Hometown

This is home. This town right here, with these familiar places.

Wanna take a peek?

 

In the 1800's the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad went right through this area.


A railroad station was constructed on the north side of the tracks. Much of the land to the north, east and west was wet, soggy marshland and covered with nasty brush.

Immigrants from the Netherlands traveled by train heading across the state to join their family and friends in the towns on the Lake Michigan shore.  

It was around the 1890's when some of them spotted those wetlands parallel to the train tracks and knew exactly what to do with them. They would turn those wetlands into profitable farmland. Ah, yes, the enterprising Dutch, dealing with water problems was not new to them!  That muck was dirty gold.
Now, removing the brambles and brush would take grueling work but these were hard working people. They still are. 

And I'll just betcha they got that land for very little money, if any. 

Thus the truck farming business began, vegetables were grown in that soil and every year we watch them do it again. Sometimes it smells like onions all over town! 

Growing plants outside soon became inside agriculture as well. 
Greenhouses, they're all over the place, large, small, tiny, family owned businesses. We are so thankful for them! They employ many.

And now let's peek at the houses we drive past every day around here, some of these homes are original to the city, like this one. What a porch!

Although it's been changed and updated many times the house below was the home of the town's founder. Cute isn't it?

Oh my word, I love this one. The porch, the sunroom,  
and that cupola.

Here's an example of Dutch brickwork. 

This long narrow white house is right in the middle of town at the red light. It was tough to get this picture due to the traffic!
The woman who lived there for most of her 102 years passed away in a nursing home about three years ago. 
A landmark home for certain.

The house above is just a wonderful place, the pictures do not show the front porch tucked behind the shrubbery, 
it has a beautiful yard and detached garage. 
 
We are a moving city.

It would be surprising to know which houses in town were 

at one time located, well, somewhere else. 

When the main road was converted into a divided highway smack dab through town the adjacent homes had to be removed, most of them were bought and moved, they were not torn down and "wasted" but were reused. 

Many of these houses were attached to other homes as additions. 
We; reuse, renew, revive, save, don't waste, don't throw away what might be used someday.

This garden center's perennial garden is right along the street we use nearly every day. 

It's a pretty sight any time of year. 

Another greenhouse family who has perfected the art of gardening.

Love. 

Now for some favorite and familiar barns.. do you love barns too? 

 How charming is this? 

 A familiar sight. 

 And another, very familiar homestead, 

classic, cared for, neat.  
And right on the way to just about any place we need to go!

 A little country corner church. 

 Ah.. the "The Plaza", 
it's just a short walk from the high school to the plaza. When I was in high school it was well worth hiking over there
 for a Long John pastry, the bakery is gone now, miss it! 
However there's a dollar store, what ever would we do without it? 

 

 This is our nice new farmers co-op

but sadly the old white clapboard building burned down. 

 

  The barber shop was built in 1949 and is the second longest existing business in town 
which is still located in the same building.  

Although there have been other owners and operators of this barber shop, in July the current owner will have looked out of that big window at nearly the same view for 50 years while listening to  family stories and business news from one generation to the next. 

The Wheel Alignment shop is the oldest business in town still located in the same spot.

 What would we do without our knowledge filled barber?  
He sure knows the history, 
he says this building was our blacksmith shop. 

A bit of contrast from the old blacksmith shop to the new city hall. 

And this;

 A beautiful addition to our downtown city hall area is the 

Veterans Memorial Park. 
It's a peaceful place to stroll and sit a while. 

   I love this town..

     

Now for the last picture. 
Having driven past this sign for many years it dawned on me that every city has large and small landmark locations, places we see all the time and would miss if they were gone.  
The sign below is at the end of a driveway, it's been there for who knows how long. 

Makes me chuckle. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour, 
Sideline Grandma.