December 2011

The Courthouse Hill
Historic District Newsletter
The Courthouse Hill
Historic District
Commission
Nan Taylor
Chairperson
Wendy Moore
Vice Chairperson
Mark Snider
Secretary
Jill Brown
Dean DeKryger
Gwen Dubravec
Eilisia Schwarz
Issue 14
December 2011
Decorating Your Historic Home for the Holidays
Cold weather has returned to Cadillac, and although we have not had any snowstorms
yet, there are plenty of signs that Christmas is on its way. Many businesses are running
special holiday promotions, decorations are up on the poles along Mitchell Street, and
classic must-sees like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph make their annual appearances on television.
One of the strongest nostalgia-inducing sights at this time of year is of Cadillac’s historic homes decorated for the season. Many of our activities this month unite us with
generations past, including our efforts at making our homes appear festive and joyous.
The differences between how homes were decorated in 1900 and how they are decorated in 2011 center mainly on the technologies and materials available to us in our
everyday lives.
For example, no modern-day Christmas tree is complete without lights. The earliest
use of electric Christmas lights took place in the 1880s by an associate of Thomas Edison. However, the lights were not mass-produced and therefore not widely available
to the public until the 1930s or even later in some areas. Prior to that time, candles
were basically the only way to light a tree. Candles placed in street-facing windows
were also used in place of the outdoor lights that we see around town today.
Retail magnate F.W. Woolworth began importing German-made glass Christmas ornaments into the United States in the 1880s, and they quickly became a popular holiday decoration for many Americans. At that time, the ornaments were all handmade
and displayed a great deal of individuality due to the number of practicing glassmakers
employed to create them. The ornament business dropped off sharply during the First
World War, and later, during the 1930s, the Corning Company of New York developed a means of manufacturing hundreds of thousands of ornaments per day.
Commission meetings
are held at the Cadillac
Administrative Offices
(200 N. Lake Street) on
the second Monday of
each month at 5:00 p.m.
Candy canes are another popular holiday decoration. During the years prior to the
early 1900s, candy canes were completely white, without the signature red stripes that
define the candy canes available today. Other popular decorations for inside the home
during the 1900s included strings of popcorn, homemade cards, pictures, cotton (for
its snow-like appearance), and candy.
Courthouse Hill Historic District
200 N. Lake Street
Cadillac, MI 49601
George A. Mitchell - Founder of Cadillac
George A. Mitchell was the youngest son of William Mitchell from Kendallville, Indiana. William was postmaster of Kendallville and participated in
local politics before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in
1861. He served just one term, leaving office in 1863, and passed away in
1865. William had been an investor in the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad.
In 1869, George Mitchell traveled north from Grand Rapids along a proposed G.R. & I. rail route. Originally, the route was drawn such that trains
would travel between what are now Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell. When
George arrived here in 1869, he noted the prevailing westerly winds that
could be used to float logs to mills on the east end of what is now Lake Cadillac. He was able to persuade the G.R. & I. to change the rail route so that
it would pass the east end of the lake.
George Mitchell purchased a considerable amount of land in the area, and in
1871 developed the plat of the Village of Clam Lake (now the City of Cadillac). His plat provided for a business district, residential areas, a park,
churches, schools, and a county courthouse. The G.R. & I. Railroad reached
Clam Lake in February 1872. In 1873, the canal between the lakes was dug
to allow for logs to be floated from what is now Lake Mitchell to what is
now Lake Cadillac. This opened up the forest area around what is now Lake
Mitchell for logging.
During his earliest years in Clam Lake, George lived at the Mason House
Hotel and had his office there as well, while his wife and family lived back in
Kendallville. Mitchell built the home at 200 East Mason Street as a wedding
gift for his daughter Sophia, but when George’s wife saw the house in 1876,
she decided that she and her sons would move in. The Village of Clam Lake
was incorporated as the City of Cadillac in 1877, and George Mitchell became Cadillac’s first mayor. Mitchell was killed in a buggy accident in August 1878. Many of Cadillac’s community landmarks are named for George
Mitchell and his family.
Early Cadillac Lumber Industry
Photos Courtesy of the Wexford
County Historical Society
This photo shows a supply of logs
ready to be lifted by conveyor belts
to the upper level of a lakeside timber processing facility during the
1890s.
This 1880 photograph shows Saunders and Sons Lumber Mill, one of
the many timber processing mills
that sprouted up during Cadillac’s
early years.