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Gallery on Fulton


civitas

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Does anyone know what came before the parking ramp on this site? Given the location, this must be at least the 4th or 5th structure/use for this site.

Hotel Cody was. This is looking Southwest. The small building to the far left is the one that still exists today on South Division, right next to the site where Gallery is going in.

3100464816_fd0e6e65c1_o.jpg

That is some nasty stuff down there. You can really see it here:

3098760580_125d392380_b.jpg

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Hotel Cody was. This is looking Southwest. The small building to the far left is the one that still exists today on South Division, right next to the site where Gallery is going in.

3100464816_fd0e6e65c1_o.jpg

I'm not taking anything away from Gallery - it's going to look great on that corner - but it is too bad that those old buildings were torn town for a parking structure...

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Hotel Cody was. This is looking Southwest. The small building to the far left is the one that still exists today on South Division, right next to the site where Gallery is going in.

Thanks for the info - I was thinking the Cody was a block East. Was that really the last structure before the ramp? So it would have been torn down just 20 or so years ago. The ramp went up for the City Centre project, correct?

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It was built before City Centre (wasn't the ramp 35-40 years old?) but I think the two buildings were knocked down for the ramp. Gotta love urban renewal!

Joe

Thanks for the info - I was thinking the Cody was a block East. Was that really the last structure before the ramp? So it would have been torn down just 20 or so years ago. The ramp went up for the City Centre project, correct?
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Thanks for the info - I was thinking the Cody was a block East. Was that really the last structure before the ramp? So it would have been torn down just 20 or so years ago. The ramp went up for the City Centre project, correct?
I know for sure I parked in that ramp in early 1964 and it may have been around a year or two before then. According to the caption on the GRPL photo, the hotel was built in 1886 and torn down in 1958.

http://www.grapids.lib.mi.us/photocoll?cat...k&keynum=73

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I know for sure I parked in that ramp in early 1964 and it may have been around a year or two before then. According to the caption on the GRPL photo, the hotel was built in 1886 and torn down in 1958.

http://www.grapids.lib.mi.us/photocoll?cat...k&keynum=73

Nice pic; they sure don't build 'em like that anymore. I could look at all those cornices and edges and gingerbread for hours.

It would be fun to post a virtual street with that structure still there, and the big smooth blank GRPD wall across the street.

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Hotel Cody was. This is looking Southwest. The small building to the far left is the one that still exists today on South Division, right next to the site where Gallery is going in.

3100464816_fd0e6e65c1_o.jpg

Notice what appears to be a tall building in the background along the right edge of the picture. It looks like its near the present day Van Andel Arena. Any one know if it was a real building or an artistic license?

Edited by tamias6
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Notice what appears to be a tall building in the background along the right edge of the picture. It looks like its near the present day Van Andel Arena. Any one know if it was a real building or an artistic license?

I have seen an aerial photo from 1940s ? that appeared to show a very tall building on what is now the parking lot behind San Chez. Maybe some has it and could post it.

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I have seen an aerial photo from 1940s ? that appeared to show a very tall building on what is now the parking lot behind San Chez. Maybe some has it and could post it.

I had to go way back, but here it is. Yes, there appears to be a tall building behind the San Chez building. The street right up the middle of the pic is South Divison.

119838212_c4784e92a0_b.jpg

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what is that on the upper right? its like a huge space.

That is Belknap Park. I'm not sure what it's use was at that time, but they took tons and tons of dirt from it to build US 131 and then the "Project X" sculpture ( http://www.sculpturesitesgr.org/sculpture_...&location=1 ) was built into the hillside that remained. Now there is the ice arena that the Griffins use for a practice facility and a couple of lighted softball fields in addition to the Project X earth sculpture.

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That is Belknap Park. I'm not sure what it's use was at that time, but they took tons and tons of dirt from it to build US 131 and then the "Project X" sculpture ( http://www.sculpturesitesgr.org/sculpture_...&location=1 ) was built into the hillside that remained. Now there is the ice arena that the Griffins use for a practice facility and a couple of lighted softball fields in addition to the Project X earth sculpture.

It's Belknap Park but I'm pretty sure the "light color" is the water reservoir being under construction. There's a large reservoir underground in the southern end of the park.

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There is also a 12 (or so) story building on the pie shaped property owned by Hinman. What building was there originally?

Joe

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

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Wow, maybe we should all play a game of "count the massive surface park lots" and I'll go first...

hmmmm.....

It's like trying to find waldo.....

wait a second, wait, wait.....

eh, no...... that's what they use to call a train station....

hmmmm......

Well, I'll just venture 0.

If this isn't proof that people can get about without cars (since they did it then), then I don't know what would be.

Hey look! There are tons of buildings at Fulton and Market! :w00t:

Edited by d8alterego
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And another thing, not to get all emotional on you guys (and ladies), but each time I see the old courthouse and city hall I get all misty. :cry: I guess that's a true sign that I'm a Urban Planet freak. :blush:

I honestly get physically ill looking at all of these old photos. In everyone you see what could have been our Times Square, or Magnificent Mile, Chelsea, SoHo, Maybe our own St. Marks.

Knowing that all of it was wantonly eradicated for the "brilliance" that replaced it, most of which we have to waste billions and decades trying to clean up from dismal to just mediocre, just leaves me angry at those city leaders that have robbed my generation of a magnificent place that would have been the envy of the region instead of a barely functioning downtown.

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That is Belknap Park. I'm not sure what it's use was at that time, but they took tons and tons of dirt from it to build US 131 and then the "Project X" sculpture ( http://www.sculpturesitesgr.org/sculpture_...&location=1 ) was built into the hillside that remained. Now there is the ice arena that the Griffins use for a practice facility and a couple of lighted softball fields in addition to the Project X earth sculpture.
OK I know this is topic drift on top of topic drift, but that X earth sculpture, what a joke. The winding road that you can see in the photo that started at North Division and led up to the top of the park had, in my philistine opinion, much more artistic merit than the X and it was just a road. Just as we are stuck with the scarred north side of Belknap Hill, I guess we are stuck with the X. Maybe when the dreamers here get rid of the elevation of 131 (earlier topic,) they can have the dirt moved back to Belknap Hill.
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Longtime lurker, first-time poster here. GRDad, do you know when this photo was taken? I see the old Y but not the Ryerson library. I had thought the latter was older than the former for some reason. I could look at photos like this all day. Being born in 1983, the current-ish downtown is all I know and I feel like I missed something.

Anyway, back on topic. Does anyone know if GRPD would be open to the possibility of a mural on that side? I've always thought that big empty wall was an eyesore, too.

Edited by nurfle!
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Longtime lurker, first-time poster here. GRDad, do you know when this photo was taken? I see the old Y but not the Ryerson library. I had thought the latter was older than the former for some reason. I could look at photos like this all day. Being born in 1983, the current-ish downtown is all I know and I feel like I missed something.

Anyway, back on topic. Does anyone know if GRPD would be open to the possibility of a mural on that side? I've always thought that big empty wall was an eyesore, too.

Hard to tell. I'm guessing in the 40's?

Ryerson is there. Just to the right of the Y.

119838212_c4784e92a0_b.jpg

This is another interesting old aerial, right at the crescent of urban renewal in the 60's:

http://www.grapids.lib.mi.us/site_images/c...34-37.n3958.jpg

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