Sunday, May 1, 2011

Flint Postcards: McFarlan Park in the Early 1900s


This is an early photo of the small park in front of the Durant Hotel.


6 comments:

  1. Little park that I pass through,
    I carry off a piece of you
    Every morning hurrying down
    To my work-day in the town;
    Carry you for country there
    To make the city ways more fair.
    ...[...]...
    All that I can see
    I carry off with me
    But you never miss my theft
    So much treasure you have left.
    As I find you, fresh at morning,
    So I find you, home returning --
    Nothing lacking from your grace.
    All your riches wait in place
    For me to borrow
    On the morrow.

    Do you hear his praise of you,
    Little park that I pass through?

    by- Helen Hoyt from "Ellis Park"

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  2. Interesting photo. Notice how wide N.Saginaw and Detroit St. are. It looks like Detroit St.is a blvd. In those days, buggies and teams were still modes of travel. Sometimes there was a paved lane and a gravel lane and the teams would drop off the paved side and allow the motor cars to use the hard surface. The old Arctic dairy and probably a half dozen others used horse powered wagons to deliver milk until the forties. I know Sealtest(Arctic) and McDonalds dairy delivered in my neighborhood then. Bill the milkman was a friendly guy and let the kids pat his mare and give them ice chips on a hot summer days. Fifteen cents for a quart of orange aid. If you didn't get your milk off the porch quick enough, the cream at the top of the bottle would push the hard paper lid up a couple of inches as it congealed. I'm off track again...... Ellis Park was nice place to take a rest.

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  3. Where the hell is Ellis Park anyway? I meant McFarlan Park, it was across the street from my Dad's office in the Metropolitan Bldg. Ahh, just the same, it was poetic too.

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  4. Built in 1920.

    http://www.thedurant.com/

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  5. I'm sorry. I keep thinking of another lyric.

    McFarlan Park is melting in the dark,
    All the sweet green icing flowing down,
    Someone left the cake out in the rain...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.