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Across the street from yesterday's squint shot of a large red house on North Benjamin Street, sits this beautifully maintained house.  There are a few of you that may still remember the name J.B. Munsell.  He was an attorney here in Fowlerville for many years, having bought out the practice of Judge A.E. Cole.  Mr. Munsell located his offices in the second floor of the Palmerton (Harmon) block.  This was his house.

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And now begins a new series of squint shots.  As a bit of a back story, last summer, I had the pleasure of driving around town with a very dear friend, and while we traveled up and down all of the side streets, he gave me some history of many of the houses in the village.  He spoke about who used to own and live in them and what their professions or contributions were to Fowlerville. 

All of this information came to me right before the 175th celebration and ultimately got put on the backburner until now.  Some of the upcoming photographs, such as the following one, were taken at the time, but most are more recent.

The following house, located on North Benjamin Street, has gone through a great deal of updating the last year or so.  At one time, George Soule lived in this house.  He was a Chevrolet dealer, and please correct me if I'm wrong, his dealership may have been located at the northwest corner of North Second Street and East Grand River.  Up until a couple years ago, you may have known it as the location for Maria's School of Dance. 

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If you look back at yesterday's squint shot, you will see this flooring without all of the dust on top.  This flooring is in the soon-to-be Grille in the Ville, located in the northeast quadrant.  When the restaurant is finished, none of this flooring will show so I asked the new owner if there was any chance I could get a chunk of it for the historical collection.

Which we now have.  I just have to clean it up and someday it will be part of an overall Fowlerville display of days gone-by.

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A new restaurant will be opening soon in Fowlerville, and from what I understand, it will be called Grille in the Ville.  It will be located in the northeast quadrant, facing Grand River, sandwiched between Edward Jones and the pharmacy.  For a couple of years, this was a physical therapy location.

I've met the new owner a few times and he's shown me around during their construction, pointing out where seating will be, as well as the kitchen, and he showed me some flooring they uncovered when they pulled up the old carpeting. 

From what he understands, this was the flooring that customers would see when they walked in this storefront years ago when it was Spagnuolo's.  It is believed these are marble squares, each one individually placed.

Anyone remember this floor?

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I did a little shopping on eBay and won the bid for a rather odd postcard.

The C.D. Hamilton store was located at the corner of East Grand River and South Grand, where many will remember Ruth's Resale.  In 1969, the C.D. Hamilton store closed.

But for many, many years before that, this dry goods store was a busy, bustling, popular location for linens, towels, shoes, clothing, fabric, pretty much everything, including draperies.  Following is the postcard promoting these "ready to hang" lace curtains.

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This is just awesome!

After showing a card from the Vogt funeral home and furniture store, I had a reader send the following order form for butchering and packaging a pig.  It cost all of $6.48!

I will be printing this off and put a copy in the historical collection -- so this is my call for any additional memoriabilia.  If you have anything that you would like to share, please let me know.  I would be happy to meet you at the village office, photograph your items, and then will share on this site (anonymous or with credit -- it is up to you).

Thank you to one of my long time readers for sharing this order form.

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Changes are happening in the cemetery, as shown with yesterday's new sign at the main entrance to Greenwood.  I also took a minute then to drive to the back and noticed that the old gatekeeper's house, which isn't really used for anything now, has gone through some improvements.

There is a new porch platform as well as better steps, and from what I understand, a beehive has been removed from by the chimney where quite a nest had been developed.

As a little bit of a commercial, I would like to send out a "shout-out" to anyone willing to donate to preserving our past.  Our historical collection does not have funds, which is okay, but of course we are always looking for donations for a variety of things.  For one, I would like to have a display case built that would be positioned in the council chambers where we could put items under lock-and-key.  Items would be displayed and rotated on a yearly basis, depending on what we have. 

There is also something as unique as this gatekeeper's house that needs to be renovated.

And lastly, this website has a few costs to keep it going and if anyone would like to help, it would be greatly appreciated.  I love volunteering my time, but all of these pages are being printed off to preserve for future generations.  Any donations through this site will be put to great use!

2011 Postcards

Packets of six postcards are now available for purchase, through Paypal -- check out the button to the right -- and they range in years from 1879 until 1900.  These are randomly selected pictures that can be found in The Fowlerville Chronicles, only slightly larger.  There are so many pictures to choose from, at some point I may do more postcards in the future.

But for now, these six postcards can be purchased for $5.00 with an additional $1.00 added for shipping and handling.  If you order more than one packet, I will adjust the shipping costs by including an appropriate refund when I send the postcards to you.

Once Through the Eyes of a Country Editor is available, I will also have these packets with me and the few remaining copies of The Fowlerville Chronicles at the time of any book signings.  Come see me then and save on shipping costs!

If you would like to check out what each postcard looks like, head to the page tab at the top of this page labeled "Postcards."  The backs of the cards have a space for writing a note at the left side and an address at the right side.

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So far this month has been spent showing squint shots from days-long-gone.  For the next few days, I've got a couple pictures of the cemetery.  I happened to be driving by recently and noticed a large sign at the main entrance to Greenwood cemetery.  New rules and regulations for all to read.

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And now, here are three pictures of red brick -- why?

Because this is just such a cool thing.

After a local resident allowed me to photograph a ton of memoriabilia, she mentioned there was one more thing worth seeing.  We headed to their fireplace.  Red brick.  Years ago -- 1957 to be exact -- the red brick schoolhouse was torn down and these residents were able to obtain enough pieces to create the front of their fireplace.

Somehow this pleased me to no end; in particular, the mere fact a part of the physical history of a building has been preserved.  So much has been lost through the years, especially because of devastating fires.  These bricks survived ending up in a pile of rubble, and I think that is totally awesome.

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This is the last postcard shown to me by a local resident that has just a wonderful collection of memoriabilia -- it was fun checking out everything, photographing it all, and then being able to show my readers.  A huge thank you.

I just find this postcard a little bit out of place -- have I missed this lake?!?

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This postcard is somewhat comical to me as I'm not sure there's anyplace around the village a shell such as shown above could be found!  But in 1909, this card was sent by Minnie Bessert to Miss Thirza Purdy, "Dear Teacher, Our Sunday school picnic is Wednesday so if you give us our lessons you have to be here early so that you will be through by 10 o'clock."  What a polite reminder.

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L.M. wrote:  "Dear Cousin, I thought I would send you a card and see how it seems.  How are you today.  We are all well and doing fine.  We went to the grate (sp?) show, it was fine, well bye bye for this time.  Write soon, L.M." to J.B. Coleman, Fenton, Michigan Route #3.

The front of this card looks like it was all fairly generic, but then some form of a "glitter" pen was used to write "Greetings from Fowlerville."

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Ethel wrote:  "Dear Cousin, I am writing you a card.  Why don't you all come fair time.  I have two days out.  From Ethel" to Sila Medder of Williamston.  This beautiful flowered-card with poetry was sent for 1-cent in 1909.  By this time, the Fowlerville Fair was celebrating 23 years, having been organized in 1886, with the first event the following year in 1887.

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Yesterday's squint shots showed a postcard of one of the schoolhouses in Fowlerville.  This postcard shows that schoolhouse as well as the white, wooden (right) one.  The white schoolhouse burned in the 1920s, making it necessary to build another one that would soon become known as the Collins Street school. 

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"Holt & Hart" were two men that spent a great deal of time photographing buildings and houses in the Fowlerville area.  Lucky for us, many of these pictures were made into postcards so we still have many of these wonderful photographs.  Messrs. Holt and Hart were also involved in the grocery business, and at least one Hart -- whether or not it was this particular Hart -- had a 10-cent barn where horses and carriages could be stored during the time someone was shopping in town.

This postcard shows the red brick schoolhouse that was used through the early 1900s until its demolition in 1957.   

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Here is another postcard that shows a wonderful part of Fowlerville -- as a matter of fact, when the local resident that owns this showed it to me, I believe I related how finding this picture made me even more curious about the history of the village.  At first I couldn't figure out where this picture was taken until, upon closer inspection, the building on the left side of the picture is still easily identifiable -- the old Hamilton or Ruth's Resale building.  On the right side of the picture, those buildings no longer exist, and those were the ones that interested me in doing as much research as I did.

I also wonder who the little guy in the picture might have been.

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In 1915, this postcard was sent to Mr. and Mrs. M.J. Rohrer, of Grass Lake, Michigan from Henry and Orpha (no last name).  The picture on the front of the postcard shows the very large, now green, house on East Grand River, known as the Kennedy house.  Over the last 10 or so years, the owners of this house have been bringing it back to its glory days, and it appears it will always be a work in progress.  The house just to its east (center of photo) no longer stands.

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Here is another iconic picture of early Fowlerville -- it is the wooden church used by the Methodist until 1916, when a new brick building, which still stands at the southeast corner of South Second and Church streets, was built.  From reading various articles, this wooden building was relocated to somewhere possibly on North Collins street.  I have gone looking to see if I could identify if it is still there, but had no luck.   

This card was addressed to Mrs. Nellie Stowe of Webberville. 

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One of the iconic pictures of early Fowlerville came from a postcard printed in the early 1900s.  Every now and again one of these postcards will show up on eBay, which is where a local resident obtained this one from. 

The front of the postcard shows a picture of Grand Avenue, looking north, at about where Church street is.  The Lockwood hotel would be at the right side of the photograph, which still stands, but all of the buildings at the left side of the picture no longer exist.  As time went along, those buildings were removed and now Curtis Grocery uses this area as a parking lot.

The back of this postcard has a cancelled 1-cent stamp at the upper right hand corner, and at the lower left hand corner, it is shown that the card was printed by the Standard Press.  The Fowlerville Standard was a competing newspaper with The Fowlerville Review.  The Standard lasted only a few years, including at least through the next year when extensive coverage and pictures were shown in the newspaper of the tornado that swept through the town.

But, back to this card.  I wonder who Master Jay Thorburn was and did he actually get this postcard?  With no note?

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Here is another postcard -- it is indicated as coming from Fowlerville, but the printing at the bottom left corner on the back of the card shows "Made in Germany."  Curious . . . did it come from Fowlerville or did someone send it from Germany to Mr. Carl Andersson in Fowlerville, Michigan? 

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During the 175th celebration last summer, Mike Grimm displayed a Will Sidell pail at the temporary museum.  There was a great deal of interest in that single item and a lot of people reminiscing of when Sidell Hardware was at the northwest corner at the main four -- now the Harmon building. 

As I had the opportunity to look over the memoriabilia offered for photography by a local resident, it was fun to check out the pail shown above.  There may have been a variety of sizes given out by the hardware store, as this one seemed a little smaller than the one displayed last summer.

If you search on Sidell, you can find a number of posts regarding the hardware store as well as the fur trading post they had in the northeast block.  A couple of years ago, the old wooden building behind the storefronts on East Grand River was torn down and I kept a running progress of the demolition.  During that demolition, a fur-stripping implement was found, which is now in the historical collection. 

Through the Eyes of a Country Editor

We are getting closer!  This is the book cover for the biography and writings of G.L. Adams, editor and publisher of The Fowlerville Review from 1874-1929.  I am getting so excited to have the finished product in hand.  Of course, you will be the first to know!

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Here's another great give-away from a local business in Fowlerville in the mid-to-late 1900s -- Alex J. Tait Real Estate.  This company was located at the northeast corner of North Second Street and East Grand River Avenue.  The house and office building that used to stand there was torn down a couple winters ago and is now extended parking for the State Farm Insurance house one lot over.  It is also being developed into a little more green space for the downtown area.  If you happen to walk by the corner, be sure to stop at the large rock with the plaque and (usually) a flag. 

If you've read this blog at all, there has been a great deal of mention of this rock, placed there by the Grand Army of the Republic Fowlerville John Gilully Post 114, in commemmoration of those lost in the Civil War from this area.  The post no longer exists as it was disbanded when the last Civil War veteran, Orrin Button, passed away in 1935.

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Here's a fun bit of memoriabilia from Fowlerville.  The Community State Bank, that was located on East Grand River in the southeast quadrant, had this cardboard stocking as a way to give $1.00 in dimes to your son, daughter, niece, or nephew.  In the mid-1900s, $1.00 would made for an awesome shopping trip to Tomion's, or Woods Drugs, or Spagnuolo's -- all wonderful places to get candy or ice cream. 

I kind of equate this gift with the now highly-used plastic cards with monetary values put on them for shopping, eating out, or heading to a book store.



History Press

I won a book!

You know it is fun to win something -- from a 50/50 drawing to possibly lottery winnings to a book that sounds absolutely interesting. 

I have been an avid reader of many of the books published by the History Press.  You can check out their blog by clicking here.  This last month, the History Press sponsored giveaways of some of their books, mostly centered around the Civil War.  I came away with A History & Guide to the Monuments of Shiloh National Park by Stacy W. Reaves.  The book has arrived and I've perused most of it and would like to plan a trip to this park as soon as possible.

They are continuing their giveaways so be sure to check out the site and leave a comment.

For my readers here, take a minute to check out their blog as well as their website with more books than we could read in a lifetime.  You can find the large site for ordering a myriad of books by clicking here.  Enjoy!

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The souvenirs from Fowlerville appeared to be plentiful at one time from various businesses and probably more so, the banks.  Another glass piece that a local resident has is this little dish with a lid.  The glass appears to be painted green, more than it is actually green-colored glass, and has gold accents that have somewhat worn off.  On the lid, the words "Souvenir, Fowlerville, Mich." appear.  If you check back over the last two days, there are red pieces.

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Another "Souvenir Fowlerville, Michigan" -- this time it is a small creamer pitcher.  Different from yesterday's squint shot of a red glass, the red in this one appears to be more incorporated into the mix as opposed to added on as if it were painted. 

The bottom is cut-glass and very beautiful.  I just wonder what the sugar bowl might have looked like.  Has anyone seen these before?

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Long before there were automatic dishwashers, with water temperatures up near 160 degrees, glassware was dipped in warm, soapy water and then towel-dried.  On a very strong suggestion, this would definitely be the routine for cleaning the following red glass. 

As shown the last couple of days, here is another souvenir from Fowlerville.  The top edge of this glass is irregular in shape and the red and gold shown were added after the glass was made.  Probably somewhat like painting. 

There was no note as to where this glass was sold or given away as a souvenir, so if anyone has information or thoughts, it would be great to hear from you.