PLAINWELL, MICHIGAN c. 1900 PHOTOS

Item #1321

Eleven beautiful, descriptive though fading sepia-toned photos, depicting ordinary life in a district of Michigan renowned for paper mills.

Plainwell is located in the lower left corner of the mitten, between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, not far from Indiana state line. The current population is about 4,000 souls, but at the time these photos were taken it was less than half that.

Most photos are captioned on the rear, in pencil. All but one measure 4” x 5”, all landscape in orientation.

-One photo - likely from the 1890s - depicts the first stages of construction of the paper mill.

-Another, the Ladies’ Library, “when it was located Hicks Park”, on the river that flows through downtown.

-Another photo shows one of the first cars in town, proudly parked in the driveway of the family home.

-Two photos show different grandstands at the county fairgrounds - all gentlemen in dark suits, all ladies in white gowns.

-Three photos - two identical - show us the chemistry laboratory in Plainwell High School.

-One particularly illustrative photo, slightly smaller than the others, shows the fire engine, with long ladders and firefighters astride, drawn by three horses - “fire fighting equipment in the early days”, according to the caption.

-Another shows a “wintertime funeral procession”, and the bare trees and bleak snowscape perfectly complement the somber scene.

-The Presbyterian church, with an architecturally imaginative, octagonal lookout point in the tower, beneath the steeple.

There are also two names written on the verso of some of the photos, including Mrs. C.M. Brown, Frank Heath and Kathryn Gould. Some of the photos have edge wear or small tears.

Price: $200.00