Michigan Historical Markers Archives - Page 4 of 8

A Tragic Day in Michigan History

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

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 silently standing in a park in Bath Michigan that reminds us 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.

The 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 the 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

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

you can get a print of this pic or any of my images HERE

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Pewabic Pottery in Detroit – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

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 April 2, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

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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Monarch Milling Co. in Alpena – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Grain Elevators, Michigan Historical Markers .

The historical marker says: In 1916 the Monarch Milling Company, a grist and flour mill, began operations in this building, which was constructed in 1914. By 1920 it was known as the Alpena Flour Mills, producing “Leader” and “Velvo” brand flour. The mill closed in 1956, but during its forty years of operation, it played an integral part in the daily life of the community. Much of the original equipment remains in place.

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Alabaster and the Ghostly Loading Dock on Lake Huron

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Historic Places, Michigan Historical Markers .

Alabaster, south of Tawas on Lake Huron, was named after a variety of gypsum discovered offshore by Douglass Houghton in 1837. Prospectors soon began searching for other gypsum deposits, and this quarry was opened in 1862 by B.F. Smith. Used at first as fertilizer and as an ingredient in plaster, gypsum is now used principally in the manufacture of wallboard. A fire in 1891 destroyed the operation but it was rebuilt in time to supply material for the main buildings at the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893. These buildings, with marble-like walls, earned the exposition the title “White City,” and greatly expanded gypsum sales. Incorporated into the U.S. Gypsum Co. in 1902, this quarry has helped make Michigan a leading producer of gypsum for over a century.

In 1898, the company name was changed to the Alabaster Company. In 1902, the mine was incorporated into the U.S. Gypsum Corporation. Housing for workers was constructed primarily in the period around 1910. The most visible and impressive structure in the district, the elevated marine tramway, was constructed in 1928 and the tramway stretched 1.3 miles out into the Saginaw Bay. Like a horizontal ski-lift, the cable system carries 72 “buckets” of gypsum to a waiting ship or to the storage bin. Each bucket holds more than two tons. The tramway included 6,450 feet of one and three-quarter inch steel cable and 14,000 feet of three-quarter inch cable. At a length of 6,350 feet, it was the longest over-water bucket tramway in the world. The tramway was demolished in the 1990s and the loading building in Lake Huron was torn down in 2020.

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St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

Between Bay City and Freeland, German missionary Pastor Ferdinand Sievers organized St. John Church in June 1852 to serve a colony of German migrants, some fleeing the turmoil that followed the European revolutions of 1848. Initially, the church met in a log cabin that once housed recent arrivals to the colony of Amelith. In 1870 a wood-frame Gothic style church was built. The present structure was completed in 1912. Schools run by the church began in 1853 with instruction in German surviving until World War I. Some church services continued in German until 1979. During World War II, German prisoners housed at Freeland Camp were ministered to by St. John Lutheran. An addition to the church was completed in 1997.

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The Marlette District Library – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Library, Michigan Historical Markers .

In 1914 the Marlette Research Club composed of women in the community decided to build a public library for Marlette. The club contacted the Carnegie Corporation for a grant to build the library. In compliance with the Carnegie Corporation’s rules, Marlette raised funds and instituted a quarter-mill tax for maintenance of the library. In 1918 the Carnegie Corporation agreed to fund the Research Club’s library project. The simple brick building was constructed in 1921. The building has a hipped roof and a portico of classical design. The library was the last in the Midwest to receive a Carnegie library grant and the second to the last to do so in the country. The Marlette District Library is one of fifty-three Michigan libraries funded by the Carnegie Corporation.

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Pioneer Bank in North Branch

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

Pioneer Bank was founded in 1885 as a state bank, and reorganized in 1889. President Frederick Howard, Vice President Albert Sholes and Cashier Charles W. Ballard were bank officers. In !903 this lot was purchased from Sholes, and soon after the board selected Bay City architects Clark & Munger to design new offices. A bank was partially constructed, but it burned before completion. The present classical-inspired structure replaced the original and opened in 1906. In 1982 the bank was listed in the National Registed of Historic Places.

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The Italian Hall in Calumet – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Historic Places, Michigan Historical Markers .

On December 24, 1913, area copper miners had been on strike for five months. The miners were fighting for better pay, shortened work days, safer working conditions and union recognition. That day, during a yuletide party for the striking miners and their families, someone yelled, “Fire!” Although there was no fire, seventy-three person died while attempting to escape down a stairwell that had doors that opened inward. Over half of those who died were children between the ages of six and ten. The perpetrator of the tragedy was never identified. The strike ended in April 1914.

The Italian Hall was built in 1908 as headquarters for Calumet’s benevolent society. The Society, organized along ethnic lines, encouraged and financially aided immigrants and provided relief to victims of hardship. Following the 1913 Christmas Eve tragedy, the hall continued to be used for nearly five decades. The two-story red brick building was razed in 1984. Through the efforts of the Friends of the Italian Hall and Local 324 of the AFL-CIO, the site of the building became a memorial park dedicated ot the people who lost their lives in 1903.

an Historic Photo of the hall I found in the Public Domain, you can see the doorway that remains as a memorial on the left side of the building.

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