A New Voice -- Gertrude Snow

Dearborn (as remembered by Gertrude Snow, born 1892)

When I was small, not even Michigan Avenue was paved, although it had been improved with gravel. The rest of the roads were just dirt, rutted, dusty when it was dry and muddy, very muddy, when it rained or snowed. They were just wide enough that two wagons could pass each other. Sidewalks were just paths, muddy and slippery when it was wet and uneven and hard to walk on all the time. I was given a bicycle when I was eight or so, but I really didn't use it very much because the roads and sidewalks were so hard to ride on.

I remember when the first part of Michigan was paved from Monroe west past St. Joseph’s Retreat. This was in 1900. I remember when our first sidewalks were built, too. They consisted of short planks laid on stringers on the ground. The first one was on Michigan from Monroe to Mason, and then they were gradually extended, both along Michigan, and on some of the cross streets. The closest one to us began across Saw Mill Woods Road (today Snow Road by Monroe St.) and went along beside the field west of the Lutheran Church and pastor's home where we kept the horses, then followed Monroe to Michigan. Monroe was called Center Street when I was little. The path by the Lutheran Church and pastor's home had a nickname, something like Pigtail Alley. The path to the church was still dirty even after this. We had a dirt path down our hill from the house to the closest sidewalk. The sidewalks were an improvement but they often had broken or missing planks, as the wood didn't last very long. [Gertrude grew up in a large Victorian home built in 1852 on the site of today’s Snow Hill Condominiums, near Beech St. and Monroe. The house was razed in the 1930’s.]

Dearborn was a small town with a few stores, churches and saloons when I was growing up and of course the school and the Town Hall, formerly the Commandant's Quarters of the Arsenal. Mason Street was the street with the most houses on it. A number of retired German farmers built houses there. The Presbyterian and Catholic churches were there, too.

I have mentioned the Lapham grocery store, Schultz's Meat Market and Buford's store. Then there was Sloss' store, which stood on Mason and Michigan where the Manufacturers Bank now is. It was a square red brick building, which seemed to me to be bigger than needed. It carried dry goods, thread, that kind of thing. We didn't buy much there. Sam Lapham had a bank as well as a grocery store and was our leading businessman.

There was no industry and very little business in town. Arna Mills was an attempt to bring industry to town. When I was very small, the building on the east side of the Arsenal square stood empty and deserted. I think I was in high school when Arna S. Mills were started there. It made fabrics of some kind. It caught fire and burned in 1911 and was never started up again.

The Schoettles ran the hotel in the Wagner building at Monroe and Michigan. The post office and the barber shop were in that building too. There were seven churches and five saloons and Mother used to say that the saloons were much richer than the churches. There were no real clothing stores; we had to go to Detroit for that.