Central Library: Children’s Room is closed today due to building repair.

NOTICE: The Eastwood Branch will be closed on April 29th & 30th for maintenance needs. 

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Local History

Business

Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co.

Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co. workers, early 20th century. Kalamazoo Valley Museum Collection The Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Company was one of Kalamazoo’s longest-operating businesses when it closed in 2004,…

Humphrey Block

Don’t believe everything you read. There’s a historical marker at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Portage Street that commemorates the building’s designation as a Michigan Historic Site. The building…

Humphrey Brothers

Three brothers from Kalamazoo made a major impact on the modern world with a series of inventions, including a home hot water heater, a fireplace heater, a “water lift” pump, and a revolutionary gas streetlight called the “Humphrey Light.”

Kalamazoo Building

At the turn of the twentieth century skyscrapers were still a relatively recent development. The desire to build taller had historically been thwarted by the number of stairs people were willing to climb and how much weight masonry could support...

Kalamazoo Corset Company

At the turn of the 20th century, when respectable women risked their health by squeezing themselves into tight corsets in pursuit of a fashionable silhouette, the Kalamazoo Corset Company was the largest employer in the city...

Kalamazoo Funeral Homes

In Kalamazoo’s earliest days, there were no funeral homes in the sense that we know them, or even “undertakers,” but as the population became more urbanized, other arrangements gradually became necessary.

Kalamazoo Gazette

In the spring of 1834, Henry Gilbert, a young printer from Yates County, New York, was moving to Chicago with his wife. He stepped off the stagecoach in White Pigeon to stretch his legs and overheard John DeFrees say that he wanted to sell his...

Kalamazoo House

Kalamazoo House c.1832-1861. Kalamazoo Public Library Photo File P-1022 “Earliest of Kalamazoo enterprises to experience a business boom were its hotels–institutions which became the rallying places for the community and…

Kalamazoo Motor Company

Automobile sales were booming in 1910. More than 25 makes of cars were being sold in Kalamazoo by that time, including several electrics. That’s when a group of Kalamazoo businessmen established the Kalamazoo Motor Company auto dealership.

Kalamazoo Sled Company

The Kalamazoo Sled Company has its earliest roots in the 1870s. From its headquarters on the corner of Third and Sheldon near the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, the Page Manufacturing Company made wooden components for buggies until 1894. On...

Kalamazoo Stove Company

“A Kalamazoo Direct to You.” With this catchy sales slogan, the Kalamazoo Stove Company warmed the hearts and kitchens of millions of American families. Bill Branche, an editorial columnist for a New York newspaper, wrote: “Our Kalamazoo radiated...

Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co.

Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co. workers, early 20th century. Kalamazoo Valley Museum Collection The Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Company was one of Kalamazoo’s longest-operating businesses when it closed in 2004,…

Kalamazoo Telegraph

In the days when new state and local governments were still forming, politics and government were even more important to people than they are now. Even fairly small towns supported rival newspapers of opposite political persuasions. What is now...

Kalamazoo: A Typical Midwestern City

In 1958, city officials and those connected with local business were invited to participate in the Berlin Industrial Fair, showcasing Kalamazoo’s success as a thriving, mid-sized, Midwestern city. The invitation…

LaVal Records

During the 1960s and 1970s, Vic Taylor's Kalamazoo-based "LaVal Records" was a big name in popular entertainment, especially among lovers of blues, R&B, and comedy. Taylor did much to promote black music and entertainment in our area.

Lull Carriage Company

A century ago, many of those people who were “dashing through the snow” were probably doing so in one-horse open sleighs produced by the Lull Carriage Company of Kalamazoo.  The company produced more carriages than sleighs, but judging from the...

Michigan Automobile Company

Blood Brothers and the Rise of the Horseless Carriage While the topic of early Kalamazoo-area automobile manufacturing (1900-1920) could include several notable businesses (Barley Motor Company, Handley-Knight, Dort, Burtt Manufacturing…

Michigan Buggy Company

Few things better illustrate Kalamazoo’s rapid growth during the late nineteenth century than the rise of the city’s carriage industry. By 1887 eighteen firms produced approximately forty seven thousand horse-drawn vehicles sold nationwide. In...

Miller-Davis Company

The Miller-Davis Company, one of Kalamazoo’s oldest successful businesses, has been building Kalamazoo for nearly a century. It had its beginnings in the O.F. Miller Company, founded in 1909 by Orville F. Miller. In 1923, Cameron L. Davis, a local...

Music Stores in Kalamazoo

Over the years Kalamazoo has become famous for many things musical; guitars, organs, pianos, even records, but what was Kalamazoo’s first record store? Who was behind the town’s earliest music stores and what were music fans buying in those days?

Oakland Pharmacy, Boogie Records, Rupert's Brew House

Whether by design, by location, or perhaps by pure chance, certain commercial structures are destined to become lifelong places where people like to congregate, regardless of the type of business within. From its origins as Oakland Pharmacy, a...

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