Lansing History

edited December 2007 in Lansing
This is a thread for historic pictures and info on the Lansing area. I'll start off by including the pics that I first posted on Urban Planet. I'm not sure what the photo limit is here, so I'll divide them into a few posts.

Here are some pics of the old REO Factory, which occupied the land from Washington to Cedar and Baker north to the RR tracks. The photos are from the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record.

1. Building #3 (Clubhouse), looking northeast from Washington Avenue.
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2. Building #3 (Clubhouse), looking south from Grand Trunk Railroad Station.
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3. Building #3 (Clubhouse), interior of ballroom.
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4. Building #1 (Administration), looking east from Washington Avenue.
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5. Building #1 (Administration), second floor offices.
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6. Building #1 (Administration), first floor offices.
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7. Building #4 (Engineering), looking northeast from Washington Avenue.
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8. Building #5 (Engineering), looking west from interior of plant.
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9. Building #5 (Engineering), looking west from interior of plant.
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10. Building #2, looking south from Grand Trunk Railroad Station.
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11. Building #8, looking northeast from Washington Avenue.
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12. Buildings #8 (background) and #7 (foreground), looking northwest from Baker Street.
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13. Building #5, looking northwest from interior of plant.
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14. Building #5, looking northeast from interior of plant.
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15. Building #6 (background) and #8 (foreground), looking southeast from interior of plant.
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16. Baker Street Water tower, looking south.
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17. Cedar Street water tower, looking north (beyond historic designation area).
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18.
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19.
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Comments

  • edited December 2007
    A drawing of the REO plant in 1918, Washington Ave is running accross the bottom right.
    Reo1.jpg

    A view of the REO buildings that faced Washington Ave in 1977.
    Reo2.jpg

    A view of REO along the RR tracks in 1977.
    Reo4.jpg

    A view of the Old Lansing City Hall (Left) and the Old Post Office (Right)
    lansingpoandcityhall.jpg

    The Lansing School for the Blind as it used to be.
    lansing22w.jpg

    Lansing Central High School, now known as LCC's Old Central Building (has been "modernized")
    central800.jpg

    Some unknown Lansing Factory shots, non currently exist :( , of course.
    lansing18w.jpg

    lansing20w.jpg

    lansing23w.jpg

    Michigan National under construction
    MichiganNatltrimmed.jpg

    Here are a couple of Washington Ave pics from Water Winter Wonderland.

    lansing_1.jpg

    lansing.jpg



    Quoted from Lmich, posted on UP:
    "LS & MS Depot - this was somewhere along Cedar Street, downtown. I can't really remember the old railroad configuration of the area, but it was somewhere in this area and demolished long ago.
    94MI_-_Lansing_-_Railroad_Depot_3.jpg

    Hollister Building before it was expanded and still known as the Hollister Block. This is the oldest remaining "high-rise" building of Lansing.
    94MI_-_Lansing_-_Hollister_Block.jpg

    Fire Station #1 - This one looks like the current home of the Lansing Civic Players on East Michigan Avenue, but Station #1 would be the one downtown at Grand and Shiawasee. So, I'm not sure where this one is or if it still exists.
    94MI_-_Lansing_-_Engine_House_1_a.jpg

    300 south block of Washington Square looking north. With the old Downey Hotel dominating the foreground.
    94MI_-_Lansing_-_Washington_Ave_1_dup.jpg

    100 south block of Washington looking north. Looks to be sometime in the 60's.
    94MI_-_Lansing_-_Business_Section_3.jpg"
  • And finally the reason why I decided to create this post, I found some great pics of Old Town, before "urban renewal" and the North Lansing fire. These pics are from the I Love Old Town - Gallery.

    Auto Body works, where Sir Pizza is now.
    1910_CADL_Auto_Body_Works.jpg

    Lansing Brewing Co
    1905_CADL_Lansing_Brewing_Co.jpg

    Grand River, looking east accross the bridge.
    15.Franklin_Ave_looking_east_1912.jpg

    Arial from 1935
    arial_view_1935.jpg

    Another view of the Auto Body plant
    Website_-_Auto_Body_Plant.jpg

    A flooded Race Street mill
    1904_CADL_Flood_N_Lansing_Mill.jpg
  • Great idea, I'm going to love this thread. Hopefully others have contributions as well.
  • Wow, thanks for posting those. I've seen some of them before, but never that one of the Michigan National Tower under construction. That's my favorite one.
  • I went to the State Library and looked up some pics also, but they charge a lot to get good quality scans, so sometime I hope to get to the CADL when their local history section is open. My main goal is still to get pictures of the westside of downtown, the I-496 area, N Washington, and all the industry that was located along the river, Cedar/Larch and LCC. I know from maps that there were a bunch of interesting buildings in those areas.
  • edited December 2007
    I was looking through CADL's website and found a few more pics:

    Thoman Mill - SW corner of Grand & Ottawa
    thoman2.jpg

    Michigan Ave bridge, pre 1870's
    woodenbridge.png

    Post 1870's
    ironbridge.jpg

    Clarksmobile Plant, 231 S Grand, destroyed in 1906 by fire
    clark_plant.jpg

    New Way auto plant, 706 Sheridan. This was in the parking lot by the North Precinct.
    newway_plant.jpg

    A more recent picture:
    newway_plant2.jpg

    Hotel Downey, razed for the Knapps Building
    hoteldowney.jpg

    Prudden Building, SW corner of Michigan & Washington, destroyed by fire in 1920
    prudden.jpg

    pruddenfire.jpg

    Oakland Building, SE corner of Michigan & Capitol (Romney Building) destroyed by fire in 1923
    oaklandbldg.jpg

    Kerns Hotel, NE corner of Grand & Michigan, destroyed by fire in 1934 killing 34 people
    kerns1.jpg

    Plymouth Congregational Church, SE Corner of Townsend & Allegan (Capitol View Building) destroyed by fire in 1977.
    plymouth1.jpg


    And here is a pdf of a 1976 historic survey. Towards the end are a bunh of pictures and references to them. Looking through these truely shows how disected central Lansing is, I just can't get over the amount of building's we've lost, the more I look the more I keep finding.

    Lansing History
  • I don't see the link to the PDF.
  • edited December 2007
    Fixed^

    The buildings I find most interesting are the ones in picture numbers 53, 54, 87, 99, 108, 110

    It's sad to see at the end of this report they give a number of reccomendations about saving historic structures, including specifically mentioning how LCC should consider saving buildings. Obviously the reccomendations of this report were never followed.

    I found another good website with more Pictures, it's especially worth looking at the collage pictures.

    Another good history site: L is for Lansing


    From 1911
    lans1911.jpg

    Gladmer Theater, SW corner of Washington & Ionia
    lansinggladmer.jpg

    lansing31130w.jpg

    lansing21130w.jpg
  • For reference, in the first two pictures, Carls = Clems.
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