April 2015 - Lost In Michigan

First Congregational Church in Ovid – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

On February 13, 1871, twenty-two persons began Ovid’s First Congregational Church. The next year this structure was erected. George Fox served as master carpenter. Its first minister was the Reverend William Mulder. Originally located at High and Park Street, the church was pulled here by oxen in 1899 and turned to face Main Street. It was enlarged for a growing congregation, which came to be “one of the most powerful social forces in the county.”In 1943, Ovid’s Congregational and Methodist societies merged, using both their buildings until 1972. In 1979, the church became a private residence. This Ovid landmark, whose octagonal belfry tower holds a melodious 1876 bell, is listed on the Historic American Buildings Survey and the National Register of Historic Places.

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The Welfare Building in Chelsea – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Historic Places, Michigan Historical Markers .

The Welfare Building was constructed in 1906 as a recreation facility for the workers of the Glazier Stove Company. It featured a swimming pool, a billiard hall, a basketball court, a theatre and a reading room. Chelsea native Frank P. Glazier, who was Michigan state treasurer from 1904 to 1908, founded the stove company in 1891. Because Chelsea, a predominantly rural community, lacked skilled labor, most of the company’s workers commuted weekly via a special train from Detroit. In 1907 Glazier declared bankruptcy. The building was sold to the Lewis Spring & Axle Company, which manufactured the short-lived Hollier Eight automobile. Since 1960 the building has housed the Chelsea Standard.

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James McColl House in Yale – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

This Queen Anne style structure was erected in 1899 by Scottish-born James Livingston. He gave the house to his daughter, Louise Livingston McColl. During the late nineteenth century, Livingston and his son-in-law James McColl produced linseed oil and twine in their flax mills in Michigan and Canada. At the time this house was built, McColl was also village president. The elaborate wood-frame house remained in the McColl family until 1980.

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Sharon Mills Historic Site and Park

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Grain Elevators, Historic Places .

Sharon Mills near Manchester was built in the 1830s. Later a gristmill was erected and operated by John Rice and subsequently by the Kirkwood family until the late 1920s. In 1928, Sharon Mills was purchased by Henry Ford for use as a small plant. He rebuilt the mill, added a stone addition, and installed a hydroelectric generator for power. Sharon Mills became the thirteenth Ford Village Industries plant employing approximately 15 men who manufactured cigar lighters. Regrettably, Ford’s Village Industries concept proved economically nonviable and the Sharon Mills plant closed in 1946. This association with Henry Ford makes this site particularly significant according to the Michigan Historic Commission. Apart from a brief period as an antique business, through the 1950s until the close of the ’80s, Sharon Mills was used primarily as a private residence. Sharon Mill was listed as a State Register Historic Site in 1989. In the 1990s, the mill was converted into the Sharon Mills Winery, bottling and selling Michigan wines. When the winery closed, the family sold the mill and its 24-acre site to the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission (WCPARC) in December 1999. Additional purchases of surrounding farmland have increased the park to 170 acres.

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The Stadium at Michigan and Trumbull

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Historic Places .

The corner of Michigan and Trumbull has had a few names over the years and you can tell how old someone is by what they called it. For my Dad, it’s Brigg’s Stadium, to me it was Tiger Stadium. I have never been to the new stadium, I am sure it’s a nice stadium and is similar to several other modern stadiums around the country, but you will never get that sense of history walking into a new stadium like you did walking into the old Stadium on Michigan and Trumbull.

To be honest with you, I could not tell you the last time I watched a Tiger’s game on TV, my dad probably could not tell you when he missed a Tiger’s game. As we get older, memories from our youth fade away, but there are some memories that will live with us forever.

I remember in the late 70’s my dad loading the family up in the Olds 88 and taking a trip down 75 from Saginaw to Detroit. Back then, there was not much parking around the stadium, either that, or my dad was too cheap to pay for parking, and I remember parking in a neighborhood across the highway. I remember taking the walkway over the highway and as you crest the center you see that enormous white stadium, with the lights protruding from the roof. I remember passing those gates surrounding the Stadium and looking up at the towering white walls, inside the stadium was the distinct aroma of popcorn and beer. Finding our way around the stadium to our seats and traversing huge steal beams and girders and finally heading towards the light coming from one of the openings, like the light from the heavens, of which we walked into revealing perfectly manicured field and rows of green wooden seats. I think that is the thing I like most about Tiger Stadium, was the fact it was an old man made structure built during the Industrial revolution and made with bricks and steel which personified Detroit’s magnificent manufacturing history. And yet in the middle of this industrial jungle was a beautiful oasis of green grass.

When I got to Michigan and Trumbull this summer, the gate was left open, I don’t know if was intentionally or incidentally, but either way I went onto the field and it was a strange feeling standing there at home plate knowing this was where Kirk Gibson hit the homerun in game 5 of the 84 world series. It was sad looking at the mound that Mark Fidrych groomed with his own hands. Now all that is left is a Flagpole and Diamond, surrounded by dandelions instead of rows of seats filled with cheering fans.

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