I found this on CADL's website, and had no idea there was a parking garage next to the Masonic Temple:
I can't find the date on this, but it appears from other photos it was present in the 1960's? Older photos from the 1950's show a one-story drive-thru bank on the site.
I can't even in my head picture how this thing fit on the block looking at the current parking lot. I wonder when it was torn down? Anyway, just kind of shows you what was done - and what can be done - with the block.
Yes, it was built in the '60s and was Lansing's first [I believe] muti-story parking ramp and was thought of as very modern and a great addition to downtown. There is one on MSU's campus near the Administration building that was built around the same time and looks very similar to the one downtown. I don't know when this ramp was torn down, it the '80's I would guess. It looks like all the cars are going north one way on Capitol, which is something I do not remember. Thanks for posting this.
Yes, apparently Grand was northbound, too, at once point. I'm not sure when they all got switched in the other direction. Probably after the freeway was opened.
I thought that was an interesting story, the false story was kind of a negative view of our city's founding, I am happy to hear that the folks who moved here were not the victims of some sort of scam. When I walk through some of the woods and parks like Scott Woods, I think that this is what the first European/American most have seen and felt when they first arrived in the area. Dense heavy woods that must have been a challenge to even think about clearing and building on this land. I have read that it was not easy, our forefathers and mothers were some tough folks!
Yeah, the local history librarian at CADL had debunked the tale years ago, and I think WKAR did a story on it at the time. I guess the LSJ is just catching up on it.
Anyway, the tall tale was actually meant to be inspiring, basically that a group of settlers who'd been swindled made the most - and the best - of a bad situation to found a settlement that'd eventually become the state capitol where it wouldn't have been otherwise. But it's good to have the actual history on the record. lol
What is true in the main, though, is that this should have never become the city of the size it is, today. Had it not been the chosen as the capital on what ended up being a compromise, Mason would have developed to become the main city in the county, but even today Mason would have been a whole lot smaller than Lansing is now, maybe even something not even Jackson-sized.
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I can't find the date on this, but it appears from other photos it was present in the 1960's? Older photos from the 1950's show a one-story drive-thru bank on the site.
I can't even in my head picture how this thing fit on the block looking at the current parking lot. I wonder when it was torn down? Anyway, just kind of shows you what was done - and what can be done - with the block.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2024/09/12/lansing-founding-biddle-city-hoax-scam-history/74637939007/
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/videos/news/local/2024/09/12/michigan-historians-talk-about-biddle-city/75163575007/
Anyway, the tall tale was actually meant to be inspiring, basically that a group of settlers who'd been swindled made the most - and the best - of a bad situation to found a settlement that'd eventually become the state capitol where it wouldn't have been otherwise. But it's good to have the actual history on the record. lol
What is true in the main, though, is that this should have never become the city of the size it is, today. Had it not been the chosen as the capital on what ended up being a compromise, Mason would have developed to become the main city in the county, but even today Mason would have been a whole lot smaller than Lansing is now, maybe even something not even Jackson-sized.