Earl Young Home Tour

The Charlevoix Historical Society’s 2010 tour of 8 Earl Young homes on July 28 was a great success, and a sell-out.   There is now talk of a repeat tour — maybe in 2012.  Watch the Society’s website at www.chxhistory.com.

Lena Ingalls House Update

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It’s gone.  New, improved pay parking lot has replaced the building.  Oddly, it is called the DeWitt Lot, rather than the Campbell lot.  Hmmm… See www.cchps.info for a video of the fire.

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The City of Charlevoix has decided to raze the house and construct a parking lot.  A film company has requested that it be permitted to use the house in a movie scene that involves throwing a Molotov Cocktail through the window, and so it will be.  And the fire department will use the burning as a practice fire.  March 23, 2010 is the approximate date (we’re assuming the weather — wind in particular — may force the date to change a bit).  Several area historical societies, under the leadership of the Charlevoix County History Preservation Society, will salvage as much from the interior of the house as possible.

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We submitted a preliminary application to the State Historic Preservation Office to see whether the house at 108 Park Avenue might qualify for historic designation.  Short answer – yes!  Both for its history and its architecture, as it turns out.  In addition, the SHPO also noted that based on a reading of this website, it appears that much of Park Avenue could be designated an historic district, qualifying the buildings for state and federal tax credits.  See the Winter issue of the Charlevoix County History Preservation Society newsletter from that group’s website:  cchps.wordpress.com.

Posts, pages, and RSS

I’ve had a few people ask about getting the RSS feeds to work.  I’ve not had a problem with them myself, and I’ve tested quite a bit, but there is this to consider:  This is a blog.  There are posts, and then there are pages, the things in the GUIDEBOOK.  You can’t subscribe to pages (blame WordPress).  Here’s what I’ll do to work around — if I make substantial changes to the GUIDEBOOK, I will post a notice saying I did that.  If you have subscribed to POSTS, you’ll get my notice.  And of course you can subscribe to comments.  To those of you who have had your comments caught up in my spam filter, I apologize.  The spam filter is imperfect.  At least it keeps a bunch of junk from making its way to the site.  Try again!

Lena Ingalls House or Parking Lot?

We have recently learned that the historic Lena Ingalls House at 108 Park Avenue is to be razed so that the Downtown Development Association can make a large parking lot. Destroying this building, the 4th-oldest building in Charlevoix and home of city pioneers Ben and Lena Ingalls Campbell, would be a loss for the town. In addition, turning a valuable city-owned downtown property, one block from Round Lake and the channel and two blocks from Lake Michigan, into a parking lot cannot be highest and best use.

Do we need another parking lot downtown? Studies of the parking situation in downtown Charlevoix have found that the parking “problem” is over-stated. Consultants hired a few years ago by the city to create a Downtown Blueprint recommended that if the city felt it needed additional parking, a multi-story garage be built, with stores on the ground floor. As one downtown business-person said, “what Charlevoix needs is more reason to park downtown, not more places to park.”

Charlevoix’s history is linked to the water. Travel to Charlevoix was accomplished by water for hundreds of years, until the railroads were built. They brought resorters by the thousands because of the water. The Lena Ingalls house was built by ship chandler and captain, Ben Campbell, who was known for building schooners and tugboats. Wouldn’t a museum that tells visitors about our water history and efforts to protect the water be a more fitting use for the building?

Make your feelings known by writing to Ben Gohs, the editor of the Charlevoix Courier at: bgohs@charlevoixcourier.com

Welcome to the Park Avenue Prowl

Welcome to Charlevoix, a town with a fascinating history.  Take the Park Avenue Prowl, and visit some of that history, as well as some of the town’s most interesting attractions.  The Park Avenue Businesses will show you how to take this self-guided tour.  We’ll provide you with a map, and various amenities.  Just stop at any Park Avenue business for your brochure.  We will show you the great hospitality for which our street is known. 

We continue to research the history of Park Avenue.  Check back frequently to read the latest tales of Charlevoix, or subscribe to our website.

Finally, we are interested in what you think about all of this.  Please feel free to comment.  Click the “No comments” or “4 comments” or whatever it is, below.  That will open a comment form. 

Please remember that some of the houses on the Park Avenue Prowl are private residences. Respect the privacy and property of the owners — no trespassing, please!

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