I have a feeling things will be very, very interesting tonight.
Tonight is the first Jim Koski ™ walking tour for the Marquette Regional History Center in almost two years, and I'm getting a little nervous about it. I'm not nervous about the tour at all; that'll be fine, and a lot of fun for everyone who shows up. But what I AM worried about is how many people show up. A couple of weeks ago I guessed it would be somewhere between five and 500, and I'm now thinking it will be much closer to the latter than the former.
And based on the size of the sidewalks on Third Street, I don't know how we're all going to fit.
There's not much I can do about it, I guess. We'll deal with things as they come. I will let you know tomorrow how things go between me and my (gulp) anywhere between five and 500 close friends. And to get you in the spirit, here's a newspaper article I wrote to try and entice even more people to show up.
Yes, I'm insane. What's your point?
8-)
Hope to see you tonight if you can make it!
*****
Over the years, you may have noticed something unique about Marquette's Third Street business district—something that, for the lack of a better word, we'll call “clusters”.
Unlike in other areas of the city, Third Street was home to many “clusters” of the same type of businesses up & down the district. All of Marquette's funerals homes were (and still are) located on Third, as were many of the city's finest hair salons. For many years, another type of business clustered around the area were bakeries, and out of all of the bakeries that have called Third Street home, there are two that still standout in people's memories today--
The original Marquette Baking Company, and the Sweet Goods Shoppe.
For almost 50 years, until it shut its doors in the early 1980s, the Marquette Baking Company would be a stop for everyone from school kids to their grandparents. Alfred Alholm owned the bakery for 35 of those years, and he was joined in making the goods by Erick Ryoti, who himself worked there for 20 years. One of them would show up around 4 every morning to get the dough started for the day's projects, and by the time the rest of the city was on the move the place would be packed with everything from bread to doughnuts to cakes.
Even forty years after it closed people still remember the wedding cakes you could get there—one person said “I've never had a cake as fine as they made. And I loved their white icing and have never found any like it.”
Other people have raved about their pasties, macaroons, and date bars, and one person also mentioned “Their brownies have NEVER been beaten anywhere in my book!”. One gentleman who was a kid back in the 50s mentioned that he “always walked into the Marquette Bakery on Third and the lady with the dark wavy hair and a hair net would give me a lemon & raspberry filled doughnut. I will never forget her!”
Like all bakeries of the time, though, the Marquette Baking Company specialized in its bread. White, rye, limpa, French...everyone had their favorite. When the bakery closed in the early 1980s, it actually lived on for a few years as a shop called The Bread Basket, which used the original recipes from the old Marquette Baking Company.
Seven blocks down Third Street from the Marquette Baking Company sat the Sweet Goods Shoppe . And while the bakery was known for its cookies and and other snack treats, many people recall other specialties, like their pasties. One or two of the huge pie-plate sized dishes would serve just fine for family dinners or picnics on Presque Isle.
Other people remember the great taste of the sweet rye or Swedish Rye bread, and say they've never quite found one that matches the bread baked by Ted Gasper, who owned Sweet Goods Shop for many, many years.
And there are people who even remember picking blueberries for the Sweet Goods Shoppe. They'd get paid a nickel a quart, although they'd have to clean what they picked themselves--and the fresh berries would be used in the pies sold there during the summer.
The Gaspar family ran the Sweet Goods' Shoppe until it closed in the early 1970s. Its location is now home to several businesses, most notably the Casa Calabria.
*****
“Third Street: Day and Night” is a walking tour being put on by the Marquette Regional History Center Wednesday, June 2nd, beginning at 630. The walk begins and ends at the PEIF parking lot, and there's a $5 suggested donation. For more information, contact the History Center at (906) 226-3571..
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