Flint Artifacts: Baker Drugs Turpentine

 

Flint Artifacts: Baker Drug Narcotic License

Flint Artifacts: Baker Drug Sweet Oil

FDR Comes to Flint in 1936

Grumkin writes: "My grandfather took this footage in 1936. It was taken from the 2nd story of Baker Drugs. President Roosevelt drove down Saginaw Street then later on to Atwood Stadium."

Before the Parking Lots

On a beautiful fall day in the fifties, Mary Fisher photographed the home of her grandfather, Frank D. Baker, who founded Baker Drugs in 1882 and also served as sheriff and postmaster at one time. The white house at 410 E. Third Street was in the heart of a leafy neighborhood near downtown. Jane Fisher, Mary's daughter, remembers her great-grandfather's house: "It had a massive front porch, and I remember a back staircase that had velvet curtains on either end so that it was completely dark in the stairwell. This house had a coal chute in the basement. It may have even had a Michigan basement, but I mostly remember the coal on the floor.

A view of tree-lined E. Third Street in the fifties.

The Baker house in 1973, shortly before it was torn down to make room for a parking lot.

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A satellite shot of E. Third Street today. The location of the Baker house is identified with a red marker. At least some of the trees are still there.

Baker Drugs then and now

A 1974 shot of the Baker Drugstore window on Saginaw Street by Martha Baker. Not only could you satisfy your 4711 cologne needs, but your model building cravings as well. To the left you can spot some of the classic monster models that I favored for a while — Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Dracula. (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

The entrance to Baker Drugs as it looked this summer. Photo by Grumkin.

One building, different eras

Here's a 1952 shot of Saginaw Street taken from the second story of Baker's Drug Store looking south. The old Vogue store, which later became the second home of The Copa, is the last light-colored building on the right.

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see two giraffe heads poking over the construction scaffolding in front of the Vogue, as well as the sign for Robinson's clothing store.

Notice the trolleybus, perhaps built by ACF Brill, rolling along on juice from the overhead wires. Detroit had similar trolleys, which were eventually sold to Mexico City. After all, who needs electric-powered public transit when you can use gas?

My mom remembers that a favorite prank of the boys at Central High School was to jump on the back of the trolleybus, hit the support wires that ran down below the back window, and disconnect the big arms on top from the power lines. The boys would then "run like hell" while the driver got out to reconnect to the overhead lines and the passengers sat and waited.

Another thing she remembers about Flint is the sheer number of people who were on the streets. The photo gives you a sense of the heavy foot traffic downtown in those days. People are spilling off the sidewalks and into the brick street.

The old Vogue store was recently torn down — with no immediate plans to replace it with anything — offering a lonely view of the Capitol Theater from Saginaw Street. Uncle Bob's Diner used to sit near the trees to the left of the theater, if I remember correctly, and James Incorporated clothing store resided in the lower level of the theater building.


A special thanks to the photographers: The 1952 photo is by Mary Fisher. The shot of the partially torn down Vogue store is by Becky Pettengill. And the shot of the Capitol and the rubble is by Grumkin.

Gov. Granholm visits Flint

Anyone who knows anything about Flint knows not to get too excited when politicians show up announcing the city is turning the corner, on the way up, making a fresh start, or any other vague cliché about economic improvement.

But it does appear that things are getting marginally better downtown, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm showed up today to tour the newly refurbished Community Foundation Building — former home of Dale's Foods for Health and Baker Drugs — and the soon-to-be open Wade Trim building. Both projects are spearheaded by Uptown Developments.

For the record, the governor described the projects as "cool" and "cutting edge," which doesn't inspire confidence, but let's think positive.

Here are some beginning, middle and end photos of the foundation building at the corner of S. Saginaw and W. First Streets. For video, go here.

(Photo by Jar With Most)

(Photo by sarrazak6881)