This photo was recently for sale on eBay. It offers a view of Michigan Avenue looking east. Just look at how closely farmland encroached upon the town! In the top left you can see Michigan Avenue and the railroad heading away to Detroit. I've labeled a few points of interest:
A: Wiedman's Ford dealership on Pearl. You can even see individual Fords parked in his car lot!
B: Huron Hotel, THE place to stay!
C: Masonic Temple
D: I *think* that this is the old interurban car barn, apparently not yet torn down.
E: Cleary Business College with its distinctive tower. The EMU School of Business is there today.
F: Note all the industries on the Water Street property.
G: There was a dump in this area around this time...I think this might be the dump.
H: Prospect Street
I & J: These appear to be orchards. I am charmed by how closely the rural landscape is to town in this era.
See anything else of note? Do pop it in "Comments" if you would, thanks!
What will be City Hall still has the vaguely Richardsonian Romanesque top floor too. This is well before the Attack of the Cheesegrater on this building, but it can't have been taken long before the top of the building was redone in it's present configuration.
ReplyDeleteI can't recall, was it a fire that forced the reconstruction or something else?
Oh yeah, I can see it, there...The peaked roof and the top floor were removed in the 1940s, but I'm not sure why. The cheese grater went up in '66-'67 and was removed in 1999.
ReplyDeleteInteresting also to note that Michigan Ave. appears to be a two-lane, two-way street with angled parking along both sides of the street downtown.
ReplyDelete