Volume 40, number 2
October 2018
Grand River Times The Newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society Inside this issue: Cover Story: October program Letter from our President page 2
Building the Freeway: A Photo Find PRESENTED BY:
An Artist’s History Challenge page 3
Gina Bivins
Program Schedule 2018/2019 page 5
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Neighborhood Reminiscence page 5
Several years ago I gave a program for the Historical Society on the mug shot book in the archives of the Grand Rapids Public Museum. I knew about it from my days as a volunteer during the once a year Open House weekend at the “old museum” on Jefferson. I was stationed in the Police Station in Gaslight Village, issued a pair of white gloves and was actually allowed to show people more than one page. The book is huge, and fragile. The earliest entry in the book is from August of 1897. I took my responsibility for the safety of the book very seriously. It still is one of my favorite artifacts in the collection (okay, I have about 150 favorite artifacts, maybe more).
Happening in History page 6 Photo Sleuth page 7
at the Grand Rapids Public Library
Search: Grand Rapids Historical Society
Next program: After the October program, the Grand Rapids Historical Society’s next program will be on November 8, 2018, at the Grand Rapids Public Library. Tom Dilley will be speaking about: Paths Less Taken: Grand Rapids Women and the Egyptian Revival in Cemetery Architecture. Grand River Times
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Dear GRHS Members, A little over three years ago a couple I know who lived in Bridgewater Place Condos asked if I would be interested in giving a walking tour of their neighborhood. I said yes. I thought, I am a Westsider, I can do this without too much research. Because the Bridge Street corridor was changing so fast I chose to speak about the history of the The Grand River Times is the neighborhood just before the 131 expressway went in. As I prepared I newsletter of the Grand Rapids realized my memory of this street was not what that good. So I went to my Historical Society, published six times annually. Established in 1894, trusty supply of Polk City Directories and chose 1953 as my standard for the Grand Rapids Historical Society comparison. is dedicated to exploring the history of West Michigan; to discover its romance and tragedy, its heroes and scoundrels, its leaders and its ordinary citizens. The Society collects and preserves our heritage, passing it on to new generations through books, lectures, and education projects. Executive Committee: Gina Bivins, president Matthew Daley, vice-president John Gelderloos, treasurer Nan Schichtel, secretary Board members: Alan Bennett Charles Bocskey Thomas Dilley Matthew Ellis Chris Kaupa Gordon Olson, emeritus Wilhelm Seeger, emeritus Jeff Sytsma Julie Tabberer Jim Winslow Kurt Yost Jessica Riley, editor Grand Rapids Historical Society c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library St. NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503
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The Bridge Street corridor from the river to the intersection of Lexington/Stocking has changed dramatically. Here and there are remnants of a past life. The building housing Swift Printing at the corner of Bridge and Mt. Vernon still stands and continues to have living spaces above the shop. New construction is built with commercial space on the first floor with living spaces above, typical of many of the buildings that were removed for the expressway and “progress�. In this issue of the Grand River Times is reminiscence by a gentleman who spent time on that earlier Bridge Street. It is only an excerpt of a longer essay. I am excited to share images taken by Seymour Beiboer during the construction (and yes destruction) of the neighborhood to accommodate both the 131 and I196 freeways.
About the Grand Rapids Historical Society. The Grand Rapids Historical Society sponsors eight programs each year, beginning in September and running through May, including lectures, audio/video presentations, demonstrations, collections, or special tours. Membership. Membership is open to all interested persons with annual dues of $30 per family, $20 for seniors and students, or $400 for a lifetime membership. The membership year runs from May to the following May. Members of the Grand Rapids Historical Society receive eight newsletters each year and a subscription to our annual magazine, Grand River Valley History. Members also receive a 20% discount on books published by the society as well as books published by the Grand Rapids Historical Commission. Change of Address. If you will be permanently or temporarily moving to a new address, please notify GRHS before your change occurs. Let us know your new address and the date you plan to leave and plan to return. Email to grhs.local@gmail.com, or mail to Grand Rapids Historical Society, c/o Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
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An Artist’s History Challenge On July 21, 1954, 69 young women stopped for a photo before boarding a pair of North Star Lines busses in front of the Trust Building on the corner of Pearl and Ottawa in downtown Grand Rapids. Now, 64 years later, that photograph was the springboard for a highly detailed pencil drawing that is part of the ArtPrize 10 Exhibition at the Sweet House, 254 Fulton Street East, at the corner of Lafayette. The artist is the grandson of one of the nurses or nursing students, he’s not sure which. What he is sure of is the date of the photo and the destination of the busses. On the back of the photo his grandmother wrote the date as well as Preferred Picnic @ Grand Haven. He also knows his grandmother was a nurse and that his mother too is in the picture, but as a very small stowaway. She would be born just six months later. Chris Patterson, was given the picture to use as his model by his mother who found the image in a closet after his grandmother, Mrs. Lucille French, passed away several years ago. His mother presumed the young women were all colleagues at Butterworth where her mother had worked as a nurse, but while she is pretty sure of the nursing status she cannot be certain it was not a nursing school outing. There are also a few names written on the back. They are: Vivian L Sanders Esther Juergen Sally Asier Marilyn Sliter Lena Belle Niermeyer Margaret Kapla If you might have any more information on this Chris and his family would be very interested in hearing from you. You can email Chris’ mom, Norma, at Normajp@comcast.net. The drawing will be on display from September 19 through October 7, 2018 at the Sweet House. Fred Bivins Sweet House ArtPrize Exhibition Director New Members: We would like to welcome the newest members of the Grand Rapids Historical Society: Frederick Davison Michelle Davison
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Continued from front page What does the mug shot book have to do with the program I will give in October? When my husband Fred and I went into the Grand Rapids Public Museum archives to take photos of the mug shot book entries Tim or Alex showed me a couple of boxes of slides and said, “you probably would be interested in these”. Well, there’s an understatement. I have been waiting to find the time to really dig into the slides and do a presentation on them. It is now time. The exciting thing about this collection of more than 1,000 slides is that they are from a time in the history of Grand Rapids when the landscape of the city was changing rapidly. The photographer, Seymour Beiboer, chronicles the destruction of downtown buildings as well as the building of new ones. He shows the wasteland that was created when the expressways went in as well as the construction of these roadways. It was Seymour’s brother in law, Elvin Hofstra, who donated this treasure to the museum. For this, all history buffs should be grateful. The Museum has been making the effort to get their photographic images scanned and put up on the www.grpmcollections.org site so that the public can look at what is in the collection on line. Fred told the curators that he had a slide scanner and would find time scan the Beiboer images. About that time Albert Baxter Award winner Garret Ellison was writing a series of articles about urban renewal for the Grand Rapids Press. He was looking for some photos that he could use and called the curatorial staff who told him of Fred’s project. Garret started coming in and helping Fred. Once they were done, the staff downloaded the digital images to the web site. For a little over a year I have split my time at work between the main museum building and the archives building. Between projects I have been working on two photo collections. The museum has a large photo collection that has been partially scanned, I am filling in the data base as well as I can with the knowledge I have regarding their identification. The other is the slides from Beiboer. Seymour stamped information on each slide mount and I am slowly getting that all into the record. I chose to do the presentation on the expressway images he took. What first appeared to me to be mundane photos of the aftermath of the destruction were taken in such a way that I began to see beauty in many of the images. I have struggled to decide how to best present the images. I have chosen to let them fall into place as I review them over and over, and perhaps over again. I hope you enjoy my journey beside this remarkable chronicler Seymour Beiboer. I am so happy he decided to take the time.
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2018—2019 Grand Rapids Historical Society Programs All programs are held at the Grand Rapids Public Library in the auditorium at 7:00 p.m. PATHS LESS TAKEN: GRAND RAPIDS WOMEN AND THE EGYPTIAN REVIVAL IN CEMETERY ARCHITECTURE November 8, 2018, 7:00 p.m. Presented by: Thomas Dilley
MACKINAC ISLAND’S HISTORIC COTTAGES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS January 10, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Presented by: Tom Buettner
RIOT, RACE AND RECONCILIATION February 14, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Presented by: George Bayard
FAITH OF THE FATHERS—THE COURAGE, HUMOR AND DEDICATION OF CATHOLIC CIVIL WAR CHAPLAINS March 14, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Presented by: Rev. Robert J. Miller
FROM PIG FARM TO THRIVING NEIGHBORHOOD April 11, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Presented by: Fred Davison
LESSER KNOWN GRAND RAPIDS LANDMARKS May 9, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Presented by: Michael Page Grand River Times
The following is an excerpt from reminiscence by Douglas Neuman, printed with his permission “It was a cool morning as my Grandfather wearing his felt hat came out onto Bridge Street passing through the two black doors of the building addressed 400 Bridge NW. I was with him on our way to the barber shop. I was to get my first real haircut. The building still stands at the corner of Mt. Vernon and Bridge, now the east portion of what is today called the Iroquois Apartments. To my family this was 400 and a half, an apartment house of pensioners in the late 1940s on the second and third floor of this brick building. Stepping onto the sidewalk I saw a modern for the day, Standard Oil Station directly across Bridge Street. But we crossed Mt. Vernon then Bridge looking straight into the window Chris’ Hamburg restaurant. We walked past a few other buildings including the Red Line Restaurant before coming into the building addressed 337 Bridge. An ornate styled building built in the 1890s in what was then a very German community. The reddish pink stone covering the structure was fresh and lovely after more than fifty years. I was built with a color sense that went beyond the typical grays of its day. Then Grandpa and I entered the barber shop of Johnny Nagel. I would get that first real haircut in the world of Wildroot Cream Oil. The shop had four or five barber chairs and a chair for shoe shines in the back that I never saw used. The plate glass windows were filled with large green plants that looked as they had been residents many years. In a small painted circle centered at the bottom of each plate glass window was the price of a haircut. The price of a haircut was less than a dollar. There were at least three barbers at work as this was a busy thriving community that had not changed a great deal since 1900 thanks to two World Wars and the Great Depression. Occasionally one could still see a man shouldering a square chunk of ice with large metal tongs heading for someone’s ice box above one of the storefronts on Bridge Street.” The picture accompanying this excerpt was taken in November of 1962 by Seymour Beiboer. It is about the neighborhood Douglas Neuman remembers. So much was changed by the freeway going in. 5
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HAPPENING IN HISTORY: OCTOBER 2018 Western Michigan Genealogical Society Saturday, October 6, 2018, 1:30 p.m. Main Library—Ryerson Auditorium 111 Library St. NE Topic: Off to the Great War: Learning About West Michigan World War I Veterans Presenter: Adam Oster Many people from West Michigan served in World War I. Follow their experiences from the time they joined up through their service overseas. Learn the process of locating their records as well as how they can shed light on a veteran’s time during the Great War. Adam Oster is a librarian at the Kentwood Branch of Kent District Library. His responsibilities include providing reference services, readers advisory, outreach as well as computer class design and instruction. Adam holds a B.A. in History from GVSU with a minor in Political Science. He also has a Master of Library Science degree from Indiana University. Adam’s interests include genealogy and local history research. West Michigan Postcard Club Monday, October 8, 2018, 7:00 p.m. Faith United Methodist Church 2600 7th St. NW Topic: The Impact of the Pere Marquette Railway on West Michigan Presenter: Tom Buettner This program describes the impact that the Pere Marquette Railway had in shaping West Michigan, from the arrival of the railroad in 1864 through today. Starting with the creation of the railway through a complex series of mergers, the Pere Marquette became Michigan’s largest railroad. It provided access to cities stretching from Buffalo to Chicago, and from Bay View (Petoskey), to Toledo with tracks in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario. After years of service, the railway was absorbed by other railroads, leaving a West Michigan legacy consisting of CSX, AMTRAK, and Marquette Rail. Grand River Times
Grand Rapids Civil War Round Table Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. De Witt Student Center Kuyper College 3333 East Beltline NE Roger Rosentreter will be presenting to the group. Adult Programs, History and Genealogy Thursday, October 25, 2018, 7:00 p.m. Main Library—Ryerson Auditorium 111 Library St. NE Topic: Keep on the Grass: A Brief History of Grand Rapids Parks Presenters: Chris Byron, Tom Wilson, David Marquardt and Stephanie Adams There was a time when people flocked to city parks in the summer to escape the heat beneath the shade of large trees, to picnic on the lawns, to watch baseball games, play tennis, swim, and to socialize with their neighbors. Parks provided supervised games and activities six days a week throughout the summer for the city’s children. Dances and other activities were held in park buildings. In the winter, the parks offered skating and sledding. Michigan historians Chris Byron and Tom Wilson will share where the first parks in Grand Rapids were located and how new parks were developed and share the history of parks based on the Grand Rapids Historical Commission’s new book, Keep on the Grass: A Brief History of Grand Rapids Parks. David Marquardt, Director of Grand Rapids Parks & Recreation, and Stephanie Adams, Executive Director of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, will conduct a question and answer session at the end of the program.
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOIN THE GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY OR GIVE A MEMBERSHIP AS A GIFT The Grand Rapids Historical Society sponsors eight lectures each year. Members of the society enjoy these benefits:
The Grand River Times is the newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society. Published and mailed to members eight times a year, it includes current items of historical interest, details of upcoming lectures, historically relevant activities, and short articles.
The Grand River Valley History is the society’s annual magazine. Featured are illustrated articles by local history researchers and contributions from the Grand Rapids Public Museum, the City Archivist, the Grand Rapids Public Library, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.
20% Discount on all books and other items published by the society.
Please enroll me as a member of the Grand Rapids Historical Society: ____ New ___Renewal ____Gift _____Lifetime:
$400.00 one-time fee
_____Individual/Family Membership
$30.00 per year
_____Senior Citizen or Student
$20.00 per year
Name: Address: City/State/Zip:
Please make check payable to the Grand Rapids Historical Society and mail it with this form to: Grand Rapids Historical Society, c/o Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC LIBRARY PHOTO SLEUTH Our October Photo Sleuth selection comes from the Robinson Studio Collection's negatives. In this undated photo, two men, gas station attendants, are dressed in their work uniforms and are ready to work. If these men or this picture looks familiar to anyone, please email the Grand Rapids Public Library's Local History department at localhis@grpl.org.
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Non-Profit Org. U.S. postage PAID Grand Rapids, MI Permit No. 234
Grand Rapids Historical Society, Inc. c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library St. NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Building the Freeway: A Photo Find PRESENTED BY: Gina Bivins Thursday, October 11, 2018
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Cover Story: October program Letter from our President page 2 An Artist’s History Challenge page 3 Program Schedule 2018/2019 page 5 Neighborhood Reminiscence page 5 Happening in History page 6 Photo Sleuth page 7
For more information on Historical Society programs, please visit www.grhistory.org Grand River Times
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