Houses

Eaton County has several old, one-room schoolhouses. One is still functioning as a school, and another survived into the twenty-first century but closed a couple years ago, but most--like this one--have long since been converted to dwellings. It's not obvious from this photo, but this building still sports the school bell.

Houses on Ionia Street; photo taken the day after Christmas, 2003.

Probably Dedham, Iowa, 1930s. From my mother's collection; she grew up in Carroll. Information about the bus would be welcome--leave a comment if you know anything. Thanks. Photographer and camera unknown. Scan updated--but still not good--12/20/05.

I like everything about this garage--the color, the shake-shingle roof, the trellises, the roses. Very nice.

This is the home where Henry Ford's friend Harvey Firestone grew up, as preserved at Ford's Greenfield Village. The photo was taken in the fall of 1988, only a few years after the farm was transplanted from Ohio. Reducing Firestone to "Henry's friend" is a tremendous injustice. Firestone was an industrial giant in his own right; that he was friends with Ford and Edison is certainly important, but it leaves out most of the man's life. I make it to Greenfield once or twice a decade. In all those visits, the addition of this farm is the biggest, and most obvious, change in the place. Greenfield Village is a strange and wonderful place--a very personal museum and preservation effort, done on a very large scale, reflecting the eccentric personality and interests of its founder still five and a half decades after his death. That, friends, is a legacy. Scanned from a slide. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

Near Potterville, Michigan. This is outside Roxand Township, but not far outside so I'm including it in my Mulliken group. I know. You really don't care....

Rock Falls, Illinois. A dreadfully busy snapshot of a house I spotted while we were loading Debbie's stuff into the truck. I love the roofline, and the odd porch. Mebbe someday I'll try doing the ericdege thing to this one....

Think this was originally the parsonage at Mulliken Methodist Church. Regardless, I like the way the sun highlights the textures....

Mulliken, Michigan.

Bonley Farm, near Mulliken, Michigan.

Joan's sister lives across the field from their parents.

Chester, Michigan. I seem to be out photographing really small towns, this week.

North Street, downtown (ha!) Mulliken, Michigan.

About a half-mile southeast of Little Venice is an even smaller "named place," called Kelly. Here in 2005 it's pretty difficult to see why any map would show Kelly as a place at all; the settlement consists of a couple homes and a gaggle of barns and other farm outbuildings. I seem to remember a cute one-room schoolhouse--gothic?--standing at this corner until a few years back, but it collapsed. The road, here, is labelled Needmore Highway; at the stop sign it crosses a diagonal Clinton Trail (M-50). Needmore ends two miles past 50, only to resume a couple miles later as Kelly Highway, which would make more sense if the road actually connected to Kelly. A few miles more and it changes to Coats Grove Road, which likely attracts X-Files pilgrims . Shot from my bike, today, on what seems to have become my "normal" ride.

Another photo from my New Year's Day 1992 photo shoot; this of the willow tree in the back yard of one of my neighbors. The tree's still there, and I've several photographs of it. This is the best. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100 This scan's better than the earlier one .

One of those pictures.... My vehicles, the rose of sharon, our past-their-prime daylilies, and the unfinished house across Brittney Lane. Oh, yes; there's that iris peeking around the corner, too. I really don't know whether I like this pic; there are interesting elements, but it's such a sloppy critter.

Another bike-by shooting from one of my regular routes.

This one's abandoned, and less than a mile from the house in the previous photo. A very photogenic place; looks like it was a neat home.