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On the same day as I took yesterday's squint shot, I stepped farther into the building, careful not to slip and fall on all the nails, splintered wood, and miscellaneous on the floor, to take this picture of the east end, metal-slatted window, looking toward the houses on North Second Street. It was a warm, breezy day and fairly comfortable in the building the day I pestered the workers, but I had to wonder what the winter weather made the inside feel like. I could imagine cold winds seeping through the dried wood, chilling anyone to the bone.

1875 Postmaster Change

A few weeks later, this announcement was printed in The Fowlerville Review, indicating the post office would be relocated to Mr. Fisher's storefront. In the early days, postmasters were mainly veterans of wars. That tradition no longer appears to exist.

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The stamped metal sheet siding was removed, piled up, and then recycled. In an earlier squint shot, you can look closer at a piece taken off one of the other sides of the building. Shown here are the pieces at the west end of the building as the workers pulled nails and stripped the building to the bare wood.

1892 Ten Cent Barn

Farmers would travel into town, usually on the weekends, to stock up on supplies. During this era, "ten-cent barns" were very popular. These were places where horses would be cared for while shopping was being accomplished. In some instances, there were also accommodations for the shoppers to take a rest and get a meal, but taking care of the horses and/or teams was paramount. In Fowlerville, the most written about ten-cent barn was the Haist House, but there was also one operated by Roy Holt in the early 1900s as well as this one shown in the following advertisement published in The Fowlerville Review:

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Artistry? Or for additional support? As I wandered around and inside the building behind Butler Gun Shop, before it was torn down, I marveled at the interesting wood. There was a lot of marbling and grain lines in the wood, but it was also in the way it was cut and attached to the frame. The wood was placed horizontally on the north, east, and south sides of the building, but where the opening was, the wood was cut at a diagonal placed as shown in this squint shot.

2011 Ice Skating Rink

Just in case you haven't been in town lately, or rushing through so fast to notice, Fowlerville has an ice-skating rink!

The Department of Public Works spoke with the DDA group and it was decided to flood a large area of the empty lot in the northwest quadrant; in particular, where it has not been paved. In years past, occasionally an area in Centennial Park (and before 1998 when it was called Centennial Field) has been flooded. I included a couple pictures in my book, The Fowlerville Chronicles, which I had found in newspaper articles from the Fowlerville News and Views. I hope the weather stays cold and everyone digs out their old skates -- I know I will!

1930 Griswold Robbery

While the squint shots during this month show the old fur trading post behind the Butler Gun Shop as it was being torn down this last summer, I thought this article would be of interest. Just kiddie-corner to the southwest of the post was the Griswold shop. In the 1930s, there seemed to be a higher incident of thievery, possibly due to the Depression era the nation was stalled in. In this case, the burglars seemed to have gotten away with quite a haul.