Category Archives: General Store

Oak Grove General Store

Posted on by Posted in General Store, small towns .

I saw this old general store in the small town of Oak Grove. It’s located north of Howell on an old mill pond. The town was originally called Chemungville. When the post office was established in 1859 the name was changed to Oak Grove. A few houses and buildings still stand in the small town. It looks as if the old general store closed a while back. The faded sign above the windows reads: Pearce’s General Store 1876.

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Finding Bliss in Northern Michigan

Posted on by Posted in General Store, small towns .

If you are searching for Bliss in northern Michigan you will it find somewhere between Mackinaw City and Cross Village. It’s the name of a small town in the agricultural area south of Wilderness State Park. In 1878, the town got a  post office, and the little community was named after Arron T. Bliss, a wealthy lumber baron in Saginaw. I assume he owned land and a sawmill in the area. He became the 25th governor of Michigan. There is not a lot of buildings in the small town, but the general store is still in business. If you are in the area you can stop for a moment of bliss in the town of Bliss.

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The Old Store

Posted on by Posted in General Store, small towns .

I saw this old general store in the small town of Burnips. It’s located southwest of Grand Rapids and got its start in the 1850s when James Burnip settled in the area. He built a general store and the intersection that it sat on was known as Burnip’s Corners. In time the town became to be just Burnips.

This is probably not the store that James Burnips built but I could imagine back in the day getting an ice cold bottle of Faygo out of the cooler and sitting on the porch on a hot Michigan summer day.

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Lost In Good Hart

Posted on by Posted in General Store .

This cute little general store is on M-119 along the famous “tunnel of trees” route. It is between Harbor Springs and Cross Village and it’s a nice place to stop and get a snack while you are out enjoying a nice drive in northern Michigan.

The Native American chief in the area was Black Hawk and his brother was named Great Heart or Good Heart. The Indian agent marked it down as Good Hart and that is where the name of the town came from.

P.S. One of my favorite books is When Evil Came To Good Hart. If you love true crime stories you can see more about it on Amazon HERE

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The Old Store in the Leelanau Peninsula

Posted on by Posted in General Store, Ghost towns .

This old building stands in the Leelanau Peninsula not far from M-22. It is located where the town of Good Harbor once stood once stood along the shores of Lake Michigan between Glen Arbor and Leland. I am not sure if this building that looks like an old general store was part of the town but it looks as if it was built a long time ago.

In the 1860s H. D. Pheatt built a dock in Good Habor Bay to supply passing steamships with firewood. Over the next few decades, a couple of sawmills were built. The town had grown in population and had a hotel, general store, school, and some saloons. The interesting thing is Centerville and Cleveland townships boundary lines ran down the middle of Main Street in Good Harbor. Centerville did not allow saloons, so Good Harbor’s saloon was built on the Cleveland township side of the street. In1905 the last remaining sawmill caught fire and burned down. Because most of the timber had been cut in the area the sawmill was not rebuilt. in the 1920a the old wood buildings still standing in the empty town were dismantled and the lumber used to build them was sold.

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Hanging Out In Horton Bay

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The small town of Horton Bay is located on the north side of Lake Charlevoix and it’s where a young Ernest Hemingway liked to hang out. I can see why with its beautiful northern Michigan scenery and the old general store in town.  Unlike the big box stores or the convenience stores with beer posters plastered on the exterior, the old general stores have a small town community feeling to them. If you are near Lake Charlevoix I highly recommend taking a trip around the lake there are some interesting places to see and things to do. But I am saving that for a later post.  By the way, I wanted to stop and do some shopping and check out the inside but it was closed. I guess that just means I need to take a trip back up there which is fine since I love the Charlevoix area.

 

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The General Store in Huron City

Posted on by Posted in General Store, Thumb .

This old General Store sits in Huron City near the tip of the Thumb. It was built in 1885 after the great fire of 1881 that swept through the forests of the Thumb. It closed in the 1950s and is now part of the Huron City Museum.

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The Old Building in Pequaming

Posted on by Posted in General Store, Ghost towns, upper peninsula .

This old building stands in the trees in the Upper Peninsula town of Pequaming. There is not much remaining in the town today but back in its heyday it the entire town was owned by the Ford Motor Company. It was a sawmill town making lumber for Model-T bodies. I am not sure what this old building was, maybe a general store or an old boarding house. It seemed kind of lonely and forgotten surrounded by trees.

You can read more about Pequaming in my other post HERE

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The Store In The Middle Of Nowhere

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I saw this old store somewhere between Howard City and Grant. It seemed like it was out in the middle of nowhere since there was not a name of a town listed on the map. Surrounded by farmland it looks as if it has been a long time since this old store was open to customers.

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Hanging Out at the General Store

Posted on by Posted in General Store .

When I was a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s we would hang out at the mall in the winter since there was not a lot to do on a cold Michigan day in the suburbs.  You could put some quarters in Galaga and check out the CDs at the music store and get a snack. I saw this old General Store at the Sanford Centennial Museum and it got me thinking about what It must have been like back then. That must have been a big deal to go to the store with the horse and wagon. Inside the clerk with his white shirt and apron was stocking the shelves. A couple of old farmers in overalls sitting around a barrel next to the pot belly stove playing checkers talking about what crops they are going to plant in the spring. If we’re lucky maybe mom will get us some penny candy.

This was L.P. Larson’s General Store in Olsen. It was moved by the Sanford Historical Society to its current location at the Museum. To check out the old photos of the store and the history of the building at the society’s website click on the link HERE  

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