Close-ups of downtown business buildings
This was the Association of Commerce Building when I was a child. I think it is at the corner of Lyon and Division but I will have to double-check. Many charities had offices there like the Camp Fire Girls. I think this is the building where my Uncle John had a news/coffee stand until machines came in and put him out of business.
This was at the corner of Lyon and Ottawa, I think. It was torn down by the City Commission against the wishes of the people who retaliated by voting against every incumbent in the very next primary election for the school board thus saving the homes of future Heritage Hill. Note in these photographs the homes that were still downtown. Many of those homes still existed when I was a child but torn down for parking lots, parking lots, parking lots as cars became more important than people.
The county court house was at the corner of Crescent and Bond. That intersection no longer exists but the new 1960's hunk of junk that replaced this building is close to the same place. Many, many old records were thrown out along with the building, particularly the 100 year meticulously updated grantee/grantor index collection. Other old records, particularly the pre-1946 county road name change list, was thrown out when computers and the younger self-esteemed generation arrived.
The Michigan Trust Building still exists at Pearl and Ottawa, I think.
This is the Waters Building, I think, with the Ledyard building beyond.
This US Post Office was replaced at the same site by the Federal Building of my youth. When a new post office was built at the site of the Grand Trunk Terminal and a new federal court house was built at the corner of Monroe and Michigan, the still-existing replacement building became the Grand Rapids Art Museum which has recently built a new building where Wurzburg's used to be.
From article Downtown
From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info