Recently, I took a trip “up north.” In Michigan, this usually refers to upper parts of the Lower Peninsula (the fingers) or even to the Upper Peninsula.

My trip was a little of both. Originally, the trip up north included one of the few North/ South routes– first US 127 or US 23. Today, most people take I-75– the only limited access freeway heading to points up north.

I took I-75 part of the way, but since it primarily cuts through the center of the state, it’s certainly not the scenic drive. So, I got off I-75 and stayed with US-23 which still runs it’s old route to and along the coast of Michigan, the shore of Lake Huron. (The pointer finger of the mitten. No, I never get tired of references to my state being mitten-shaped.)

This meant that along the way, starting about Tawas, I got glimpses and full views of the large expanse of blue or gray (depending on the current color of the sky) that is Lake Huron. Luckily, while the weather was overcast most of the morning, by our arrival in Tawas, the sky was clearing. The lake reflected the blue, deepening the color of blue as the sky became less cloudy.

The first stop was in Tawas.

Then we went across the bay to the East Tawas Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the end of March is kind really “off-season” for such places. It wasn’t closed, per se. It was “self-service.” Yeah. We could walk around and take some pictures of the lighthouse and the point.

I read that the point often washes away during the harsh conditions of winter, only to be rebuilt again the following months.

Later, further up the coast, we stopped at a scenic overlook.

And later still, along the shore of Grand Lake. This lake is shortly inland from Lake Huron. It creates the area known as Presque Isle– which means “Almost an Island.” As you can see from the map, the area is barely connected to the mainland. The big white area on the top and right side of the map is Lake Huron…

Grand Lake

Then, we made our way past the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced Mackinaw) and into the Upper Peninsula.

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The remaining two corners of Brighton’s Main Street/ Grand River Intersection are harder to track the history of.

On the South-east corner, across Main Street from where the Eastern House Hotel stood, there is currently a two story jewelry store. (The building itself looks too expensive for someone like me…) I missed my chances to get the last shots of the former building when it was torn down a few years ago.

Before the jewelry store, for a good many years– back into the 60s or 70s if I’m not mistaken– this corner was home to Cap’n Corky’s (sp?). It was a liquor store– probably what we call a Party Store around here. The terminology matches what my students use to define a party: not a party without alcohol. Anyway, with the opening of the CVS, as well as a good many other chain stores in the vicinity, it appears that the Cap’n Corky store couldn’t really keep up. Add to that the ever-present problem in the downtown: parking.

The store closed. And– I wish I’d had time to stop and take pix– the construction crews gutted the buildings. I believe only the two walls that abut the neighboring buildings were left standing. Then they added the second story, the new front facade, and all the fanciness.

I have to wonder how long the jewelry store will last in this economy… especially since a long time local favorite is about two doors down. Or will locals go for the “brand name” over the locally owned and operated place. (Sadly, I’m voting for people to go with “brand name” over local. It’s happening in so many other places. But I wish it wasn’t so.)

Going back through history, all I can find is that this corner was home to Brighton’s Foundry for a while. Though, there’s some indication that the foundry was actually not right on the corner. Other records indicate that some part of the time, this corner was a private residence. It’s a little mind boggling for me to think of people living in houses on Grand River… in my life time, Grand River has always been the main business drag through Brighton. Only when you get out WAY past the edge of Brighton’s business stretch are there houses.

More My Town Monday!

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Across Grand River from the Eastern House Hotel once stood a grocery store.

Some time later, the building was torn down and a new store opened. Eventually it was the Brighton Drugs store. Later, in 1937, had bought the Brighton Drug store with Baldwin. For some time it was Leland and Baldwin Drugs. Then, Leland bought out Baldwin and renamed it Leland Drugs.

Leland had the second floor of the building removed and large shop windows installed. Leland’s Drug Store became the first building in Livingston County to boast a Frigid-aire air conditioning unit. I believe this distinction came in the 1930s.

Tracing the history of a rather unremarkable set of businesses on this corner is quite difficult. The next information I have is that during the 1980s and 90s various eating establishments were attempted on that corner. One of the problems with that corner– at least in this modern era– is that parking is limited and not terribly convenient. There is a lot across Grand River, a few parallel parking spots, and another lot about a block away. These are not far or difficult, however, this is Livingston County, not Ann Arbor. Here, people don’t like to walk any farther than necessary. (See in Ann Arbor, you don’t drive. You find a place to park, and walk the several blocks. That’s just “How it is.”)

But, in the early 1990s, this corner of Brighton opened a new eatery. A place called Lu and Carl’s that has thrived. Thrived to the point where, in summer months, they have seating on the sidewalk. Like, right alongside Grand River where one can breathe in the lovely aroma of car exhaust and listen to the rumble of hundreds of cars rolling up to and eventually through the traffic light. (Um, you couldn’t pay me to eat on the sidewalk of Grand River, but anyway.) My never-humble theory as to why Lu and Carl’s has thrived while other restaurants did not is slightly cynical: Lu and Carl’s is the first eatery on that location to have a liquor license.

My Town Monday

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Main Street in Brighton intersects Grand River and forms a well-known and ever-changing intersection. This set of posts will look at the every changing buildings.

Today, a CVS sits on the corner, set back from Grand River with the parking lot in front. A Murray’s Auto Parts store and a Sushi Zen share the location.

But a hundred and fifty years ago, this location– on the Northeast corner of the intersection– was the spot where the Eastern House (or Hotel) sat. The Western House sits by the railroad tracks on the other end of the down town– all three blocks of downtown. Eastern House sat along the Grand River Trail, where the stagecoaches and wagons traveled, even before their was a railroad.

The hotel was constructed in 1850, the same year that Grand River was made into planked toll road. When built, the hotel was called the Brighton House. It was sold in 1892 and became known as the Eastern House.

Anyway, the Eastern House was more than just a hotel. For many years, it was one of the gathering places in Brighton. It was two stories, plus a basement. A sign out front (hard to make out in the photos) says it’s 48 miles to Lansing and 40 to Detroit. Livingston County is the midway between Michigan’s biggest city and it’s capital.

The hotel building burnt down New Year’s Day, 1926.

And something else sprouted in the spot.

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Once upon a time, much of South East Lower Michigan was trees. Shortly after that, it was farm fields and small towns. This image shoes the little town of Hamburg. Today, Hamburg itself is still a little town. But it is surrounded by suburbia (or at least a version of suburbia.) Strip malls and subdivisions have replaced nearly all the farm fields in this little area.

This aerial view is from about the 1930s. The number 3 marks the historic church in down town Hamburg. (Still there.) The main street of Hamburg runs along in front of that street (connects #2 and 3). Follow it northerly (to the left side of the photo) through the line of trees and around the corner. The road goes off into farm fields.

By contrast, this image was poached from Google Maps. All developed—well, except the little town of Hamburg. The pink dot is downtown Hamburg.

Interestingly enough, Hamburg was platted to be a much larger town.

But it never really grew, despite having two rail road lines and two train depots. It just never became more than a little farm town.

The Mill Pond (and the Mill) are gone from Hamburg. All that’s left are two streets, and a few houses. Even the little grocery store left (though a new one may be/ have gone in.) Hard for a local little store to compete with one of those big chain stores.

It’s interesting to track the changes over time. Sometimes I wonder what Hamburg was like, once upon a time, before it was just a bedroom community tucked away off the main road.

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The Brighton Mall is nestled in the corner of Grand River and I-96. Built in the 1970s, it was, once upon a time, a “real” mall, with the shops opening on the inside and you had to walk from store to store instead of the strip-mall (or “open air” malls) of today where people really and truly do drive from one store to another. Sorry. Moving on…

The Brighton Mall was anchored by K-Mart, which had its own entrance. It was also home for many years to the Little Professor Bookstore, a locally owned bookstore. Over time, including by the time I became a resident in the area, there wasn’t much to the Brighton Mall. Eventually, it was redeveloped into a Strip Mall. It’s now got only a couple big-box stores.

The K-Mart is now a Sears Essential, which is neither a K-Mart or a Sears and I’ve never found it much good for shopping.(The low number of customers in that stores seems to indicate others share my opinion of this concept. Especially when it’s an hour drive, tops, to a real Sears store out in Novi. Distracted again. Anyway, other stores include Marshall’s, Jo-Ann Fabrics and a sporting goods store. Two other strip

malls have been added, including one that has Best Buy and PetsMart.

One of the interesting features of the Brighton Mall, though, is that it’s below grade. To enter the Mall from Grand River, there is a rather significant ramp. Here’s a shot with Panera Bread showing just how high Grand River is over the Mall parking lot. Curious. Not something I ever really though much about. It was just How Things Were. Until one day, while I was reading through some local history snippets, I found the reason why.

During the 1960s and early 70s when I-96 was being constructed, the road crews came through Brighton. Since Grand River was (and is) a major thoroughfare, of course the decision was made to build an overpass so I-96 would go over top Grand River. Well, that’s an awful lot of dirt to pile up. Can you guess where this is going?

>Yeah, the man who owned the farm there sold the DIRT to the state for construction of the I-96 overpass. They dug it out and left something of a hole in the ground. Well, this hole in the ground did not prevent the soon after sale of the LAND to a company interested in building a mall alongside the new entrance/ exit ramps on I-96.

These sort of stories are exactly why I LOVE local history.

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The alleys in movies look nothing like the alleys that we have around here. In fact, the alleys in Livingston County, what few we have, are hardly ominous. In movies, alleys are always dark, narrow, and secluded. Around here, though, our alleys are short both in length and the height of the buildings (seeing as how are tallest building is 4 stories, with most being about 3). Our alleys are also wide, well-lit, and fairly clean. Some of them are kind of charming. So, as a writer, it does leave me without any real dark alleys for final showdowns or something. Especially since our little towns have this dreadful problem with illuminating a radius eight miles larger than the town itself (more or less) in all directions with the abundance of street lights. Street lights on otherwise empty, dark streets. Now, I’ll admit that I don’t much see the point of most street lights. Downtown, sure. Though our local towns could turn off half their street lights and still have enough light to illuminated any person who happens to be out. Especially about three in the morning when there are NO shops open and about 1 or 2 cars driving within the entire city limits. Once outside the city, what do we need lights for? Certainly not pedestrians as there aren’t sidewalks much past the last building in town. My car comes equipped with headlights, and I believe this is standard. So why are there so many street lights here and there throughout Livingston County? They’re blocking my view of the stars! And they screw up my night vision when I pass through the cone of yellow-blue light and back into darkness again. I’ve got no dark alleys and lights on what should be dark streets. I suppose that’s why I fit in here– I’m as quirky as my county.

Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it’s simpler. I’m a rock star.

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The Soviets came to my little town. In fact, they were just around the corner. More or less. Near Mt. Brighton (which I can see out my bedroom window), a scene for the upcoming remake of Red Dawn was filmed. It included scorching a stand of trees along the front of the parking lot. There’s still evidence of the charred trees last time I drove by Mt. Brighton. Most of it had been bulldozed into a pile for clean up. There have been quite a few movies and scenes that are being filmed in Michigan, part of the tax breaks for filmmakers. The idea is that it will bring business and dollars to Michigan to be spent, thus helping our staggering economy. (Except the economy isn’t staggering. It’s comatose.) This is actually the second movie that was right near me… and I didn’t find out until after the fact. (What’s that saying– if I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all?) The other movie was some small film that included a high school. It was filmed last summer at the local high school– where I was teaching summer school. One of the teacher’s took her class down to spy on the filming at the lake behind the school. Or so I heard the next day when the crew was gone. Aside from meeting Barrie Summy last week, this is as close to fame as I tend to get. 😉

Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it’s simpler. I’m a rock star.

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