Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Flint Photos: Living the Dream in Flint, Michigan






9 comments:

  1. Where is this? I looked through every 1821 that came up on Google Maps near Miller Rd. and East Court St., but couldn't find an exact match. Looks a little too large a house and lot for Mott Park. The thing that will surprise you if you do such a search is how many nice houses there still are in Flint within the City Limits.

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  2. Is that Lavern and Betty Rhodes? My mother worked with Betty. Lavern was an amateur radio operator. Can't see his antennas though. Mr. Thomas Wirt probably knew them also.

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  3. Do you know what street that is on? I would love to street view it and see how it is now.

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  4. Aaron Vandyke tracked it down to 1821 Colchester, and that seems to accurate. The house now has a brick and aluminum siding front now, not the blue shingles. And it does seem to be Lavern and Betty Rhodes. I found the slides with no info on them. The power of Flint networking that we found so much info on the photo.

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  5. Ironic is to say the least, considering that where was an estate sale at this house (1821 Colchester) on 1-22-14. I went to the sale and obtained several real Buick factory and group employee photographs (pre-1914) along several Flint items. The resident Lavern Rhodes was a sergeant on Buick plant protection retiring in 1974. According to paperwork of which I obtained is that he purchased a new Buick on a yearly basis. (Reason for the photos)

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    1. Mystery solved. Although readers had solved it already, more or less. Friends of Lavern and Betty Rhodes recognized them and their house in the photo. We speculated that after Mrs. Rhodes recent death, some of their slides had been sold or given away, before ending up on eBay. We figured Mr. Rhodes or at least a friend had been in Buick security. Great photos that capture a part of Flint. Feel free to pass along the others if you have them in digital form. Thanks for clearing this up.

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  6. I knew Dave Lee, from two doors down in the red brick colonial, and Bob Porteous, who lived kitty corner from this house, from Flint Southwestern back around 1970. They were in Marching Band. Go Colts!

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  7. Hi there, If it is the picture of the house on the cover of the book you are asking about...it is/was on the corner of Jane st. and Iowa on Flint's Eastside. It was actually an apartment house as far back as I remember! I lived in it and brought one of my babies home there 30 some years ago! It is gone now, I also passed by it walking to and from Homedale school, grew up on Belle ave. the next block over!

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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.