Oh man, that would've been a cool building to have in Lansing.
A lot of cities have buildings like this scattered around or even in little districts, must have been a real trend at some point. Anybody know when this style was in? 20's, 30's, 40's even...?
Any idea as to the oldest street in Lansing? Michigan Ave is likely the oldest *main* street in the city, stretching from Detroit to Lansing via boardwalk, but I'm curious if there were streets/pathways that existed before Michigan Ave.
Well, Grand River Avenue was an old Native American trail before Europeans had set sight on the land, and the first buildings where along Franklin Street (which is now Grand River) where it crossed the river in Old Town. So, I'm guessing Franklin/Grand River. There was nothing in the downtown area until the area was chosen as the state capital. The road was the only connecting to Detroit before the railroads. Before they turned it into a plank road, it was a dirt road that used to take over a days travel between the two cities. The road was originally planked and tolled between Detroit and Howell sometime before the 1850's, and then was expanded to Lansing in 1853.
I think this a very interesting photo. I would agree that Grand River Avenue is the oldest "street" in Lansing. The first Europeans, the French did not really build any roads, they used rivers and native trails. It looks like the road might per-date Lansing itself. There is a good picture of a plank road in B.C. on wikipedia. Now that I see it I can imagine what it might have looked like in Michigan. I always had this picture in my head as a kid of a log road and what a bumpy ride that would be. Now it makes more sense to me! It must have been noisy.
The article MichMatters linked to says that there were boards on top of these planks, so it wouldn't be as bumpy of a ride as the picture makes it look like. Those boards were removed when the street was put in, but the planks remained as they provided some extra stability for the road during construction.
Also, in the background of this picture is the Taco Bell and I think the buildings prior to the first Stonehouse Village (the multi-tiered one that includes Cottage Inn Pizza).
Though, anything with wood still would have been load and bumpy, particularly with wooden wheels on the boards. Speaking of planks, all of the sidewalks in towns like Lansing were planks before cities like this matured. It's always weird when I see the really old pics, but then have to remember these started off as rough little outposts before they became cities, and thus couldn't afford stone. And, of course, this was mostly before large-scale, popular concrete use started up again after ancient times.
BTW, the part of Grand River that was the Lansing and Howell Plank Road (which continued from Howell at the Howell and Detroit Plank Road) was the only direct connection between Lansing and Detroit until the Detroit, Howell and Lansing Rilroad reached town in 1871 reducing the importance of the road. It's why it was only tolled until the 1880's because they were probably losing money on it. To get to Lansing by rail prior to 1871 from Detroit you'd have to go up to Owosso and down or over to Jackson and then up. It's really crazy to think of how small Lansing was at the time that it was playing second fiddle to Owosso and Jackson. lol
I think the fact that Lansing got a later start then other communities in the area is reflected in our streets. We have wide boulevards and a street plan that is Midwestern. Older towns are more Eastern, small narrow streets and small blocks perhaps that grew in a more organic way [like cow paths or Native trails] oppose to the planned streets that were laid out in a wider grid as Lansing grew south from Grand River Ave. I think you could say that our lower density downtown was the first urban sprawl from the original town center "Old Town". Like I said about Ann Arbor we did not build everything right in the center of a dense city. We built our state college in the country, and had big sections of land to build factories near but not in downtown. What I am trying to point out that this may be why Lansing is not like Indianapolis, or Austin with lots of sky scrapers and a big downtown. We had lots of space to build horizontal, not vertical. Lansing has always been spreading out that way since the start.
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A lot of cities have buildings like this scattered around or even in little districts, must have been a real trend at some point. Anybody know when this style was in? 20's, 30's, 40's even...?
Here's a photo showing the old planks beneath Grand River Avenue in East Lansing back in 1996 courtesy of Kevin Forsyth's East Lansing history website.
Also, in the background of this picture is the Taco Bell and I think the buildings prior to the first Stonehouse Village (the multi-tiered one that includes Cottage Inn Pizza).
BTW, the part of Grand River that was the Lansing and Howell Plank Road (which continued from Howell at the Howell and Detroit Plank Road) was the only direct connection between Lansing and Detroit until the Detroit, Howell and Lansing Rilroad reached town in 1871 reducing the importance of the road. It's why it was only tolled until the 1880's because they were probably losing money on it. To get to Lansing by rail prior to 1871 from Detroit you'd have to go up to Owosso and down or over to Jackson and then up. It's really crazy to think of how small Lansing was at the time that it was playing second fiddle to Owosso and Jackson. lol