Royal Oak Historical Society Fall 2010
Transcription
Royal Oak Historical Society Fall 2010
Royal Oak Historical Society Fall 2010 www.royaloakhistoricalsociety.com Mark Your Calendars! Royal Oak Historical Society 71st Annual Dinner Wednesday, October 13, 2010 AT FARMER’S MARKET Free parking in the Market lot 5:30 p.m. Social Hour & Silent Auction Cocktails and beverages available. Cash bar. 6:30 p.m. Buffet Style Dinner/Dessert Chartwell’s, Food Service for the Royal Oak Public Schools, is cooking for us. Servers will be available to carry plates to tables, if needed. 7 p.m. Awards and Special Recognitions Dr. Joseph S. Morrison, Sophie V. Bowman and Spirit of Royal Oak Awards will be given. $25 Ticket (Buffet Style Dinner) until October 7 (As in previous years, the Annual Dinner ticket includes a one-year ROHS membership. We are happy that so many in Royal Oak are excited about our new museum and we invite all of you to come visit. Thank you for your support of our new museum!) After October 7, $30 Ticket To purchase tickets after October 7, call 248-547-5714 or 248-398-4844 Tickets available now until October 7 at: Decades (248-546-9289) at the Farmers Market Kinsey-Garrett Funeral Home, 420 S. Lafayette Ave. (248-541-4400) Ladybug Craft & Framing Shoppe, 210 W. Sixth St. (248-545-3200) Wm. Sullivan & Son Funeral Home, 705 W. 11 Mile Rd. (248-541-7000) And available for purchase from all board members Royal Oak Historical Society books, pins and postcards will be available for sale at the dinner. Message from the president Museum improvements coming Dear Members, I wanted to let you know of some upcoming improvements to our new museum. We have been awarded another Community Block Grant for $45,000, which will cover replacing the existing garage doors and redoing all the tuckpointing on the building. Hopefully, this will go a long way toward reducing what in the past have been some extremely large heating bills. Not only will this save us money, but it will make the building much more comfortable for all of our visitors and volunteers alike. As in the past, we are including a one-year membership to the Royal Oak Historical Society with the purchase of a ticket to our Annual Dinner — see the front page for more details. However, our Annual Dinner will have some changes. After some very good years at the Royal Oak Elks Club, we are moving the dinner to the Royal Oak Farmers Market. Thanks to all of your support, we have essentially grown out of space at the Elks. The Market, where the dinner has been held in the past, offers more space and parking. Since we last had our dinner at the Market, signifi- cant improvements have been made to the facility -- particularly the kitchen, heating and cooling, and the public address system. Our Annual Dinner committee, headed by Gloria Harper, will once again make this an evening to remember. For the third straight year, Carlo Ginotti will serve as our Master of Ceremonies for the evening. Let me once again thank all of you for your continued patronage of the Royal Oak Historical Society. As volunteers, we are encouraged by your strong level of support and will do everything in our power to make our organization one of the best in the country. Finally, this will be my last President’s Message as I will be relinquishing my office at our Annual Dinner. It’s been a pleasure to serve you over the past three years. Just in case you can’t make it to our dinner, I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all of your support. My Best, Jay Dunstan President Coming Soon — “Royal Oak History 201” Check out author, historian and professor David G. Penney’s new class “Royal Oak History 201,” which is coming up in late October (7-9:30 p.m.) at Royal Oak Continuing Education office at Churchill Community School on Girard. The prerequisite is Royal Oak History 101, available on WROK and the Internet at www.Blip.TV. Contact Royal Oak Continuing Education for the exact date and to sign up. Visit the Museum! To volunteer or to schedule a museum visit, contact Muriel Versagi, Curator of the Royal Oak Historical Society Museum, at 248-542-7449 or [email protected]. Donations to the Royal Oak Historical Society are gratefully accepted Send checks payable to: The Royal Oak Historical Society, 1411 West Webster Road, Royal Oak, Michigan 48073. Donations are tax-deductible. Thank you in advance. Page 2 A B PHOTO GAME By ROHS Board Member Bob Muller Play Bob Muller’s “Photo Game.” Can you identify which Royal Oak buildings have these unique architectural details? (Answers are on Page 5.) C All proceeds go to the Museum Royal Oak History Books for Sale By David G. Penney, PhD “My Royal Oak: Images From The 20th Century” (2008), the new book on Royal Oak history that is heavy on historic images of our town, is a must for anyone who loves Royal Oak. Printed on glossy white paper, it contains 227 photographs on 128 pages and is 7x10 inches. The text consists of more than 17,000 words about the “old” town most of us remember in fragments. This is a very personal book, with my memories of growing up in Royal Oak in the 20th century. The cost is only $25. Everyone should have "Twigs and Acorns, Plus" (2007), the new edition of the muchloved scrapbook style presentation about our (Continued on Page 4) Page 3 Our Eyes as ‘Time Machine’ Royal Oak’s Old Forest Trees By Bob Muller, ROHS Board Member and Royal Oak Nature Society Program Director On Page 5, you’ll find a map with shaded areas showing the “old forest”-grown trees that are the remains of farm wood lots. The lines are the property lines of the farms in Royal Oak in 1872. All farms had wood lots, as that is where you got your firewood, lumber and maybe things like black walnuts. They would generally be at the back of your farm with your house along the road at the front. Most of our city is now filled with trees, but around 1900, only the areas shown were; the rest was farm fields. As houses filled the city, people planted trees. When our city was filling with homes, it was common to just cut the trees that were in the way of construction, leaving the rest. You can tell which trees remaining today are the surviving forest-grown trees from that time, as they had to compete for sunlight with the other trees. Generally, they have up to 30 feet of a straight trunk with no branches. Look at Starr Jaycee Park as an example. If you want to see what trees planted in the open look like, check out the oak in front of the Boys & Girls Club, it is a shade tree planted in front of a farm; short trunk with large spreading branches. History is sometimes right before our eyes; if we know what to look for, our eyes become a time machine, allowing us to see into the past. Editor’s Note: When you look at the map on Page 5, if you see your property contains one of the city’s old wood lots from a former farm and you have an “old forest” tree on your property, we would love to hear from you. Please send your stories to Trish Oliver, Newsletter Editor; c/o The Royal Oak Historical Society Museum; 1411 West Webster Road; Royal Oak, Michigan 48073, or contact Bob Muller at michiganfish@wideopenwest. com with questions. Native American traces in Royal Oak and features a Chief on the cover. At $5, it is a bargain. town since its founding more than 180 years All the books are available at Frentz Hardware, ago. It contains newspaper articles, previously un- and soon will be at our beautiful new Historical published letters, essays, etc. and photos of early Society Museum. As with all of my books, all proRoyal Oak. At $40, the book is 425 pages, hard- ceeds go to the Museum. bound and fully indexed. Coming soon is a small book on Northwood If you are going to explore historic Royal Oak Subdivision (tentatively – “Northwood Subdivior St. Mary cemeteries, you must have the 12sion and The Clawsons”), which will include the page “Cemeteries Walking Tour” (2007) contain- No. 2 Fire Station (site of the new Historical Muing photos and locations of thousands of people seum), the old and new Northwood schools, the interred in the two cemeteries arranged in a surClawson family, GTW Railroad, the First Congrename index, available for $5. “To Walk That Old gational Church and the Shrine of the Little Indian Trail” was originally prepared for the 75th Flower Church, etc. Contained inside will be esanniversary of our city in 1996. In 2007, the new says on each subject and a number of rare historic 12-page edition contains far more information on photographs. Watch for it! History Books, continued from Page 3 Page 4 Bob Muller’s map shows the old wood lots from Royal Oak’s 1872 farms See story on Page 4 ANSWERS TO BOB MULLER’S PHOTO GAME — See Page 3: All photos are from Royal Oak Middle School — or Dondero High School or Royal Oak High School — depending on how old you are! Page 5 Curator’sDean’s Corner process and will do that at the same time as she begins to fill the shelves in professional format. • Susan Wolfrum, Johanna Schurer, Adair & Don Calder have been putting together displays: Banks, Floods, and Class Composites for 3 reunions of Royal Oak High School classes of the late ’40s and mid-’50s. Each reunion will visit on a Sunday this fall. Drop by and look at them. • Megan Keller, our young Library Science MA from Wayne, has gone to Utah for a two-month internship at Sundance. She will be back to help us when she finishes this internship. • Our next major exhibit will be a commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day. A 91-year-old Navy photographer, Bill Barr, donated several of his cameras. Bill is a member of the USS Enterprise Group and has a display of photos and newspapers he will lend us. • Keith Wilkins will lend us some WWII stuff and Cindy LaFerle will loan us 1940s dresses. We have a family member who works at Macy’s and has access to mannequins for the dresses. • We will be asking the community to loan us pictures of WWII family members with info regarding when they joined, their age, where they served, etc. We have asked VFW members John Wendland and Miriam Schroff Melvin to work with us on this exhibit. Miriam was an Army Nurse and will loan us her uniform for display. • The first meeting of our History Book Club will be on Wed., Sept. 22. We will meet in the Library the 4th Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. Civil War books to start. • We had a Grand Valley student, Lauren Fowler, working with us two days a week during July and August; she’s gone back to school but will be back for Christmas and will come back to volunteer. • And now…we have an intern from CMU, Michael Cyrus. He grew up in Royal Oak, graduated from Dondero, and still lives in Royal Oak. He will be with us 20 hours a week for 12 weeks. Michael will be involved in setting up our WWII exhibit. He said he became interested in history watching the History Channel episodes of WWII. It is so rewarding to have these young people involved. Drug Store By Muriel Versagi, Museum Curator Hello, everyone! So much has been going on at the Museum, and it’s so exciting that I thought I would just do a listing of everything: • Four window air conditioners were donated by friends of the Museum, and Royal Oak fireman/ electrician Mike Pennanen has installed them. This allows our volunteers to work upstairs in the Archives and the office and not have heat stroke. • The museum was included in the Royal Oak Woman’s Club Home Tour this year. Two hundred and ten visitors signed in at the museum the day of the tour; 80-90% said they will return. • The Royal Oak Business & Professional Woman’s Association has disbanded. They brought us their records and banners … and a check for the remainder of their treasury, $212.42, which they earmarked for the purchase of a flat screen monitor for the office. • DAR member Shirley Morrison. who belongs to a statewide association that donates dollars to cultural groups, visited and asked what we needed. I said another CPU, a color printer for the office and a small black-and-white printer for the library. She asked, “Will $500 do it?” I said yes. We have received the check. • Royal Oak resident Rodney, an AT&T installer/ serviceman who I met at Lois Lance’s home, said he will install a phone jack by the sales counter, so we can use the credit card machine at the museum. • Mike Frentz has ordered, painted and installed four radiator covers, three to go. This was a project of George Gomez. The dollars ($300 for each cover) were donated in honor of, or as a memorial for, someone. Each unit will have a brass plaque. • Our oak library shelves are installed. My son’s company ZI Custom cut, stained, edge-banded and delivered ten 12-in x 7-ft shelves. Our woodworker volunteer Ed Kalil installed the shelves. • Volunteer librarian Karol Sprague has begun to work with our Past Perfect database cataloging Page 6 Musings and memories of my childhood in Royal Oak or one of the two Cunningham Drug stores. If I were really a good little fellow, we would stop off at the Montgomery Ward’s I especially loved fall in Royal Oak store, so I could look at all the in the early 1950s when I was a kid. new bikes in the basement. When I liked walking along the unpaved my mom needed to shop at streets and smelling the burning Kresge’s, and I was patient, I leaves. I woke up early to deliver the would get a doughnut from the Free Press at 5 a.m. every day all year, doughnut machine. That machine but I remember liking it best in the Allen Pugh, around 1945, was in Kresge’s at the south door fall. Once a week I would take the at his family home at 415 Martin Line bus at Kenwood and by the Washington Theater. Eleven Mile to Main Street to pay my S. Kenwood at the corner I am fortunate to have reFourth and Kenwood Free Press bill. I paid the bill at an of- of ceived a fine education in Royal Streets. His dad “remade” fice in a garage in the alley between Oak. I entered kindergarten at the bike for him. Second and Third Streets and between Grant Elementary (at the corner Center and Main Streets. of Sixth Street and Kaiser, now I remember my father, Tony Pugh, would Grant Park) in 1945 and graduated from Royal take my older brother Carl and me camping Oak Dondero in 1958. I had wonderful teachers every fall. Dad went to Smith and Crampton and principals. My principal at Grant was Mrs. Hardware Store and bought us a 22 rifle for our Wheater, and at Oakland, it was Mr. Peabody. trip. We went to the basement of the store to My first principal from Barton Junior High (on shoot it in the shooting range. Today, that hard- Main Street where the Jim Fresard Value Lot is ware store is Mr. B’s Pub on Main Street in today) was Mr. Shader who was then replaced by downtown Royal Oak. Directly across the street, Mr. Walborn. At Royal Oak High School, the I remember the Mercury Drive-In. Folks would principal was Mr. Marks. The next year the high park their cars, and the carhops would come out school was Royal Oak Dondero High School, and take orders and later deliver the food. Now and Mr. Walborn was my principal again. that driveway is the old drive-through windows I have experienced many fall seasons, but the from the original National Bank of Royal Oak. most memorable of all were those fall days in Fall meant going back to school, and that Royal Oak when I was a young lad. meant shopping for school clothes. My mom Allen Pugh started Grant School in Royal Oak in would take me into Codlings Department Store. I remember the sidewalk in front of the store was 1945. He finished his elementary school years at Oakland School and entered Clara Barton Junior High all glass blocks set right in the concrete. They had a freight elevator that came out of the side- School in 1952. He went on to Royal Oak High School in 1954. He graduated from Royal Oak Dondero in walk, because the basement was below the side- 1958. Allen, retired for eight years, recently celebrated walk. I used to see a delivery now and then, and his 70th birthday. He was a master electrician from that was exciting to a kid in those days! CodIBEW Local 58 for 40 years. He has been married to his wife Gloria for 43 years. They have four married chillings was on the northeast corner of Third and dren and five grandchildren. Allen is an avid reader and Main. Today it is the Sullivan Building. Going to a soda fountain after shopping added enjoys playing euchre, golfing, traveling and spending time with his family and friends. to the fun. We would go to Kinsel’s, Romeyn’s By Allen Pugh, Royal Oak lifelong resident Page 7 Royal Oak Historical Society 1411 W. Webster Road Royal Oak, MI 48073 248-542-7449 www.royaloakhistoricalsociety.com *Royal Oak Historical Society Membership Application* Name____________________________________________________________________ Address__________________________________________________________________ Email______________________________________________ Please check: Individual: $10.00____ Family: $18.00___ Donor: $25.00___ Benefactor: $50.00____Seniors: 60+: $8.00_______ Mail with your check to: Royal Oak Historical Society, 1411 W. Webster Road, Royal Oak MI 48073 PLEASE CHECK YOUR MAILING LABEL FOR THE DATE YOU LAST PAID YOUR DUES. THANK YOU. Image Printing, 1902 Crooks, Royal Oak, MI 48073 248-585-4080
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