Saginaw

By Kevin Mark Rooker

Saginaw is the hub of mid-Michigan and had its beginnings in the 1820s with the establishment of Fort Saginaw near present-day Court and Hamilton Streets. Owing to the lumber industry, two separate cities developed along the banks of the Saginaw River: the west side city of Saginaw and East Saginaw. Intense rivalry resulted in rapid population growth and many civic improvements for both. Consolidation of the Saginaws occurred in 1890, and continued prosperity followed the ebb and flow of the lumber and automotive industries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2009
• ISBN: 9781439636749

Kevin Mark Rooker

History teacher and photographer Kevin Mark Rooker has been fascinated with the history of Saginaw. He turned his collection of postcards and photographs into a then and now PowerPoint presentation and shared it with hundreds. Here now is what Saginaw once was and, with vision and cooperation, what it can be again.

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1918.

INTRODUCTION

Within these pages one will find that Saginaw was once a city of over 100,000 residents representing just about every ethnic group on the planet. Artists and craftsman poured into Saginaw to work on the magnificent French chateau-styled post office, the Romanesque Hoyt Library, and countless commercial structures and grand mansions. It was a city of industrialists and captains of industry: Wellington R. Burt, Arthur Hill, the Morley brothers, John L. Jackson, and Julius Ippel, among others. As the county seat, Saginaw was the center of an immense agricultural and industrial area.

Saginaw was the lumbering capital of the world in the mid- to late 19th century. As the trees were removed, the landscape was left barren and open. As the lumbering era declined, agriculture and related industries began to replace it. Agriculturally, the area became important in the production of sugar beets, which resulted in spin-off industries such as Spic and Span detergent, now a part of Proctor and Gamble. Saginaw’s river port facilities were central to the shipment of grain products.

With the decline of the lumbering era, lumber barons Burt and Hill assisted in the transition to a manufacturing-based economy by building new educational facilities. This helped to prepare a skilled workforce adept at modern manufacturing techniques.

The automobile ushered in a new era for Saginaw with several new foundries and parts plants sprouting up along the Saginaw River. In 1905, the first production automobile, the Ranier, was produced in Saginaw. Automobile pioneer Charles Duryea opened a factory here, as did Marquette Motor Works and General Motors. By the 1920s, it was necessary to recruit labor from throughout the country. The Deep South was a significant source of labor for the automobile industry, and African Americans migrated north in the Great Migration to work in the new factories. During World War II, these automobile plants ceased civilian production and became key manufacturers of wartime materials. Saginaw Steering Gear Plant II was nicknamed the gun plant because of the various guns made for the military.

Saginaw is once again in a state of transition as automobile manufacturing has waned. Where once some 20,000 people worked in the various automobile plants along the river, the total is now under 5,000. Today Saginaw is on the cusp of becoming the center of emerging alternative energy industries. In addition, the growth of the medical and health sectors is making Saginaw a renowned regional medical hub.

CHAPTER 1

STREETS AND AVENUES

POTTER STREET. Many of Saginaw’s visitors would arrive by train in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Pere Marquette Railroad station fronting Potter Street would have been their gateway to a bustling thoroughfare. The lumberjacks coming out of the forests would flock to the many saloons lined up and down this street. Many a lumberjack lost his entire season’s pay after a night of drinking and brawling.

LAPEER STREET, GENESEE AVENUE, AND JEFFERSON AVENUE. Considered the center of downtown, the Tower Block stood at the apex of these streets. Adorned with a large clock, copper dome, and imposing statue (supposedly of Jacob Seligman, Little Jake),