It is one that I hope you'll decide to visit again and again as I make additions and changes.
Hartland B. Smith, Birmingham, Michigan.
Shown above is a photo of the Birmingham depot taken around 1900. That was the era of gas lights in the Village. Just before sunset the lamplighter would ride his bicycle through town and light the lamps. Then, late in the evening, he'd return to extinguish them. One of the gas lights appears prominently in the foreground.
The structure where the illuminating gas was manufactured is now used as a private dwelling on Willits Street, a bit west of Chester.
The first Birmingham depot was located on the east side of the railway tracks. This was a rather unsafe spot, since most residents lived west of the railroad and thus had to cross the tracks in order to board passenger trains. Furthermore, after a half century of use, the station had become rather rundown and dilapdated.
After many complaints by residents and petitions to the railway, the new structure shown above was constructed in the summer of 1887. It was located on the west side of the tracks where the rail line crossed Troy St., now known as East Maple.
Members of the Ladies Library Association and the Village Improvement Society, under the direction of Martha Baldwin, landscaped the ground south of the building. They moved shrubs from the site of the old station, planted flowers, kept the area weeded and even saw to it that a small decorative fountain was installed. For many years the two organizations maintained the landscaping. They did such a fine job of beautification that a number of travelers commented that Birmingham had the best depot on the line.
You can see a small windowed structure behind and above the passenger cars. It was a cupola or belvedere perched atop the large freight house. My grandfather, Edward Smith, Sr., operated the only lumber and coal yard in Birmingham at the time. His business was directly east of the freight shed, a goodly portion of which he rented from the Railway in which to store grain that he bought from local farmers and then sold on the open market, often to flour mills in Detroit.
At one time trains ran through the old freight house. In later years you could still see where smoke from the locomotives had blackened the building's rafters.
In 1931 the Grand Trunk Western Railway moved about a mile east of this location. A Sunoco gas station was, until recently, situated where the old depot once stood and the railway has been replaced by an eight lane highway, Woodward Avenue.
On March 15, 1941, Birmingham's Baldwin High School Band appeared at the MSBOA Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There they played a march written by Henry Fillmore entitled HIS HONOR.
You can hear an actual recording of this historic peformance BY CLICKING HERE and then pressing on the tiny black (then green) triangle that will appear on the upper left hand part of your screen. If your computer isn't equipped to work with mp3 audio files, similar to this one, go HERE to download a FREE version of Real Player.
Hart Smith's Kaleodoscope This is an eclectic collection of true tales and pictures of steam trains, interurban railways, steam boats, spiral ascenionsts, lush strawbery patches, etc., etc.
Birmingham Historical Society's Web Page Here you can learn about the growth of a small village into one of Detroit's important suburbs. The easily read text is accompanied by numerous rare historic photos.
Great American Circuses is primarily a collection of photos made in the days of tented circuses. Ringling Bros., Cole Bros., Al G. Kelly and Miller Bros., The Clyde Beatty Circus, King Bros. and Circus Flora are some of the shows which are represented.
