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Category Archives: Michigan Historical Markers

The Historic Sowers House in Ovid

Posted on by Posted in Houses, Michigan Historical Markers .

sowers house ovid michigan

Built in 1869-70 for George D. and Carrie Sowers, this house in Ovid is an excellent example of Italianate architecture. Sowers, the first of several prominent local businessmen to live here, owned a planing mill located across the street with his partners George Fox. Sowers later became a partner in the Ovid Flour Mills. In 1882 Frank Scofield and his wife, Adelaide, purchased the house. Scofield co-owned the Ovid Carraige Works, one of the village’s largest employers during the late nineteenth century. His business declined with the rising popularity of the automobile. Henry and Sophia Hudson purchased the house in 1907, one year after Henry founded Hudson and Son Farm Implements, another prosperous Ovid business.

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The Majestic Peter Mansion in Columbiaville

Posted on by Posted in Houses, Michigan Historical Markers .

peter mansion columbiaville

The Michigan Historical Marker in front of the grand old home reads:

This structure, completed in 1896, was the home of William Peter (1824-1899). Peter, a prominent Columbiaville businessman, was a rags-to-riches character. Around 1847 he came to the area from Germany via New York state, a penniless immigrant. Immediately he began working in a local sawmill. He invested his earnings in large tracts of land and platted the village of Columbiaville in 1871. From 1879 to 1899, Peter developed the community. He built a gristmill, a woolen mill, houses for his workmen, a school, a church and several commercial buildings including the railroad depot (see my my post about it  HERE). Most of Columbiaville was owned and dominated by him. His wife, Roxanna, planned this Italianate residence, which still displays its original hardwood floors and decorative woodwork in oak, mahogany, walnut, cherry and maple.

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The Dreadful Reality of the Downtrodden at Eloise Asylum

Posted on by Posted in Cemetery, Forgotten Places, Haunted Places, Michigan Historical Markers .
eloise asylum haunted michigan

one of the few remaining buildings from the Eloise complex.

Some say that the Eloise Asylum near Westland on Michigan Ave. is one of Michigan’s most haunted places, I am not sure about that claim, but I would say it’s one of Michigan more interesting places, with a lot of history both good and sad.

The place began in 1939 when a log cabin known as the Black Horse Tavern and its property was converted into a poor house and 35 of the overcrowded tenants at the Wayne County poor house in Hamtramck were transferred to the newly constructed buildings. For years it was known as the Wayne County Poor House until a post office was opened in 1894 and named after Eloise Dickerson Davock the daughter of Detroit’s postmaster.

In 1913 there were three divisions: The Eloise Hospital(Mental Hospital), the Eloise Infirmary (Poorhouse) and the Eloise Sanitarium (T.B. Hospital) . Over the years the complex continued to grow with about 10,000 residents at its peak during the Great Depression. It had its own police and fire department, railroad and trolley stations, bakery, amusement hall, laundries, and a powerhouse. It also had many farm buildings including a dairy herd and dairy barns, a piggery, a root cellar, a Tobacco curing building, and employee housing.

Eloise was one of the first if not the first hospital to use x-rays for diagnosis performed by Dr.Albarran. Patients came from Detroit and other communities to have x-rays done.  It also housed the first kidney dialysis unit in the State of Michigan and was a pioneer in the field of Music Therapy.

eloise cemetery bw

the old Eloise Cemetery on Henry Ruff Road.

The other part of Eloise that remains, are the cemeteries and with a complex that had about 10,000 people living there, death was a regular occurrence. There were a few different locations that the bodies of the patents and residents of the poor house were buried. One of the cemeteries is about a mile away down Henry Ruff road and is nothing more than a field with small stone markers engraved with only a number for the body buried below. It seems rather cruel and inhumane that a person is remembered as a number and not even a name was placed on the marker. They used the cemeteries up until 1948 after that a law was enacted to use the bodies as cadavers for medical training. ( was not able to get a pic of the markers since the cemetery is fenced off and says no trespassing, and I really don’t want to go to jail)

eloise kay beard building

The main building left standing from the former Eloise Complex

The farm operations ceased in 1958 and some of the large psychiatric buildings were vacated in 1973. The psychiatric division started closing in 1977 when the State of Michigan took over the psychiatric division. The general hospital closed in 1984. Many of the buildings are gone and some of the property has been redeveloped into a golf course and condominiums. There is a Michigan Historical Marker near the parking lot, and currently the main building is up for sale.

 

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The City of Howell and it’s Beautiful Historic Courthouse

Posted on by Posted in courthouses, Michigan Historical Markers, Uncategorized .

Livingston County Courthouse howell

On 24 March 1836, the legislature passed an act organizing Livingston County and Howell was slated to become the County seat. This claim was vigorously opposed by a group from Brighton until the county buildings were actually erected 12 years later.  The town was originally called Livingston Center because it was in the center of the county. The area was platted by Flavius Crane and and Edward Brooks, and they named it for Thomas Howell, a friend of Mr. Brooks, and the son of Judge Howell in Canandaigua N.Y.

Albert E. French designed the courthouse a two-and-a-half story brick and stone building. This edifice, completed in 1890, shows influence of Richardsonian architecture and has maintained many of its original Victorian furnishings. Peter and Maria Cowdry donated the land for the courthouse square with the provision that it revert to their heirs if no longer used for a courthouse. Local citizens presented the clock to the county as a gift. The people of Livingston County voted in 1976 to restore their courthouse which is an area landmark.

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The Historic Island House on Mackinac Island – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on by Posted in Historic Places, Michigan Historical Markers .

Island House mackinac IslandConstructed for Charles O’Malley about 1852, this building was one of the first summer hotels on Mackinac Island. Captain Henry Van Allen, a Great Lakes skipper, purchased the hotel in 1865. He later moved it from the beach to its present location. By the 1880s the Island House was known as “The best family hotel on the island.” Following the death of her parents, Mrs. Rose Van Allen Webster became proprietor about 1892. She was the wife of Colonel John Webster, whom she had met during the 1870s when he was stationed at Fort Mackinac. Mrs. Webster added the large wings in 1895 and 1912, retaining ownership until her death in 1938. The Island House still serves as a resort hotel. you can find more about the history of the Island House on their website HERE

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St Mary’s Star Of The Sea in Jackson – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on by Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

st mary's star of the sea church Jackson Michigan

In 1880 Bishop Casper Henry Borgess of the Detroit Diocese approved the establishment of a second Catholic parish in the city of Jackson. The cornerstone ceremony for the parish church was held July 4, 1881. The present limestone Romanesque structure, erected in 1923/26 was designed by Frederick Spier of Detroit. One of the towers houses the 2,700-pound 1902 bell from the parish’s first church. The edifice also features stained-glass windows imported from Innsbruck, Austria, and Italian Carrara marble altars and communion rails. The confessionals and sacristy cases were built using the pews of the first building. During the parish’s growth from 124 members at its founding to 3,800 at the time of its centennial, it has had only six pastors.

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A Tragic Day in Michigan History

Posted on by Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .
Bath School Disaster

the cupola from the Bath School that was bombed rests in a park in Bath Michigan

I would much rather post positive stories, but the tragic ones should not be forgotten. Sadly Michigan had one of the most devastating acts of evil perpetrated in the country.  A Michigan Historical Marker stands next to a Cupola in Bath Michigan that tells of the horror that occurred.

On May 18, 1927, a dynamite blast rocked the Bath Consolidated School, shattering one wing of the building and resulting in the death of thirty-nine children and teachers; dozens more were injured. An inquest concluded that dynamite had been planted in the basement of the school by Andrew Kehoe, an embittered school board member. Resentful of higher taxes imposed for the school construction and the impending foreclosure on his farm, he took revenge on Bath’s citizens by targeting their children. Soon after the explosion, as parents and rescue workers searched through the rubble for children, Kehoe took his life and the lives of four bystanders including the superintendent, one student and two townspeople, by detonating dynamite in his pick-up truck as he sat parked in front of the school.

bath school diasterThe destruction of the Bath Consolidated School shared the front page of national newspapers with Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight. “Maniac Blows Up School …Had Protested High Taxes” screamed the headlines of the May 19, 1927, New York Times. Michigan Governor Fred Green created the Bath Relief Fund, and people from across the country expressed their sympathies and offered financial support. Michigan U.S. Senator James Couzens gave generously to the fund and donated money to rebuild the school. On August 18, 1928, Bath looked to the future and dedicated the James Couzens Agricultural School to its “living youth.” A statue entitled, Girl with a Cat, sculpted by University of Michigan artist Carleton W. Angell and purchased with pennies donated by the children of Michigan was also dedicated that day.

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The Castle Like Grand Trunk Depot in Lansing – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on by Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Train Depots .

grand trunk lansing depot michigan

Constructed in 1902, this castle-like building with its square tower was the Lansing station for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad until 1971. For decades passengers streamed through its doors. Here servicemen left and returned from military duty. Children and adults alike associated this depot with the excitement of travel and vacations. This city’s joys and sorrows were reflected in this rail station; greetings and good-byes were the most vital ingredients. But gradually rail travel ebbed. Renovated as a restaurant in 1972, the building’s exterior remains unchanged. Gerald R. Ford from Michigan, the thirty-eighth president of the United States, dined here during a “whistle-stop” campaign tour on May 15, 1976.

I figured I would post a photo from Lansing today to thank the Lansing State Journal for the really nice article about me, it was really flattering and humbling to read it, if you want to read it you can HERE

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Pewabic Pottery in Detroit – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on by Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

Pewabic Pottery Detroit Michigan

In 1903 Mary Chase Perry (Stratton) and Horace Caulkins founded Pewabic Pottery in a stable near downtown Detroit. Four years later, the present building was constructed a pottery works in the style of an English inn. Pewabic Pottery was part of the early twentieth-century Arts and Crafts design movement, which shunned machine-made products and championed the return of craftsmanship. Pewabics handmade ceramic wares became famous nationwide for their quality and brilliant, iridescent glazes. The companys architectural tiles were used in numerous public and private buildings including Detroits Guardian Building and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. Pewabic Pottery is a National Historic Landmark.

Mary Chase Perry was born in 1867 in Hancock, Michigan. By age ten she had moved to Detroit. She studied china painting and sculpture at the Cincinnati Art Academy from 1888 tom 1890. In 1903 Perry co-founded a pottery in Detroit and named it Pewabic after the Upper Peninsula copper mine near Hancock. She later married architect William B. Stratton, who designed the Pewabic Pottery building. During her prolific career, Perry developed new, iridescent pottery glazes, taught and wrote widely about ceramics, and was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. She died in 1961 at age ninety-four. Pewabic Pottery celebrated its centennial in 2003.

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Aquinas Collage – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on by Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

Aquinas College Grand Rapids Michigan

Aquinas College in Grand Rapids had its beginning in 1887 as the Novitiate Normal School of the Dominican Sisters of Marywood. In 1922 it became Marywood College. When the college was moved downtown in 1931, it became the coeducational Catholic Junior College. It began operating as a four-year college in 1940 and was named in honor of the great medieval theologian and philosopher, St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas is primarily a liberal arts college. It was moved to its current campus, the former Lowe estate, in 1945. The campus is also home to Holmdene Hall which is rumored to be haunted, you can read about it HERE

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