SNAPSHOTS: Pere Marquette Depot, Bay City

Trains are a big deal to me. I gues that's what happens when you grow up with an old disused railway line running through your home town (thanks to 1960's Beeching cuts) and with the National Railway Museum not only being free, but on your doorstep in York, train love was bound to happen. While Michigan is lacking in the public transport yet along having a decent train service around and about, I remain enchanted admittedly to old railway/railroad stations. I guess that's why the Michigan Central here in Detroit appeals to me as a train lover rather than a fan of it's abandoned state.

So for me, I love to imagine the days before the car of getting around by stream train. For people and goods the railroad was a vital life line between towns and cities and Bay City, a city here in Michigan, it was no different. From here you could travel to a couple of miles to Saginaw, further to Detroit, into Ohio or even to Chicago. Bay City's own train station was once abandoned but has found new life has a community resource facility, proof that stations can always have a second, or even third life. So when we were up in the area last year, a wander to the train station when I had time to kill was bound to happen.

The Pere Marquette Depot opened in 1904 and seemed to have been at the displeasure of many. As the Bay City Times reported:

"the exterior, with it's tile roof, and odd surroundings, presents a quaint appearance and many will probably say upon looking at it from the street, that it is not good enough for this city". 

Whether it's appearance was loved or hated, the station still saw the arrival and departure of over 30 trains daily in it's early years. Travellers were greeted with a two story waiting room, marble flooring and walls, a gentleman's smoking room and a ladies waiting room. 

Operated until 1937 by the Pere Marquette Railroad Company it was then acquired and merged by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1947. Sadly by this time rail travel was in decline on both sides of the Atlantic and the station closed in 1951. While the station found a second life as a terminal for the Greyhound bus company, they vacated in 1969 and the station was abandoned. It wasn't until 2003 when the Great Lakes Center Foundation purchased and restored the depot - rebuilding the tower, canopy and porte cochere which were all removed by Greyhound. It's now home to two local Bay City committees.

As someone that came from a rural town that demolished both the railway tracks and it's station, it's great to see old former stations finding new leases for life, if only the same could be side for the Michigan Central Station. Maybe one day.

LIFE: Last Year I ...

It's weird to think that 2014 is already last year. Hey I even struggle to think that 2000 rolled around 15 years ago. 2014 was a pretty awesome year, perhaps not so much for the blog, I've had my struggles with that, especially recently but personally, even with the insomnia and all the stress, it turned out pretty well. 

I'm taking inspiration from Dainty Squid's (a favorite blog of mine to read) visual documentation of the year - so here is mine, here was my 2014. 

Experienced and survived a polar vortex and the great flood 

Explored and fell more in love with Detroit and experience some of the awesome local food places the city has to offer - the Grand Trunk Pub, The Mercury Bar, McShanes, MexicanTown Bakery and Slows are all new favorites.

Went to my first basketball game, granted it was the Harlem Globetrotters, but still 

Re-found my passion for cross stitching and started designing some of my own pieces - from record players to VW Bugs and the Angel of the North

To a map of Michigan in blackwork

Finally explored the Eastern Market

Saw one of my favorite bands, Clairy Browne, live in Ann Arbor 

Saw random roadside attractions - like the worlds largest tire

Reached the 5th birthday of this very blog and shared my wisdom

Brought our very first house and tried to tame a garden, somewhat successfully 

Fell in love with purple buildings in Bay City

and old houses

at 28, carved my very first pumpkin

Had another fly by visit to Pittsburgh 

And you know what, that all probably sums up both me and my blog pretty well. I have high hopes for making 2015 super crafty, creative and green fingered in various ways and means.

Thanks to all of you - for all your supports, comments, likes, shares throughout the year. I hope you stick around and follow whatever adventures and things that come my way in the next year. I've realised in the last couple of months that this blog is never going to be big, it hurt a little, but in turn it makes you remember that for me, blogging is just a hobby, it's just a small part of who I am, that I shouldn't stress about it as much as I sometimes do. I can't glamourse living in Michigan, or make Detroit sound the most hip happening place, nor can I make the life of an expat sound incredible. But I can try and share what my life is all about and whatever makes me tick, even if that isn't always the most exciting hobbies and things that make up a person.

I wish you all the best as we start a brand new year. 

TRAVEL: Center Avenue Historic District, Bay City

There's something I really love about American late 19th century architecture - perhaps because it's so different in both style and often in size compared to buildings of the same era back back in the UK. One of the best ways of seeing historical structures is always on foot, so after wandering around downtown Bay City I decided to have a wander along part of the walking tour produced by the Bay City Center Avenue Neighbourhood Association. With Center Avenue the core, there are among 880 historical structures with examples of various architectural styles - arts & craft, Gothic revival, mid century modern to Tudor revival and the odd kit home thrown in for good measure.

I myself, well I love an old house with a turret topped off with a cone roof (as in the above photograph along Center Avenue) - a style typical of Queen Ann residences. There's something rather grand and regal about a house with a turret.

First along the walking tour was the Shearer residence;

814 N. Monroe

The Residence of George H. & Elva Shearer c. 1876

George appears to have had his fingers in lots of pies - finding his first steps working as a laborer in his fathers lumber business he worked his way into becoming the manager of Shearer Brothers - a lumber, real estate and insurance company. Not only that but dear old George was the secretary of the Elm Lawn Cemetery and vice president of Bay County Savings bank. Designed by his father, 814 N. Monroe is built in the Second Empire style - a Parisian design.

900 Fifth St.

The Residence of Thomas Webster c. 1886

Moving to Bay City in 1874 Webster practiced law and was elected County Probate Judge in 1880. Upon his death in 1940 at the age of 92, he was the last surviving Civil War vet in Bay City - he'd ran away aged 16 from his New York home to join the Union Army. Webster shared his Queen Anne home with his first wife Ella who died shortly after giving birth to sons. With Isabel - his second wife, he had a daughter Amelia. After being converted into apartments in 1957, the Fifth St Webster house  is now a luxury B&B which looks very swanky.

1001 Center Avenue

The Residence of Virgil & Mary c. 1904

Mary Cranage received 1001 Center Avenue as a wedding present from her parents to celebrate her marriage to Virgil - a practitioner and surgeon. And what a grand wedding present it was! In 1964 the home was converted to offices, there currently seems to be some work going on inside.

701 North Grant

The Residence of George W. and Maria C. Mann c. 1879

1879 saw George Mann, a lawyer purchasing three lots near at North Grant for $300 but it's unclear in the records if the deed was for this house or one that use to be further north. Either way Amos Woolfitt - manager of the Bay Cit Beef Co., had brought the house with his house Mary. The house remained in their family until 1972. With a distinctive blue sliding and bright white wrap around porch this house is a beauty.

It's always great to get the chance to get out and walk around historical neighborhoods, you really get to feel just how old and grand they were when it's street upon street of similar sized and aged building. It's equally impressive, if not more so when you consider how many of them are mere wooden structures - they do well to not only last the test of time, but the Michigan weather. While the brick residences might not look too out of place in England of this era, the wooden homes are certainly, very American.

TRAVEL: Lily Pads and Sunsets

Sometimes fresh air can heal you more then pills and sleep. That was the case on a Thursday evening we were in Bay City when after spending most of the afternoon feeling under the weather, Joe drove us out to the Quanicassee Wildlife Area just outside of Bay City. With spaced out houses, field upon field of crops, it took this Yorkshire lass back to her rural days. 

The wildlife area has a small boat landing in a pond filled with lily pads surrounded by wild flowers, a couple were fishing, some teenagers on bike rides but it was ever so peaceful. A canal stretches out with a footpath running alongside takes you down to Lake Huron. On a late summers eve the walk was the perfect time to catch the slowly setting sun with the echoes of frogs and crickets bouncing off the marsh grasses surrounding the bay.

When you live in the burbs, you forget just how quiet rural life can be.

Quanicassee Wildlife Area

Essexville, MI

TRAVEL: Bay City

Friendship Shell, Wenonah Park

Last week we popped oop north to visit Bay City (the one here in Michigan, not Wisconsin) - Joe had a work conference up there so I tagged along, it's a place we visited before so I was more than happy to entertain myself wandering around. Because I was pleasing myself for eight hours I have many a photograph to break down and share but I thought I'd start with the main downtown area and as ever all the little things. 

If you know anything about my adventures while living here in the US I love exploring and finding the side of America that might get a little overlooked if you're just visiting. For me it's all about the faded painted advertisements on walls, the outside stairwells, the old buildings and street names. I love the architecture of 1800's America when all these small towns and cities were being founded and finding their fortunes be it home or business, and with Bay City being founded in 1837 it's my kind of place.

Purple building at N. Water St & 3rd, view towards City Hall and museum 

Bay City is located along the base of the Saginaw Bay just before Lake Huron. Originally known as Lower Saginaw it prosperity was founded upon the deep river waters , much deeper than in Saginaw itself, perfect for all the industries that rely on shipping. By the mid 1860's the city was dooming with the sound and life of shipbuilding, saw mills and lumber - the industrialists in charge made their fortunes and built their mansions many of which are now historical landmarks (more of this homes to come in following posts). But like many a city in the Midwest's Rust Belt and just like here in Detroit, by the 1950's onwards such areas struggled to adapt to the changes both economically and socially, the area lost nearly half it's manufacturing jobs and incomes further decreased.

Garden at 6th St & N. Van Buren St, Trinity Episcopal Church, alleyway along 3rd st. 

Birthplace of singer Madonna, local folklore declares the infamous fictional lumberjack Paul Bunyan was based on Fabian "Joe" Fournier - a fearsome brawler standing 6 foot tall, with the strength of three men and a double row of teeth. You wouldn't want to mess with him on a Friday night would you?! After his murder in 1875 tales and stories began. There are arguments over the origins, of who Paul Bunyan was or may have been, but in 1906 Michigan Oscoda/AuSable Press printed a story about a lumberjack with two sets of teeth - a man echoing the description of Joe Fournier. But who was he really, well who knows but Bay City would like to lay down their claim.

Now Bay City celebrates it's river heritage, street upon street is home to antique malls and it's old buildings still stand proud as their fortunes continue to change.

LIFE: What's Inside the Bag Inside the Other Bag

The first and only time I've ever done a what's inside my bag post was way back in August 2011 on trip to London for my visa medical. That seems not only a lifetime ago, but a world ago. So after seeing my favorite brightly hair coloured pal Kerri offering a peek into hers, I though it was high time I did another. But I thought I'd do it a little different and show you the things inside my rucksack in which my bag is carried for our little two night stay away in Bay City, Michigan last week.

Oh my old Nike rucksack, my once well used and well trusted bag for lugging things back and forth in my former student life train journeys between York and Newcastle which now gets dusted off for such little adventures. My handbag, or purse if I'm trying to pretend to be more American then I am was a second hand find, it's a bit like a Mary Poppins bag, you can cram a lot more in it them you'd ever guess. It's normally filled with Post Office receipts and shopping coupons but for once I had a clear out. Normally it's contents aren't that exciting - a mini toiletry bag, a purse, hand cream, a bunch of keys with more keyrings then keys to be honest (not pictured) tic tacs (nom) and my trusty Samsung MP3 - which was actually pictured 3 years ago in that other what's in my bag post.

Whether it's a night away or a week long trip I always over pack, so for once I've been trying to cut all the stuff down. With Joe attending a work conference I had eight hours to please myself - a great excuse to catch up on some reading (an advance copy of The Betrayers by Davis Bezmozgis and Plunge into Michigan - a hilarious factoid book about the state I call home, and yes I really do read the Model Railroad magazine, for that time when we eventually get to set ours up in the basement) and perhaps even do some blogging.

While I'd love to leave technology at home and even with Ebay on vacation mode, my trusty Acer netbook tags along - ya know for checking TripAdvisor and general link to the outside world and while it's not pictured I even packed an extension lead - hotels like to challenge you with where they stick their measly limited sockets so I find having some extra wire length on the handy side. But as much as I love my netbook, I also love having a notebook on hand - it's my go to for jotting down blog, craft ideas to feelings and newspaper clippings. After reading about some self guided walking tours around the historical residential area, there's even a highlighted map and notes about the houses as my guide.

Of course adventures to little places means taking my camera - it's always difficult to take photographs of the camera you intend to take when you need it to take photographs of the things in your bag, so you get a glimpse of the GE point and shoot (which is really Joe's) but I always take my Fuji bridge (yeah I'm a rare blogger that doesn't have a DSLR) and batteries to give it some juice. 

As for giving myself some juice, there's some tea bags. I never trust that there will be enough coffee or tea supplies in my hotel room and sometimes they just taste dam awful. So yes, I pack some Earl Grey.

What are your must have things for a short trip away?

LIFE: Antiquing in Bay City

If our spare time wasn't busy enough at the moment, we decided to make a 100 mile trip up north to Bay City to poke around Michigan's largest antiques mall. The Bay Antiques Center covers an entire block and is crammed full of vintage goodies from cookbooks to old hinges, vinyl to road signs, you could seriously spend hours there. 

Housed in what was once a hardware store, the store holds over 60,000 square feet of offerings across three levels. In fact there's so much we actually antiqued out, there was just so much you could go through, flick though and devour that it's hard to take it all in. There's lengths of walls filled with stacks of vintage doors to pillars, piles of old letter presses, old door knobs and tiles - it's a perfect place if you're thinking of fixing up an old home and need some original pieces. We left with a bag full of vintage cookbooks and some more 1970's/1980's metal on vinyl - all in all a very worth while trip.

Prior to wandering around the antiques mall we ate lunch beside the iced over river in the Veterans Memorial park and had a quick drive around the old part of town, certainly going to be a place to check back in the warmer months -5C wasn't the perfect weather for a picnic or wander around I have to admit!

The Bay Antiques Center can be found at;

1010 N. Water St, Bay City, Michigan