City - Mackinac Island MI - More than just rugs 1905

by Mike Savad

Title

City - Mackinac Island MI - More than just rugs 1905

Artist

Mike Savad

Medium

Photograph - Colorized Photo

Description

Colorized photo from 1905
Original title: The Main street
Photographer: Detroit Publishing
Location: 7200 Main St, Mackinac Island, MI

In 1890, Mackinac Island decided that there will be no cars anywhere on the island. Streets would be for people and horses. You can move around by bike as well. And while they did try to bring it into the island, it was quickly removed again. Cars cause a lot of problems and they just don't want anyway. To this day there are no cars on the streets.

Without cars you don't have to deal with parking, there is no pollution, its very quiet, and it remains looking old forever.

This is Main St, and it really is the main street, there are very few commercial buildings on this island. It's mostly set up for tourists, as that is the main money maker of this day. Before that this island specialized in fishing, and before that, furs. But Main St., is very different in the past than what it is today. Today its almost entirely fudge and candy stores. Back back then it catered to the rich. Fancy Persian rugs, almost every store sold carpet. Tailors and places to eat were around as well.

On the left is the Chippewa Hotel, built in 1902, its still there. They had a boat that came in to drop people off. It has a rear view that faces the water and the docks. Though in this era you would see a lot of fishing boats still catching fish.

On the right with the pink awnings is the Murray Hotel. And further on the left is the original location of Doud Market, which seemed to have moved into the corner building presently.

It's actually pretty interesting that this street really hasn't changed at all.

But can you imagine what it was like to drag a carpet around town with you and later on the boat? That must have been a pain. An interesting note are the sidewalks at the crosswalk area, so they don't get their shoes muddy when it rains.

The only thing missing from this are the rows of bike's lined up everywhere like they have today.

Uploaded

October 29th, 2020

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