8/25/18 Saturday: This was a no travel day due to big wind and waves on Lake Michigan again. So that means I did some tootling around on my bike, and got some history on Muskegon buildings today on my photo safari. My primary purpose for going to town was really to check out the Farmer’s Market. Along the way, I went past these nice townhomes. Not all of the homes in town are this nice looking, I’ll just say that and leave it there.
I found the Farmer’s Market. Evidently Kenny & I had not walked far enough the other day, because this place was huge! I thought it would be a little pop up tent event in a parking lot. Nope -it’s really a big deal, three times a week, with Saturday being the largest.
There were several of these breezeway buildings, all full of vendors. And this market was really about the farmers – most of the vendors were fruits and vegetables. There were a few craft booths, but it was lots of fresh local produce for the most part.
There were all kinds of great looking colorful fruits and veggies. The problem with most of the booths was that they were selling the veggies by the little basket… which is more than I can really use.
I did find a couple of bakers, so of course I brought back a pan of cinnamon rolls and a pack of cookies! Along with some grape tomatoes and some plums. Yum!
Nearby was another painted kayak. There were several around town, but none as crazy as the mermaid in a life jacket one the other day.
Next, I found the historic blocks in Muskegon, where there were several cool old buildings. There was a thriving timber industry here in the late 1800’s. Lumber mills were erected which brought laborers as well as immigrants from Germany, Ireland and Canada. The population was increasing and by 1888 there were 47 lumber mills in operation in the area and Muskegon was a prosperous community.
This is the St Mary’s Catholic Church. It was built in 1889, and in 1893, the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was raised into its niche in front of the church. There was a big wedding getting ready to begin as I went by, so lots of dressed up happy people were going in.
Nearby is the Central United Methodist Church, which seats 1000 persons. This was built in 1928, replacing the first church built in 1859.
Nearby was the Muskegon Woman’s club: founded in 1890 and dedicated to the intellectual “improvement and development” of women.
At the center of the Muskegon historical district is the Hackley Park. Charles Hackley was a wealthy lumberman of the time, and invested greatly in his community. He built a library, school and art gallery. He dontated the land for the park which bears his name, and several statues which pay tribute to union soldiers and leaders of the civil war — Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and Farragut stand on each corner, and this tall monument in the middle.
Across the street in one direction is this neat old building with a tall clock tower. Opened in 1897 to replace a school that burned down, the structure that is now the school administration building originally served as the Hackley Manual Training School—the first vocational high school in the entire state of Michigan.
Across the street from it is The Torrent House. This is a 31 room mansion built in 1891 for John Torrent. He was a prominent man of the time, being the justice of the peace, Muskegon mayor for three terms, and the owner of shingle, saw and lumber mills in Muskegon, Manistee, Ludington, Whitehall, Traverse City, and Sault Ste. Marie. He was a big deal!
The entry way was really cool. Look at the triple columns that go up each side. I wonder what those are- fireplace chimneys? I really liked the big old stone block construction.
Also right here on the corner was the Hackley Public Library. Mr. Hackley announced in 1888 that we would donate a library on the stipulation that the facility would be forever maintained as a library. It is built of Maine granite and trimmed with Marquette sandstone.
Also around the park is the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, constructed in 1892. I did go inside this one, and it has some beautiful stained glass and a big pipe organ.
I saw that a local church was setting up for an event in the park for this evening. I heard the band rehearse a bit, and they were good, so I decided that I would certainly be coming back! I went back to the boat for awhile. Kenny was happy just chillaxing, so I rode my bike back to town for the Church-in-the-Park event. It was great! Community members were sitting around on benches, and some brought their own chairs and picnic dinners.
The band, Steeple Hill, was excellent. They started out with some great popular country tunes. This got a lot of people engaged and some local residents dancing. They moved into some popular Christian music, and then the pastor from Living Life Church gave a message, reaching out to all. I talked to a couple of the church members, and they said this was the first time they’d set this up in the park. It was great. There were people smoking on park benches, kids running, squealing and playing, dogs barking, barefoot people drinking beverages from unmarked containers, people staggering and dancing. There were several disabled folks who came in a van with their care-givers having McDonalds for dinner on a picinc table, there were families, singles, people on bikes stopping by like me, all kinds of people. This was not church like we’re used to, and it was perfect. It was for everybody.
What a great way for this church to be present in their community! I loved it!
The event was over around 7:00, so I hopped on my bike and went back to the boat. Along the path, the big waterfront park down by the marina was grooving out to the jazz festival that was going on. There were a lot of people down there, and that music was great! Unfortunately, the wind was blowing the music away from the marina, so we could hardly hear it from the boat, even though we were very close to it. Tomorrow will be a long travel day. There won’t be another good travel day until Thursday, so we’re going to go all the way to the south end of Lake Michigan. Bummer that we’ll miss some more cool little towns, but this weather and this lake are not being boater friendly right now, and we don’t know when it will be again!