Michigan Historical Markers Archives - Page 7 of 8

Trinity Episcopal Church in Caro – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

I like old wooden churches. Sometime the paint is flaking off, but it seems real, many older churches were covered in plastic vinyl siding, I know its “maintenance free”, but it just comes off a machine somewhere and stuck on, wood is natural, and came from a tree that was grown with the sunlight from heaven and watered with Gods love. Protecting the wood, is paint applied from a brush with human hands. I also like that you can still see the corner stone laid in 1881 A.D.

The historical marker reads

“This skillfully designed board and batten Gothic Revival church, first served local Episcopalians in 1880. The congregation had been formed in 1871, the year the town was incorporated. During the 1870s Caro grew to be a major commerce center for the Thumb Area. By the 1920s, however, church membership dropped and the building was sold to the Nazarenes. In 1974 preservationists saved the church from demolition.”

Grand Trunk Depot in Lansing – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Train Depots .

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.

Hoyt Library – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Library, Michigan Historical Markers .

The Saginaw Evening News declared the Hoyt Library “a noble institution” and “the pride of all Saginawians” when it opened in 1890. The library was a gift to the people of Saginaw from New York businessman Jesse Hoyt (1815-1882), who had real estate and lumber interests in the Saginaw Valley. Hoyt’s will set aside $100,000 for a public library here. After a national competition among leading architects, the Hoyt Trust chose the Boston architectural firm of Van Brunt and Howe. When the Richardsonain Romanesque style building was completed it exemplified modern library construction. The present building includes a 1921 addition by Edward Tilton of New York and a 1960 addition by Frederick E. Wigen Architects of Saginaw.

Tuscola County Courthouse – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

Peter DeWitt Bush (1818-1913), the second permanent resident of the village of Caro, donated the site for the village courthouse square in 1866. Then he, along with two other pioneer settlers, moved an old frame church to the site to serve as the county’s first courthouse. In 1873 the county replaced the former church with a brick courthouse that served the community’s needs until 1932, when the present Art Deco style structure was completed. Designed by Detroit architect William H. Kuni and built by Cecil M. Kelly, a Caro native, the courthouse is faced with Indiana limestone. Situated on the same site as the old brick courthouse, this $180,000 structure was completely paid for when it was dedicated on January 24, 1933, by means of a one-mill, five-year tax levy.

Marlette Methodist Episcopal Church – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

Methodism in Marlette dates back to 1851 when the first religious sermon in the county was delivered for the Methodist Society. In 1858 the Methodist Episcopalians organized a church. There first minister, the Reverend D.W. Hammond, came to Marlette in 1873. He started the Marlette Indexnewspaper five years later. The original 1871 church burned in 1901. Detroit architect Joseph Mills, who designed the Marlette High School and the Sanilac County Courthouse, planned this Neo-Gothic-style church, which was built on land purchased by the Ladies Aid Society. Dedicated on December 14, 1902, this church also burned – in 1937 and in 1979. With the exterior preserved, however, the church remains a landmark in Marlette.

Coal Mine No 8 – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Uncategorized .

Located at the Hartley Outdoor Education Center coal mine No8 was one of the longest operating coal mines in Michigan.

the marker reads

Coal Mine No 8 located at Hartley Education Center

Coal was discovered in the St. Charles area in 1896. On this site in 1917 the Robert Gage Coal Company sunk a shaft 200 feet beneath the surface. The main entry off the shaft was about three miles long. At times, the mine employed as many as four hundred men, who worked in pairs. In 1919 a miner earned sixty to seventy cents per ton. After undercutting and blasting coal from seams 22 to 64 inches thick, miners shoveled it into cars that were pulled by mules and electric motors to the cage, where it was lifted up the shaft to the tipple. It was then sorted, weighed and loaded into railroad cars. The highest grade of bituminous coal in Michigan was mined here until 1931, when the shift to other fuels and competition from higher grade coal in other states made it necessary to close.

Photo of workers at Mine No 8, photo courtesy of Harley Outdoor Education Center

To view the mine contact Hartley Outdoor Education Center, because Hartley is and education center they usually have students visiting and you need to check in with them at the office before you can have access to property. Contact info can be found HERE

Remnants of the tipper used to tip coal out of the coal cars coming out of the mine

remnants of the processing plant used to clean and sort the coal

Omer Masonic Hall – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

This church-like white frame structure with its graceful cupola was built in 1890 as the second Arenac County Courthouse. The first courthouse on this site burned the previous year. Omer had been a part of Bay County until Arenac was organized in 1883 and this city, then a village, became the county seat. Less than a decade later, voters made nearby Standish the county seat. The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the state of Michigan purchased this building in 1893 for the Omer Masonic Lodge; that group and the Order of the Eastern Star still hold meetings here. Surviving the disastrous fire of 1914, which swept through Omer’s business district, this edifice housed the temporary headquarters of several firms. It is one of the city’s oldest buildings.

St. Stanislaus – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Polish refugees who escaped Prussian domination settled in Bay City. In 1874 they formed a society under the patronage of St. Stanislaus Kostka of Poland. To fill the needs of this Polish-speaking community, a wooden church was built and dedicated on December 13, 1874, on a site donated by William D. Fitzhugh. During the pastorate of Father Marian Matkowski, this grand Neo-Gothic church was erected at a cost of over $60,000. Bay City architects Pratt and Koeppe provided the plans. The cornerstone was blessed in June 24, 1890, and the church was dedicated on July 17, 1892, by Bishop Henry J. Richter of Grand Rapids.

St. Stanislaus Bay City Michigan

Alabaster – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Uncategorized .

The sign in Alabaster reads

This area is 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.

alabaster loading dock

Methodist Episcopal Church in Caseville – Historical Marker

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

In 1868 the Reverend Manasseh Hickey and twelve settlers organized a Methodist Episcopal Church in Caseville. Services were held in a schoolhouse until the present church was built. Upon its dedication on November 15, 1874, the Gothic-inspired structure, with its 70-foot-high steeple, became a focal point for the community. Local contractor William Ormiston built the church, which contains stained-glass windows by McFadden and Reed of New York City. In 1907 a basement was excavated, and in 1940 the memorial windows were installed Over the years the steeple, which provided a landmark for Saginaw Bay boaters, was racked by structural problems and lightning, and had to be continually repaired. In 1974 the spire was replaced with a duplicate of the original.

Methodist Episcopal Church in Caseville

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