Michigan Historical Markers Archives - Page 8 of 8

Watrous General Store – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Uncategorized .

Aaron Watrous and his crew of loggers came here in 1852 to cut the virgin pine of the Cass River Valley. In 1860 he platted the town naming it Watrousville, and a few years later constructed this building as a general store. The flagpole in front is thought to have been erected during the 1864 presidential campaign. Watrous died in 1868, and in 1882 the building became the Juniata Township Hall. Since 1972 it has been a museum of the Watrousville-Caro Area Historical Society.

Watrouse General Store in Watrouseville Mi.

St. Stephens In Hamburg – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

St Stephens in Hamburg Michigan, one of the oldest churches in Michigan.

This building is one of the oldest Episcopal churches in Michigan. St. Stephen’s parish was organized in 1844, and construction of the church began almost immediately. Hiram Raymond of Hamburg was the contractor, and building funds were solicited in the East and in Europe. Donations were received from Hamburg, Germany, the native city of some of the parishioners. The clean delicate lines of the church and the interesting tower make this one of the state’s most intriguing churches.

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First Presbytiran Church in Bay City

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

Michigan Historical Marker

First Presbyterian Church in Bay City

In 1848, James G. Birney and his wife led Bay City’s earliest Presbyterian services in a schoolhouse. Birney twice ran unsuccessfully for president of the U.S. on the antislavery ticket. The Reverend Lucius Root organized the First Presbyterian Church of Lower Saginaw on September 5, 1856. Services continued to be held in the schoolhouse and other public buildings until the first church was built in 1863. In 1886 church elder Alexander Folsom donated $50,000 for the founding of a college in “northern” Michigan. His donation funded the organization of Alma College. In 1906 the college established the J. Ambrose Wight Memorial scholarship fund in honor of First Presbyterian’s minister.

In 1884 the Reverend J. Ambrose Wight challenged the members of the First Presbyterian Church to “go forward and build a church that will be a lasting gift to the future.” The Reverend Wight (1811 – 1889) feared that Bay City’s prosperity, gained through the lumber and salt industries, would not last. When the church was dedicated on June 4, 1893, the Bay City Times-Press declared it a “Magnificent Temple.” Like the City Hall, which was build four years later, the Ionia sandstone church was designed in the Richardsonian style by local architects Pratt and Koeppe, and reflects Bay City’s wealth at that time. The bell, cast in 1866, served as a public timepiece and tolled three times daily.

First Presbyterian Church 805 Center Ave Bay City Michigan

Michigan’s Curwood Castle

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

James Oliver Curwood was born in Owosso on June 12, 1878, and lived there most of his life. Writing and love of nature were his boyhood interests, and by 1908 Curwood was earning his living as a novelist. Most of his stories were adventure tales set in the Canadian north, where the author spent much of his time. During the 1920s his books were among the most popular in North America, and many were made into movies. The castle, built in 1922, was his writing studio, and a number of his later works were composed in the tower, overlooking the Shiawassee River. Curwood became a zealous conservationist, and in 1926 he was appointed to the Michigan Conservation Commission. He died at his nearby home on Williams Street on August 13, 1927.

the castle was given to the City of Owosso after Curwoods death. It has served in various capacities over the years and is now a museum operated by the city, and is open to the public.

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Charles G. Learned House – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, Michigan Historical Markers .

Charles G learned House

A native of New York, contractor Charles G. Learned helped build New York City’s water-works system and the Erie Canal. Around 1837 Learned and his brother-in-law purchased several thousand acres of pine land in Michigan’s Thumb area. Two years later, Learned and his wife, Maria Raymond, came to Port Austin and bought a house and three acres at this site. Learned’s cutover pine land became a 2,000-acre farm where he prospered as an agriculturalist and dairy farmer. With profits from his lumbering and farming enterprises Learned enlarged and updated this house in the French Second Empire style. In the 1860s Ohio congressman, later president, James A. Garfield, a family friend, was a frequent guest here. From 1931 to 1979 the house served as the Mayes Inn and Tower Hotel.

Charles G. Learned House in Port Austin Michigan

Schroeder House – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

In 1896 John Schroeder built this one and one-half story log home for his family on a farm about a mile west of Freehand. His son George resided there until 1968. Exhibiting hand-hewn, notched white pine logs, boarded gables and a wood shingled roof, the cabin was moved to the Hartley Outdoor Education Center in 1978. Equipped with furnishings from the late nineteenth century, the cabin is a pioneer heritage studies site where students can practice pioneer crafts and skills.

The Schroeder House at Hartley Outdoor Education Center

Castle Post Office – Saginaw Michigan Historical Marker

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

In 1889, at the urging of Saginaw Congressman (later governor) Aaron Bliss, the Congress appropriated one hundred thousand dollars for the construction of a new federal building in Saginaw. During the next several years the project stalled as city leaders rejected two different sets of plans drawn by U.S. Treasury Department architects. Congressman William Linton, who represented the Saginaw district from 1893 to 1897, persuaded the government to draft a third design. William Aiken, the newly appointed supervising architect of the Treasury Department, submitted a final plan which was enthusiastically approved by local officials in 1897. On May 11, 1897, Saginaw Postmaster A.G. Wall dug the first spade of dirt during ceremonies celebrating the start of construction. William Linton became Saginaw’s postmaster in 1898.

Inspired by Saginaw’s French heritage, architect William M. Aiken designed this stately “French chateau” to house Saginaw’s post office. Aiken once wrote the the corner towers represented the “defensive feature of frontier life.” The building, which opened on July 4, 1898, was built of Bedford limestone, ornamented with copper and topped with a red slate roof. The interior contains marble quarried in Colorado. In 1930 the post office faced demolition because of the need for a larger structure. Instead, it was extensively enlarged. Saginaw architect Carl Macomber doubled the buildings size yet designed the addition to be compatible with the original structure. In the 1970s the county acquired the post office and rehabilitated it as the Castle Museum. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

if you want to visit the Castle Museum you can find out more at http://www.castlemuseum.org/

Castle Post Office in Saginaw Michigan

Durand Union Station – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Train Depots .

Designed by Detroit architects Spier & Rohns, the 239-foot-long Grand Trunk Western Union Depot originally featured a spacious waiting room, a popular dining room, a lunch counter, areas for baggage and express mail, and telegraph and railroad offices. It was built of Missouri granite brick and Bedford cut stone and originally roofed in slate. Later roofs were of red tile and, in more recent years, of asphalt. Once the largest station in outstate Michigan, the depot is also one of the largest in a small town anywhere in the United States. On March 27, 1960, Grand Trunk Western train No. 56 left the depot for Detroit. It was the last regularly scheduled passenger train in the United States to be pulled by a steam locomotive.

The Detroit and Milwaukee Railway brought Durand its first rail service in 1856. In 1877 the Chicago & North Eastern Railroad reached the town, and in 1885 the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan (later the Ann Arbor Railroad) added its tracks. The Grand Trunk Railway System and the Ann Arbor Railroad built this depot in 1903, at a cost of $60,000, to serve the thousands of passengers who came to this railroad center. In 1905 the depot was nearly destroyed by fire; however, within six months this near replica had been completed. The last Grand Trunk Western passenger train stopped here in 1971. Passenger service resumed in 1974 with Amtrak. The city of Durand acquired the depot in 1978.

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Durand Union Station

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