Flint Postcards

[Allan]

I found these the other day & thought you guys would enjoy them.

The came from http://www.tedjankowski.com/old_pictures_o...nt_michigan.htm

[VeeFan]

Those are amazing! A great find! Thanks for posting them!

Look at Bishop. I never saw it before they had the big renovation (15 years ago?), is that how it looked before?

And that picture of the Durant is amazing! I wish that triangular piece of land could look that well kept again.

Oh, and I love how some cities/states have monuments and the like on their postcards...but we have factories, lots and lots of factories.

[Allan]

The postcards are all pre-1942. Bishop was much larger than that before it was renovated 15 years ago. I have a postcard of Bishop in the 1950s somewhere, but I have to find it. I think it's in a box somewhere in my parents' house.

The triangular plot of land in front of the Durant is First Ward Park. It was turned into a Genesee County Veteran's Memorial sometime in the late 1950s (1958, I believe). Unfortunately it is filled with trash. It's poor current state is a disgrace to the city. No wonder I never see anyone there...even the homeless people seem to avoid it!

Factories were actually a pretty common subject matter in the early days of postcards. Another common subject matter was hotels. The hotel would sell you a postcard with a picture of the hotel on it, so a lot of those are floating around too.

[Allan]

Here are a few more:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mi/genes...cs-genesee.html

[dnast]

Once again, nice finds! I saw the first set a while back, but it's nice to see them again. The second set is pretty awesome, because I've never seen some of those buildings. The post office and library especially look great. It's sad that almost nothing in that second set exists anymore.

The park in front of the Durant is now called McFarland Park. The DDA received a grant to fix it up a few months ago, but I haven't noticed anything. I have to say that when I was there one day taking photos of Northbank, it honestly didn't look bad. Maybe they just had a clean-up before I went.

[VeeFan]

I saw the DDA in there about a month and a half ago one morning as I was leaving U of M. I wish they would get rid of the trees, it would look so much better without them.

That second set is great! Although it's sad to see such beautiful architecture on the Post Office and Library and know that they're not there anymore. What's that last building before the School for the Deaf?

[Allan]

The building before the school for the deaf is old city hall, which was torn down in 1957. It is certainly much nicer than our current city hall. Unfortunately there was a huge "out with the old, in with the new" push in the 1950s and 60s.

Hmm...the park was dirty when I was there. There was trash all over the ground. I don't think they need to cut down the trees - the shade was much needed when I was walking around in the 90 degree heat - but they need to properly trim them & replace the one that is half dead.

[dnast]

Yeah, it was a few months ago last time I went to the park. They probably could use a few trash receptacles around there - it might just help.

The old City Hall looked great. It's too small to serve that purpose now, but that could've at least been turned into a museum or something. Oh well. It's too late to come up with ideas for it now.

[Allan]

City Hall would've made a good museum, although it would've been a bit on the small side. Maybe it would've been better used as a library branch or something. It's unfortunate that saving historic architecture wasn't important back then.

[Allan]

Here's the old police headquarters. Does anyone know where this building was located?