employing 40 people. Houppert constructed a new cask building, built around casks purchased from Al Capone's Prima Brewery. However, in 1940, a disastrous fire destroyed the winery. Houppert began rebuilding the winery that year, hiring stonemason Ed Schallhorn to construct a new stone building. Although much of the wine had been saved from the fire, and the winery was back in business shortly, construction on the new winery stretched to 1943.The financial damage from the fire was severe, and the operation never really recovered. The Houppert Winery collapsed in 1943, and John Turner, president of First National Bank of Lawton and mortgage holder, assumed ownership of the property. Turner already owned another local firm, Michigan Wineries, so he purchased Houppert's equipment and stock and folded the Houppert Winery's operations into his own. Houppert moved to California, but was never able to re-enter the wine-making business.
