Hey, what's that (and other miscellanea)?

[walker]

Drive-by photo out my car window this afternoon:

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

Well done. I actually spent a half hour looking around too (and don't rock climb either). Someone should make this into a game for Urban Planet nerds. Spot the building!

Joe

You may remember several years ago tSlater used to post a photo weekly for us to guess the location.

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by walker

[Chisox]

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

Well done. I actually spent a half hour looking around too (and don't rock climb either). Someone should make this into a game for Urban Planet nerds. Spot the building!

Joe

Where was I?

 

[GRDadof3]

32 minutes ago, Chisox said:

Where was I?

 

Looks like some sort of pedestrian bridge, with a UHaul and an auto parts store off to the left? GR or Holland area? 

[Chisox]

2 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Looks like some sort of pedestrian bridge, with a UHaul and an auto parts store off to the left? GR or Holland area? 

I'd consider it the Grand Rapids area, but to me any county adjacent to Kent is the Grand Rapids area. I'm willing to narrow it down: this location is within a county that is home to an important picnic table.

[Allison Slater]

1 hour ago, walker said:

Drive-by photo out my car window this afternoon:

You may remember several years ago tSlater used to post a photo weekly for us to guess the location.

 

Oh that was more than several years ago. So long ago I had to spend a few moments trying to remember that I actually did. Maybe I could start it up again.

[GRDadof3]

12 minutes ago, Chisox said:

I'd consider it the Grand Rapids area, but to me any county adjacent to Kent is the Grand Rapids area. I'm willing to narrow it down: this location is within a county that is home to an important picnic table.

Ahhhh, I know the answer. I'll see if other people guess it.  Cool spot, haven't checked out that "pedestrian bridge" yet. 

[walker]

3 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Ahhhh, I know the answer. I'll see if other people guess it.  Cool spot, haven't checked out that "pedestrian bridge" yet. 

I'm not going to say where it is but here's the same bridge from another angle:

[wyoming_mi]

Ionia!

M66 near downtown Ionia?

[walker]

8 hours ago, wyoming_mi said:

Ionia!

M66 near downtown Ionia?

I’m not sure what the protocol should be for letting you know whether you are right or not.  Should it be the original poster that always lets you know or can it be just anyone who thinks they know the answer?

I think you’re right.
 

[Chisox]

32 minutes ago, walker said:

I’m not sure what the protocol should be for letting you know whether you are right or not.  Should it be the original poster that always lets you know or can it be just anyone who thinks they know the answer?

I think you’re right.
 

Wyoming_mi got it. It's the Fred Meijer Grand River Trail ped bridge in Ionia. Picture was facing north down S. Dexter St. Great place. To be honest you guys have wonderful rail to trail infrastructure in the Grand Rapids area. A lot of "stations" on the trails include restrooms, splash pads, community space and even free air for bicycle tires. 

[GRDadof3]

1 hour ago, Chisox said:

Wyoming_mi got it. It's the Fred Meijer Grand River Trail ped bridge in Ionia. Picture was facing north down S. Dexter St. Great place. To be honest you guys have wonderful rail to trail infrastructure in the Grand Rapids area. A lot of "stations" on the trails include restrooms, splash pads, community space and even free air for bicycle tires. 

Work really needs to be done on the White Pine Trail from the ballpark to 14 mile (or so). It literally has thousands of users a day in the summer and it's showing its age. I ride it at least twice a week and really wish the State would invest in it, widening, repaving, and new signage and even lane markers would be excellent. On my list of to-do's...

[GRDadof3]

On 2/19/2020 at 4:46 PM, walker said:

Drive-by photo out my car window this afternoon:

You may remember several years ago tSlater used to post a photo weekly for us to guess the location.

 

If they're opening in early summer they better get moving. What a weird spot, I've never been on this street before.

 

[thebeerqueer]

14 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Work really needs to be done on the White Pine Trail from the ballpark to 14 mile (or so). It literally has thousands of users a day in the summer and it's showing its age. I ride it at least twice a week and really wish the State would invest in it, widening, repaving, and new signage and even lane markers would be excellent. On my list of to-do's...

Couldn't agree more. 

Can't wait until it warms up enough to get back out there. 

[GR_Urbanist]

I dont know if this was talked about, but what is that monument in the top-left, and what ever happened to it?

 

[walker]

Not much activity here lately, so while we are all waiting for the virus to pass I thought I'd post this:

On 10/10/2017 at 8:59 AM, GR_Urbanist said:

This is the former fish restaurant by Leonard and Plainfield  under renovation. No sign as to what is coming there.

 

Back around the time GR_Urbanist posted this I commented that back when I was a kid in the fifties, this building was a Standard Oil gas station.  On REDDIT today there is a photo of it from 1938 when it was a Ford Service Station apparently selling Standard Oil gasoline.  Here's the photo borrowed from REDDIT:

  Apparently in the 1930's Ford Motors tried to cash in on more service business by going into the service station business.  It wasn't an idea that was popular with their new car dealers and was abandoned:

Ford cashing in on the service business 1934

Edited March 22, 2020 by walker
fix typo

[GRDadof3]

1 hour ago, walker said:

Not much activity here lately, so while we are all waiting for the virus to pass I thought I'd post this:

Back around the time GR_Urbanist posted this I commented that back when I was a kid in the fifties, this building was a Standard Oil gas station.  On REDDIT today there is a photo of it from 1938 when it was a Ford Service Station apparently selling Standard Oil gasoline.  Here's the photo borrowed from REDDIT:

  Apparently in the 1930's Ford Motors tried to cash in on more service business by going into the service station business.  It wasn't an idea that was popular with their new car dealers and was abandoned:

Ford cashing in on the service business 1934

Wow, that's pretty cool. 

[joeDowntown]

That’s amazing. What a cool building back in the day. Never realized the Ford backstory, or how cool the building was (love the turret). 

Joe

[walker]

20 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

. . .  (love the turret). 

Joe

Not 100% sure but I think the turret is actually the steeple of a church that was behind the station on Taylor Street.

Edited March 23, 2020 by walker

[joeDowntown]

21 hours ago, walker said:

Not 100% sure but I think the turret is actually the steeple of a church that was behind the station on Taylor Street.

You might be right! Still a great Looking building (and great find). 
 

Joe

[wmrharris]

Steeple belonged to Coldbrook CRC, a Dutch language congregation. The English-speaking younger families left Coldbrook to found Creston CRC. Coldbrook eventually up and moved east and is now known as Beckwith Hills CRC.

I believe that for a while Schaafsma Heating may have used the building.

[walker]

1 hour ago, wmrharris said:

Steeple belonged to Coldbrook CRC, a Dutch language congregation. The English-speaking younger families left Coldbrook to found Creston CRC. Coldbrook eventually up and moved east and is now known as Beckwith Hills CRC.

I believe that for a while Schaafsma Heating may have used the building.

That's the church building I was thinking of.  The building  was probably occupied by Schaafsma's much longer than any of the preceding churches.  I remember them being there over fifty years ago when I was a substitute mail carrier and according to their website they were there from 1918 till 2007.  Slide down on their website and you can see the old church building in the background with their name on it:

link to schaafsma website 

[uncus]

See if you can figure out the history behind this. I found it in a parkway in the east hills neighborhood.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RegalTDP]

1 hour ago, uncus said:

See if you can figure out the history behind this. I found it in a parkway in the east hills neighborhood.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

About Citizens Telephone Company:  http://www.migenweb.org/kent/etten1926/telephone.html

[wingbert]

On 3/3/2020 at 6:22 PM, GR_Urbanist said:

I dont know if this was talked about, but what is that monument in the top-left, and what ever happened to it?

 

Love the story about Citizens Telephone.  Very interesting.

I still want to know if any has an answer to the question above about that lighthouse looking monument 

[walker]

3 hours ago, wingbert said:

I still want to know if any has an answer to the question above about that lighthouse looking monument 

Doesn't exactly tell what the lighthouse looking monument is but here is an article about what's going on:

Liberty Bell Parade - Jack Benny and Rochester

 

12 hours ago, RegalTDP said:

About Citizens Telephone Company:  http://www.migenweb.org/kent/etten1926/telephone.html

Back around a hundred years ago my grandfather owned a new car dealership up on Michigan Street on property that is now swallowed up into the Spectrum campus.  I remember my grandmother telling me that because there were two phone companies that he had to have a seperate phone from each company.