| Grand
Rapids and Indiana Line Station
[currently the Arcus Foundation]
_4.jpg) |
|
Kalamazoo Public Library Photograph
P-249 |
The following material is from the
1973 Initial Inventory of Historic Sites and Buildings in
Kalamazoo and was made available for use here by the
Historic Preservation Coordinator of the City of Kalamazoo. See Introduction
to an Initial Inventory... for details about how the survey
was conducted.
402 East Michigan C-1
Grand Rapids and Indiana Line Station
| Location: |
Pitcher and East Michigan [402 E. Michigan] |
| Designation: |
"Whistlestop"
-- Grand Rapids and Indiana Line Station |
| Date: |
1871-72 |
| Style: |
Italian Revival |
The
present "Whistlestop" restaurant began as a way station in
a dream to run rail lines from Fort Wayne through Grand Rapids to
Mackinac and then to connect across the Upper Peninsula with the
Northern Pacific. "Western Michigan, by this splendid
enterprise, is now unified" said the Gazette in October
of 1869. A year later, tracks stretched from Fort Wayne to Grand
Rapids and a little north. Townspeople provided an elaborate
celebration when the line officially opened to Kalamazoo. A special
train with flags and bunting flying chugged to Vicksburg for a
picnic and a round of stump speeches. The "Grand Rapids and
Indiana" line was soon receiving its passengers and freight in
the stately Italian Revival station which now stands at the corner
of Pitcher and East Michigan.
Plans
to push the line to Mackinac proceeded. In 1871, the rails reached
Cadillac; then it was Petoskey, and finally, in 1882, beaten by the
Michigan Central feeder line a year earlier, to Mackinac.
Construction costs and operating expenses put the line into
receivership by 1895. Reorganized under essentially the same name,
it continued on until after World War I, when it was leased to the
Pennsylvania Line.
This
report was converted from a typewritten document to a digital text
document in September 2004. Other than punctuation and spelling
corrections, and the addition of BOLD type site address
and names, no changes were made. Minor formatting changes were
made for use on this website, but the text was not altered.
Original survey dated 1973.
|
For further information, we suggest
these sources:
|
| |
History Room Subject File: Buildings
- Kalamazoo - Michigan, E., 402 |
| |
History Room Subject File: Whistle
Stop |
| H 720.9774 S355 |
Schmitt, Peter J. Kalamazoo:
Nineteenth-century Homes in a Midwestern Village. Kalamazoo
City Historical Commission, 1976, page 143. |
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