Grand Rapids Then and Now

[john_denver]

49 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

Well, it was open space after the highway department got to it!

 

Man, I wish there were more photos or film of these outer parts of the central city available online. It seems like we only ever see the same shots from the same vantage points while these edge areas are just as developed, but we have no real idea what they looked like from the ground.

Aha, good point on that.

I could look at for hours, too bad you can't zoom in to get better resolution.  I would love to go street by street to see what the building were like.

[Allison Slater]

What is that building across Division from St. Andrew's, where Guiding Light is now? (in the pre-highway pic)

[GR_Urbanist]

10 minutes ago, tSlater said:

What is that building across Division from St. Andrew's, where Guiding Light is now? (in the pre-highway pic)

I think I remember seeing it in that old book "Grand Rapids: Then and Now". It's where Guiding Light Mission is, and it was a fairly fancy home (mansion?).  Likely something more than that.

[cutlervillegr]

On 3/25/2019 at 7:42 PM, walker said:

    

Here's a couple of neat photos from this thread a dozen years ago.  I've added some arrows and texts to identify current landmarks in one of the photos in the doctored photo at the bottom.

The tags represent what is there now.  What is now Founders was the Interstate Motor Freight terminal.  What is now the Intersection Bar was a truck dealer.  I think I've identified the New Mertens correctly but not 100% sure.  The Intersection is a good marker because it now butts up against the curve in 131.

  

Don't know where the black lines came from, sorry.

 

A couple of things I find interesting in this photo:

1) In addition to US-131 not being put in yet, I-196 is also not under construction yet.

2) At the very top of the photo, you can see the GR & Eastern Rail bridge and the Ann Street bridge.  Beyond (north) of that, there is very little.  Alpine certainly hadn't developed into what it is today, and there isn't the growth that is currently on both sides of the river.  Essentially, northern city sprawl ended at Ann Street.

[joeDowntown]

The building that is where the Hinman development is going was quite large for that area. Does anyone know the story of that building? I know it got converted to a parked ramp (the building itself), then eventually demolished. Surprised a building that size fell out of favor that quickly when most of the taller structures downtown made it through urban renewal. 

Joe

[walker]

While unsuccessfully hunting for an answer to tSlater's question, I ran across this site:

SEEKING MICHIGAN (searched on Grand Rapids)

Turned up pages and pages of thumbnail photos of Grand Rapids from all eras, most I've never seen before.  And you can click on them to enlarge and there is a slider to expand a photo even more.   

[walker]

tSlater asks "What is that building across Division from St. Andrew's, where Guiding Light is now? (in the pre-highway pic)"

It's the South Division Street School.  It was completed in 1884 at a cost of $34,000 and was the biggest elementary school in the city at the time.  In its later years it was used for storage.  It was torn down in 1948.  In 1962 the current building on the site, which is now the Guiding Light Mission,  was built as the state unemployment office.

Edited March 27, 2019 by walker
to back fill what was a duplicate post.

[walker]

 

35 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

The building that is where the Hinman development is going was quite large for that area. Does anyone know the story of that building? I know it got converted to a parked ramp (the building itself), then eventually demolished. Surprised a building that size fell out of favor that quickly when most of the taller structures downtown made it through urban renewal. 

Joe

It was originally the Rindge, Kalmbach, Logie, & Co. shoe factory.  These same questions come up on this forum every ten years or so:

On 12/12/2008 at 9:30 PM, walker said:

 

I remember it as the Morton House parking garage although I'm sure it was built as something else. Here's a story that Chris Knapp did on it awhile ago. Chris says it was a shoe factory:

 

http://blog.mlive.com/knapescorner/2008/05...a_the_mort.html

Someone noted back in 2008 that Chris had said 10 Ionia SW when it is actually 10 Ionia NW.

[GRDadof3]

8 hours ago, kwl said:

Just a little fun this afternoon.  

Anyone else notice that I-196 is NOT in this picture!  

[joeDowntown]

9 hours ago, walker said:

 

It was originally the Rindge, Kalmbach, Logie, & Co. shoe factory.  These same questions come up on this forum every ten years or so:

Someone noted back in 2008 that Chris had said 10 Ionia SW when it is actually 10 Ionia NW.

I was actually wondering if anyone knew the story behind the story. It’s surprising that a 12 story building met the wrecking ball. Maybe it was always a no frills building (since it was a factory), and expendable. Or it never had office tenants, so it was an easy target. As far as I can tell, it’s the biggest building to get knocked down in that era.

it was so close to the core, it just seems a little unexpected  then again, if they converted it to a parking ramp, I’m sure the elements weren’t too kind on it  

Joe

[Khorasaurus1]

It wasn't the core in the late 70s though. Calder Plaza was the core, the area south of Monroe Center was mainly parking for Monroe Center, and everything south of Fulton was derelict. 

At 12 stories, it probably felt like looming blight, especially in an era when much more architecturally interesting buildings were considered obsolete.

[discgrab21]

Is there anything to that area in the bottom left of the 131 under construction photo?  It looks like a horseshoe bowl of a football stadium, but the "field" area is a parking lot.   Can't get enough of these "then and now" comparisons 

[Raildude's dad]

1 hour ago, discgrab21 said:

Is there anything to that area in the bottom left of the 131 under construction photo?  It looks like a horseshoe bowl of a football stadium, but the "field" area is a parking lot.   Can't get enough of these "then and now" comparisons 

That's the area where the gas works was (current DTE building and property). 

[Allison Slater]

23 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

I was actually wondering if anyone knew the story behind the story. It’s surprising that a 12 story building met the wrecking ball. Maybe it was always a no frills building (since it was a factory), and expendable. Or it never had office tenants, so it was an easy target. As far as I can tell, it’s the biggest building to get knocked down in that era.

it was so close to the core, it just seems a little unexpected  then again, if they converted it to a parking ramp, I’m sure the elements weren’t too kind on it  

Joe

I'm still puzzled about another 12-story building that was demolished, only in the 1920s. It was much more ornate and was demolished only about 10 years after it was built, to be replaced by a 1-story building. Can't for the life of me figure out why. (The Burleson Sanitarium, replaced by the Peacock Building)

[joeDowntown]

51 minutes ago, tSlater said:

I'm still puzzled about another 12-story building that was demolished, only in the 1920s. It was much more ornate and was demolished only about 10 years after it was built, to be replaced by a 1-story building. Can't for the life of me figure out why. (The Burleson Sanitarium, replaced by the Peacock Building)

Hadn’t heard about this building. Photos? Maybe it was haunted.    

Joe

[walker]

1 hour ago, tSlater said:

I'm still puzzled about another 12-story building that was demolished, only in the 1920s. It was much more ornate and was demolished only about 10 years after it was built, to be replaced by a 1-story building. Can't for the life of me figure out why. (The Burleson Sanitarium, replaced by the Peacock Building)

There's a website dedicated to the history of the Burleson Sanitarium / Hospital:

Burleson Sanitarium on Fulton

 I doubt that the hospital was ever as big as the post card rendering at the top since their locations before and after this building were much smaller and because there is no photo showing that large a building, although there are the thumbnails that show the front of the building only.  I also doubt that after they moved to a couple of floors in the Morton House, that they had the big sign on the side of the hotel as shown in the Morton House picture:

Burleson at the Morton House

I do remember their small hospital in East Grand Rapids, this is another place I occasionally delivered groceries to when I was eighteen:

Burleson in East Grand Rapids

Don't know why the Jefferson building was torn down but considering how they stressed in their ads how the Morton House was fire proof, maybe they had a fire or it was condemned as unsafe.

[RegalTDP]

On 3/27/2019 at 4:18 AM, joeDowntown said:

I was actually wondering if anyone knew the story behind the story. It’s surprising that a 12 story building met the wrecking ball. Maybe it was always a no frills building (since it was a factory), and expendable. Or it never had office tenants, so it was an easy target. As far as I can tell, it’s the biggest building to get knocked down in that era.

it was so close to the core, it just seems a little unexpected  then again, if they converted it to a parking ramp, I’m sure the elements weren’t too kind on it  

Joe

Regarding the shoe factory, Morten took it over as its parking ramp, then after that they sold it to a realty company, who used it for public parking for a while.  By the time it was torn down it had been abandoned for about 5-10 years.  The company that owned it likely had no idea what to do with it.  It probably looked as inviting as the old A&P building at that time.

Edited March 28, 2019 by RegalTDP

[joeDowntown]

12 hours ago, walker said:

There's a website dedicated to the history of the Burleson Sanitarium / Hospital:

Burleson Sanitarium on Fulton

 I doubt that the hospital was ever as big as the post card rendering at the top since their locations before and after this building were much smaller and because there is no photo showing that large a building, although there are the thumbnails that show the front of the building only. 

I think inflating the size of building must have been a “thing” back then. I remember looking at an old ad/brochure for the furniture exhibition and they took a lot liberties, increasing height and moving buildings closer together. It made GR look like a small Chicago or New York.

Joe

[Allison Slater]

On 3/28/2019 at 8:52 AM, walker said:

 I doubt that the hospital was ever as big as the post card rendering at the top since their locations before and after this building were much smaller and because there is no photo showing that large a building, although there are the thumbnails that show the front of the building only. 

I remember having seen an aerial photo of the city at one point (have no idea how to find it now) that was taken while the Burleson at Jefferson stood, and it was definitely a significant structure, more likely accurately depicted by the post cards. The sign on the Morton though has been confirmed not to have ever existed.

[Allison Slater]

On 3/28/2019 at 8:52 AM, walker said:

 I doubt that the hospital was ever as big as the post card rendering at the top since their locations before and after this building were much smaller and because there is no photo showing that large a building, although there are the thumbnails that show the front of the building only. 

I remember having seen an aerial photo of the city at one point (have no idea how to find it now) that was taken while the Burleson at Jefferson stood, and it was definitely a significant structure, more likely accurately depicted by the post cards. The sign on the Morton though has been confirmed not to have ever existed.

Speaking of the former rail station site, here's a photo closer to the ground looking South at it. Very weird.

And a shot of that small rail building being used as a donut shop. You can see the previously mentioned 3-floor skywalk off to the left.

[joeDowntown]

I remember the Killer donuts building. Ahead of their time. I was disappointed when they tore that building down. Didn’t really impact the arena and it was a nice nod to the history of the railroad.

Joe

[Khorasaurus1]

Those ramps to 131 made sense with the rail yard, I guess. But as the rail yard disappeared they made less and less sense. Was the ramp from Fulton gone by the time of the Killer Donuts picture?

The buildings in the Killer Donuts picture are in better shape than I was expecting for that era. 1 Ionia and the Blodgett Building don't look that different than they look today. The San Chez building is red, but also looks to be well cared for. 

I guess I had it in my head that they looked like the BOB or Arena Station did back then. Not sure why.

Edited March 30, 2019 by Khorasaurus1

[ironyisadeadscene]

16 hours ago, tSlater said:

I remember having seen an aerial photo of the city at one point (have no idea how to find it now) that was taken while the Burleson at Jefferson stood, and it was definitely a significant structure, more likely accurately depicted by the post cards. The sign on the Morton though has been confirmed not to have ever existed.

Speaking of the former rail station site, here's a photo closer to the ground looking South at it. Very weird.

And a shot of that small rail building being used as a donut shop. You can see the previously mentioned 3-floor skywalk off to the left.

It's difficult for me to place the background buildings. So this is by the arena. The donut building is gone. Behind that is GRBC ... The red building is San Chez, correct? What building has that skywalk? And why is it three floors??

Edited March 30, 2019 by ironyisadeadscene

[GR_Urbanist]

 

1 hour ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

It's difficult for me to place the background buildings. So this is by the arena. The donut building is gone. Behind that is GRBC ... The red building is San Chez, correct? What building has that skywalk? And why is it three floors??

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9632187,-85.6710437,3a,75y,98.44h,95.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7JoBXzHoBIteTJWdu-iVzA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Here is roughly the spot. Yup the red building is San Chez. The skywalk belongs to the old City Center Mall (GR Police HQ now). It runs to its parking ramp (UICA now).

 

I really miss that skywalk.

 

[GRDadof3]

13 hours ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

It's difficult for me to place the background buildings. So this is by the arena. The donut building is gone. Behind that is GRBC ... The red building is San Chez, correct? What building has that skywalk? And why is it three floors??

That was a janky old parking ramp that served City Center/Mackey's World.