Flint Photos: St. Michael's in the Fifties

Another great photo of Flint in the fifties by Mary Fisher.

Touch Boutique Remembered

The scene at the Touch Boutique in September 1972 From far left : unknown, Tom Coy, unknown, David J. Boyd, Bill "Woody" Woods, unknown, and unknown. Seated left: Sandy Rosen, unknown. Seated right: Jim Kitchen

This ode to the Touch Boutique has been updated several times as more info and photos have rolled in. It's worth another look. And if anyone has more photos or memories, feel free to send them my way.

Here's the original posts...

More photos of The Touch Boutique at 804 Detroit Street keep magically appearing. These are all courtesy of Flint Expatriate David J. Boyd. I've added these new shots to the original posts so we can keep the comment section intact. Feel free to give us your memories of The Touch.

Bare Naked Clothing

Co-Owner Ron Watson

Ron Watson and David J. Boyd

Middle Earth Books

Doug Boyd

Dick Dehlin "sells incense, rolling papers, specialty pipes, India imports, hippie gear, and all at a nice hip capitalist mark-up," remembers David J. Boyd.

More Bare Naked Clothing.

David J. Boyd, a Psychedelic Ranger at the 1972 Ann Arbor Jazz and Blues Festival

And now back to the original posts...

Readers have sent a few great photos and artifacts related to The Touch Boutique, so I'm adding them to the original post about this long lost Flint icon.

Mary Fisher and friends near the corner of Detroit and Fifth in 1940. The gas station and what was to become The Touch Boutique are in the background.

A more recent shot of the abandoned gas station turned pool hall by jar with most, complete with campaign advertising. To the right is the corner of the old St. Michael's School, which became Daniel O'Sullivan Model School and, eventually, Flint Schools of Choice.

Here is an ad for The Touch Boutique taken from the September 1, 1972 issue of the Flint Freedom Reader, an alternative publication created at The Touch. Thanks to jbing for passing along this great artifact.

And now back to the original post...

For the kids at St. Michael's in the seventies, The Touch Boutique was a mysterious place that most of us saw only from the outside. Here's how it looked then. It was right across Detroit Street from Merlin's Retreat. It eventually became a home to band members of Jesus Christ and the Superstars and Pincusion in the late 1980s. (Check out Aaron Stengel's Take No Prisoners for an archive of the Flint music scene.) Photo is by Jeff Holbrook and courtesy of Flintstoner80, who offers up some amazing Flint memories on his Flickr page.

A 1979 ad for The Touch Boutique courtesy of Jar With Most, who keeps the memory of old Flint alive with his photos and artifacts.

Jar With Most provides a more recent shot of what was once The Touch Boutique. The sign on the left near the roof reads: "Absolutely no God but Allah. Muhammad is His Messenger" in Arabic. You can see the edge of St. Mike's school peaking out between the trees in the middle of the frame.

Senior Prom for Parochial Schools

St. Michael's School is having a prom, and you don't have to be a teenager to attend. Go here for more info.

Sweet Marie's

There was a candy store right behind St. Mike's on Chippewa Street where the kids used to go after school. I think the place was called Sweet Marie's and I believe this is the building on Google Maps, but I'm not exactly sure. Does this ring a bell with anyone? It would have been in the early seventies, but it seemed like the place had been around forever.



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Tearing Down the Past

Flint is getting a new IRS building. Melissa Burden of The Flint Journal reports:

The U.S. General Services Administration in late July awarded a contract to Elba Road Development LLC of Lapeer for a new IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center. That group will construct a 14,470-square-foot, one-story building at 901 N. Saginaw St., said David Wilkinson, a regional spokesman for the GSA.

The IRS and its 44 employees have outgrown its leased office, 815 S. Saginaw St. at Court Street, its home since 1995. The office is one of six such centers across Michigan.

"The IRS really needed more parking and accessibly," said Donald Schaffer, a sales associate for Siegel Realty in Flint Township, who added there is a bus stop near the front of the new site.

But like many Flint building projects — especially when it involves the need for "more parking" — this one has a catch. Two vacant brick buildings that have a lot of potential at 901 and 915 N. Saginaw Street just north of St. Michael's will be demolished.

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The fate of Catholic churches

A source familiar with the negotiations on the fate of various Catholic parishes in the Flint area wrote in with this information:

"I have two confirmed reports if you are interested and want to post them on your website. The Diocese of Lansing website should release this information soon.

"In Flint, St. Mary's will cluster with St. Michael's. Both parishes will continue to function as separate parishes, but will employ only one priest, whom I assume to be the priest at St. Mary's, since Father Phil Gallagher, last acting pastor at St. Mike's, has recently retired from active duty.

"Most Blessed Sacrament, Burton, will merge with St. John, Davison, when deemed necessary. Most Blessed Sacrament Church will then become Most Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The church building at MBS will remain open only; all office duties, clubs, CCD, etc. revert to St. John's. When the priest at MBS is reassigned in the future — that is the "deemed necessary part — the parish will then merge with St. John's immediately."

Merlin's Retreat revisited

I just ran across this interior shot of Merlin's Retreat in a box of old photos. It's from July 1985, just before I left Flint for good. (Can you tell I just bought a scanner?)

In an earlier post about the neighborhood around St. Michael's, Aaron Stengel recalled the scene at the vegetarian restaurant:

"It was a popular hangout for Flint music scenesters during 1981-1983. Many shows were held about a block away at 909 Detroit St. (MLK). The Touch Boutique (also about a block away) was a legendary head shop in the early/mid 1970s. It eventually became a home to members of Jesus Christ and the Superstars and Pincusion in the late 1980s."

The more recent photo is the work of Jar With Most.

Can immigrants improve Flint?

We've been wildly speculating in the comment section of The River's Edge post on demographic and economic trends that might help cities like Flint. I know many readers don't venture into the comment section, so I'm bringing this discussion above ground.

Here are a few thoughts from readers:

Smurfs, inc: "What most mid-sized Midwest cities would benefit from is a massive influx of immigrants. People with kids, hope, reasonable expectations, and motivation. I'm sure they exist out there in the third, fourth, and fifth worlds. In fact we Americans have made millions of 'em in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Open the floodgates I say. Educated whiteys won't salvage urban America, but I'm pretty sure given the opportunity a few million Sudanese would. I can see it now: Little Missouri is usurped by Little Darfur. St. Michael's becomes the Al-Haji Mosque. Issa's Party Store is converted into a Halal market.

"So bring it on Barrack Osama and the Demopublican congress, we need MORE immigrants not less. Immigrants will save urban America."

Jim Holbel: "So there is a town, Lewiston, Maine. Not a lot to offer, but due to a strange set of circumstances, ends up with a (relatively) massive influx of Somalis.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2007/raininadryland/special_01.html

"The interesting thing is the Somalis had been settled by relief agencies into big US cities, but in crap neighborhoods within those cities. Disappointed, they networked among each other. What they were after, they found in Lewiston: 'Lewiston had good schools, a low crime rate, and cheap housing.' So take a gander at the article, and let me ask:

1. Can you see a town like Linden, Davison or whatever appealing to immigrants? What about Flint Proper?

2. Does anyone feel the part about about the influx of immigrants versus upset mayor/locals/opportunist out-of-town nazis would play out anywhere near as progressively in the Genesee county?

"Ready... set.... BLOG amongst yourselves..."