Forgotten Places Archives - Page 25 of 25

The Old Marquette Orphanage

The Holy Family Orphanage was opened in 1915 by the catholic church and was designed to accommodate 200 children. The reason for the large orphanage was Native American Children were removed from their families and tribe in an effort by the government and society to separate them from their culture. Sadly I don’t remember hearing about this in history class. I found the Indian_Child_Welfare_Act on wikipedia for more info.

It was furnished with classrooms, a dormitory, bathrooms on every floor and an annex that housed heating and plumbing facilities. There were laundry and kitchen facilities, a large dining hall and playrooms. the orphanage was open until the 1960s and some of the Cuban refuges children were some of it’s last to live there before being moved to foster homes. Northern Michigan University used it until the 1980s and it has been abandoned since then.

There are urban legends of abuse by the nuns, and a rumor of one girl who was out playing in the snow who caught pneumonia and died a few days later from her Illness. Supposedly the nuns had a funeral for her in the basement. they say on a quite night you can still hear the children playing.

For the record, I do not trespass, and I took this photo from a public sidewalk.

Lost In Michigan Calendars are back on sale this weekend and help me with expenses to do this website, I hope you will take a look at them HERE

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Lost in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, upper peninsula .

An old store or saloon I saw in Covington

I haven’t posted in the past few days because I went on a whirlwind tour of the Upper Peninsula, and I can honestly say I got lost, well maybe not lost since I knew where I was but I did make a wrong turn, somewhere after Escanaba, 41 and 2 split and somehow I missed that and drove thru Stephenson and when I saw the sign for Green Bay then I new something was wrong. At that point I decided to let the GPS lady get me back to Iron Mountain, She took me down some back roads and I found the Statue of Liberty proudly standing in someone’s yard. Don’t ask me where because I had no Idea where I was at. From Iron Mountain, we (my wife went along too) went up to Calumet then back down to Marquette over to Munising and then to Newberry and finally back over the bridge to the L.P.

I put over 1300 miles on the car and took over 1100 photos in the past 4 days. I know I was early for the color, but I can’t get mother nature to work with my schedule, It looks like the fall colors will start to peak this weekend in some spots of the northern U.P. and then in two weeks for the rest of the U.P.

I am looking forward to sharing pics from this recent trip along with the other pics from around Michigan I have.

Mike Sonnenberg.

I Might Be Crazy, But at least I am not Eating Road Kill

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Houses .

My wife went with me on this recent trip around the south west part of the state, I think she was thinking it would be a mini vacation, but I thought she was hanging out with me while I was, what I call, working. I don’t think she was planning on me driving all around taking as many pics as I did. After having been on the road for 8 hours of driving and visiting a plethora of places, we were heading down 79 to Charlotte. I saw a car on the side of the road and a guy wondering about, then out of the corner of my eye I saw an old farm house. It was your average abandoned farm house and abandoned houses go. Your typical busted windows and paint pealing with the grass and landscaping growing wild from years of neglect, but I stopped and took a pic (from the road, I don’t trespass). At this point I am sure my wife was thinking I was crazy, but I got a few pics, then I noticed the guy down the road had a stick and was checking out the fresh road kill. I got to thinking, I may be a little crazy but at least I am not inspecting road kill crazy. I’m wondering if he was looking for something fresh for dinner that night. If he was, then I am thinking he should make a trip to Wahjamega for professional help.

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Michigan’s Haunted Mansion

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Historic Places, Houses, Uncategorized .

Several sources have said this is one of the most haunted places in Michigan. I am not much of a believer in ghosts, but I do like a good story. Built in 1876, on M53 near Brown City is this old Second Empire mansion. It was the home of and built by John G. Bruce who owned the Bruce and Webster General Merchants with his brother-in-law in Burnside township which he was the postmaster for 16 years. The old house sold a few different times and rumor has it one of the mansion’s owners were said to have been taking the back roads in his automobile when he hit a pedestrian. Terrified at what he had done, he took the body back to the mansion and buried it somewhere on the estate. Some say the ghost of the victim, others simply guilt, caused the man to lose his fortune and drive him to commit suicide by hanging himself in the old bell tower.

Please note this house is not abandoned please be respectful and do not trespass.

I have more about the historic mansion and several other haunted places around the state in the Lost In Michigan books available on Amazon HERE

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North Grove School

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Schools .

North Grove School looks so lonely watching cars pass by on M24 south of Caro. I am sure at one time kids were learning the alphabet and math, then during recess, playing in the field next to the school, now overgrown with weeds. Times were different back then, and a long ways away from the internet and Ipads.

Mystery House on Marlette Road

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Houses .

I saw this old house on Marlette road with a cross in the yard between Marlette and Cliffford Michigan. It’s hard to read in the photo, but I could make out Donna carved into the cross. Who was Donna, did she live here? did she die in a roadside accident and someone put up a cross and a wreath. I see a lot of old abandoned houses around Michigan, but very seldom do I have a named associated with it. It makes this house seem so much more real and that someone lived and raised a family here.

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Irish Hills Towers

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Historic Places .

I can just imagine a family in the 30’s and 40’s living in Detroit loading up in the old car (new at the time, but old to me) and driving west down Michigan Avenue. Heading out to the Irish Hills for the day to see the sight at the top of the Irish Hills Towers. With the interstate highway system and how easily you can drive long distances quickly to parks with “Extreme” rides like Cedar Point, people stopped visiting the Irish Hills. This is just one more tourist destination that is slowly fading away like Deer Acres and so many other roadside atractions. It seems like everyone is in such a hurry to get places, and plugged into there electronic devices, no one ever looks out the window and stops to enjoy the journey, If they were open I would climb to the top, the view must be better than anything I would see on an ipod or gameboy screen.

p.s. I think they should be saved, just because the second tower was built out of “spite”

Deer Acres Storybook Amusement Park

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

I remember visiting Deer Acres as a kid in the 70’s with my family. it was a fun day trip from Saginaw to feed the deer and drive the old model T style cars around the track with the guide rail. Time has change and Deer Acres is no longer what it used to be, I was told someone has recently purchased it and is in the process of renovating it but other than that it sits as a monument to my childhood memories.

Quincy Dredge No 2

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

North of Houghton and Hancock on M26 you see this giant rusting old dredge on the shoreline of Torch Lake. It’s massive, and standing next to it is kinds of eerie, it’s like a sleeping monster the size of a 3 story building. The Quincy Dredge No. 2. It was built in 1914 and sank in 1967 and has been sitting there ever since, and in 1978 the state declared it a historic site.

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Lake Station Trailer

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

Traveling down us 10 about 30 miles north west of Clare I went thru this little town of Lake Station. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this old trailer parked next to the post office. It looks as if it has been there a long time, I imagine someone dropped it off with an old truck which was new at the time, and it has been there watching new houses and buildings being built around it.

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