To quote a great American philosopher...oops. I did it again.
You know how I've written in here about writing a lot these days and then, in my haste to move onto the next project, forget what I've written? Well, that happened again yesterday when someone send me a text telling me how much then enjoyed the "article that was in the 'Mining Journal'". My first thought was that they must be behind in their reading, and were letting me know about my Memorial Day bit from a week or two ago.
But then I realized I wrote another one, too.
So, with that in mind, and because I'm (apparently) a moron who forgets what he writes, here IS that article, a promo piece for the "Wild Wild West" tour that takes place in 13 days. Hopefully, there aren't any more forgotten newspaper articles out there, but these days?
You never know
(jim@wmqt.com)
*****
AN AMAZING PHOTOGRAPH
By Jim Koski
Marquette Regional History Center
The picture is, perhaps, the starkest
example of how much Marquette has changed in the past 75 years.
The photograph, taken in 1950 from the
roof of the current Mining Journal building, evokes old New York City
more than it does the Marquette of anyone’s memory. On a corner
that’s now nothing more than a parking lot–the northwest portion
of the intersection of Washington and Fourth Streets–sat the Green
Block, a three story structure that housed businesses on its ground
floor and apartments on the floors above.
As downtown Marquette began its
expansion west of Fourth Street in the 1880s, the 300 block of West
Washington Street found itself becoming increasingly crowded with new
livery stables, grocers, funeral homes, and a Catholic church. One
of the largest buildings constructed during that boom was the Green
Block, originally built as a hotel by William Green in the first
years of the 1890s. Along with the attached Van Iderstine Building
(more commonly known as the “Ida Block”), built at the same time
and eventually to become part of the Green Block, the complex grew
into one of the centerpieces of the growing neighborhood.
The building was home to many
businesses over the 70 years it stood on the corner, including
medical offices, beauty salons, clothing stores, and restaurants such
as the Dixie Barbeque. This particular picture, in fact, shows
Erickson’s Radio Repair on the Fourth Street side and Fritz’
Upholstery on Washington. But no business was more identified with
the Green Block than Kreig’s News.
Earl & Gerry Kreig opened the
newsstand in the mid 1930s, where it quickly became a community
institution. Adults who were kids in the 1940s & 50s
particularly remember the scent of the store, a combination of
newsprint and tobacco. And kids were some of the store’s biggest
customers, as it sold comic boys, small toys, and wooden & model
airplanes.
One older gentleman, in fact, recalled
going into the store many times to lovingly gaze at a model airplane
he could not afford. After what were probably too many visits (as he
joked) one the Kreig brothers gave him the model plane, with
instructions that when finished the young man bring the airplane back
to the store so they could see what kind of job he did on it.
He says he brought it back, completed,
the very next day.
(As an aside, when the Kreigs retired
in the early 1960s, they sold the newsstand to another mid-century
Marquette business leader, Joe Fine, who found himself bored in
retirement after selling his legendary tavern a few years prior.)
The apartments on the upper floors of
the Green Block held a mix of young, small families and older
individuals. It was not uncommon for residents to hang on to those
apartments; in fact, several individuals made the building their home
for 20 to 30 years.
By the mid 1960s, however, the Green
Block was starting to show its age. “Urban Renewal” was then in
vogue, and when the building began to have problems with safety
inspections, its days were numbered. It was torn down in October of
1967 so the land could be used as parking for its next door neighbor,
St. John’s Church. Two decades later the church itself was razed,
and what was once a thriving street corner became nothing more than a
parking lot extending for almost half a city block.
******
Stories of this particular section of
downtown Marquette will be the focus of a walking tour entitled “Wild
Wild West: the Forgotten History of West Washington Street”, put on
by the Marquette Regional History Center on Wednesday, June 18th.
The tour begins at 630 at the History Center with a suggested $5
donation. More information is available by calling the History
Center at 226-3571 or by visiting marquettehistory.org
