With thanks to Willard

[gerisullivan]

Over on her LiveJournal, debgeisler posted about Mitt Romney's real first name being Willard. Being a Michigan girl myself, the name is a familiar one, though my own knowledge of it is as a surname. I grew up with Willard Library, named after Charles Willard, whose estate funded the building in 1905. Twenty-nine years later, his nephew, George B. Willard, left money to expand the library, further cementing the Willard name into Battle Creek history. Then there's Willard Beach, at Goguac Lake, about 8 blocks from the house my Dad still lives in.

But it was Deb's mention of the name that sent me to Google today, and that turned up a remarkable find. Williard Library has put thousands of historical pictures of Battle Creek online! Including the following gems:

89 Jordan Street, where I lived until I was 3.

149 Fremont Street, the Squier House, where Auntie Bun, my great-aunt and godmother lived with her twin sister, Bernice. They ran Twinzy Toys on the top floor of their father's tag factory, shown in this picture of 151 Fremont Street.

Here's First Congregational Church as it looked in my childhood. I can almost see the minister greeting people and folks standing on the church steps after Sunday services. I was married in Miller Chapel, the building on the right side of the photo. And here's Highland Jr. High School, long since torn down and replaced by a Felpausch supermarket, drugstore, and hardware store. Highland housed the first library I ever worked in, and I have a brick from when the building was demolished.

There are also several dozen photos of Michigan Carton Company, where Daddy worked for 37 years. The next time I visit, I'll take him over to the coffee shop in the building that used to be Sullivan's Ice Cream in Lakeview, and we'll go through bunches of the pictures using the high-speed connection there. Until then, though, I'll print out several and mail them to him. Including this shot of his childhood home.

Of interest to fans is 25 Poplar Street, home of the fabled Slan Shack. This photo was most likely taken during the 1940s, when EE Evans, Walt Liebscher, Jack Wiedenbeck & Al & Abby Lu Ashley lived there. The porch had been enclosed by the time I took a picture of the house in the 1980s.

Looking a bit further afield, Google turned up the usual next-to-nothing about Twinzy Toys or my great-aunts Blanche and Bernice, but I did stumble across this page about my great-uncle Ted Squier. Cool!

Then, Googling on Sullivan's Dairy turned up something else I knew nothing about: they've restored the Sullivan Dairy Barn!

I love living in the future.

Comments

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if Mitt Romney's analogue on the Bizarro World is named Mittout Romney.

There appears to be an HTML problem in the LJ-cut portion of your post, which is messing up all of the URL links which follow it.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up! So much for all those previews. I think it's fixed now.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

The link for your 1980s picture of the Slan Shack actually just goes to the 1940s photo again.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Fixed. Thanks.

And for a quick link, it's also here.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

All links fixed! And it were a pleasure to click through them. Yeah!

[fredcritter.livejournal.com]

I love living in the future. It's a lot like having bees living in your head. But there they are.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Sis...you forgot to check out 264 Hubbard Street where Grandpa & Grandma lived while we were on Jordan Street! Way cool site...especially loved seeing the tag factory!