Local History

Business

St. John Plow Works

By the 1880s, significant advancements had been made in farm implement design and manufacturing. Labor-saving devices like plows and cultivators revolutionized farming and created a host of opportunities for Kalamazoo’s inventors and manufacturers.

Kalamazoo Mall

Eisenhower was President. Elvis was King. It was 19 August 1959, and a new era in Kalamazoo’s history was about to begin. The nation’s first pedestrian shopping mall opened on the two blocks of South Burdick Street between Water and South Streets...

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 Motor Vehicle Company

Although his firm was active in Kalamazoo for only a couple of years, Frank Clark had deep roots in the automotive industry, and his “Kalamazoo” brand trucks were a highlight of early commercial vehicle manufacturing.

Kalamazoo Motors Corporation

In 1919, the Lane Motor Truck Company was absorbed by an ambitious new firm called the Kalamazoo Motors Corporation. The company would be restructured “from the ground up” with its primary focus on a new line of trucks to be known as the “Kalamazoo.”

Kalamazoo Pant Company

As Kalamazoo’s manufacturing economy began to surge into high gear after the U.S. Civil War, one apparel merchant strove to corner the market on menswear. Founded in 1867 by Samuel…

Kalamazoo Railroad Velocipede Company

The railroad velocipede was a bicycle-like contraption that saw a variety of uses, from railroad track inspection to personal transportation. One of the world’s largest producers of such vehicles was the Kalamazoo Railroad Velocipede Company.

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 Spring and Axle Company

One of Kalamazoo’s leading manufacturers for nearly 50 years, the Kalamazoo Spring & Axle Co. earned a stellar nationwide reputation as a maker of carriage springs, farm implements, and eventually parts for the automobile industry.

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.

The Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Company was one of Kalamazoo’s longest-operating businesses when it closed in 2004, after 137 years in business. At the time of its closing, the company was known as KTS Industries.

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 Wheel Works

The Kalamazoo “Wheel Works” went by several different names between 1887 and 1901, yet during its brief tenure, the firm provided employment for hundreds of workers and helped establish Kalamazoo’s Northside Neighborhood as a manufacturing center.

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…

Labadie Art Store

Labadie Arts & Crafts was founded around 1894 and was located in multiple storefronts along W. Main Street and S. Burdick Street during the first two decades of the 20th century.

Lane Motor Truck Company

Michigan Buggy Company founder M.H. Lane formed a new company in 1916 called the Lane Motor Truck Company. For two years, the firm produced light-duty flatbed trucks, heavy-duty cargo trucks, and specialty vehicles like busses and firetrucks.

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

The Michigan Automobile Company was the first Kalamazoo-based auto manufacturer to emerge in 1902. Despite the company’s relatively short existence and limited success, it remains an important part of Kalamazoo’s manufacturing history.

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...